By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that every year, no single dose of any vaccine is received by about 2.2 million Nigerian children.
According to the report, the situation has made Nigeria the second highest country with the number of zero-dose children in the world.
The Chief of Health, UNICEF Nigeria, Eduardo Celades, on Thursday in Nigeria, explained at a media briefing on the release of the state of the World’s Children global report, that, “In the first eight weeks of delivery, 2.2 million children every year are not vaccinated at all in Nigeria.”
According to him, vaccines are a very powerful tool in preventing childhood diseases as well as reducing child mortality, saying that it saves the lives of more than 4.4 million children every year.
He added that UNICEF in collaboration with the federal government and other actors, was working towards addressing the zero-dose children in Nigeria in order to ensure more children are vaccinated every year to be able to overcome any disease.
He assured that they aim to catch up with one million missed children in the next 700 days, pointing out that 100 priority local government areas and 1, 200 wards with zero dose children have been identified in order to arrest the situation.
