The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried that 6.2 million Nigerian children are unvaccinated in three years, saying that the country’s leaders must improve the situation.
According to the WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects left 6.2 million Nigerian children without the required vaccinations between 2019 and 2021.
COVID-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally and infected over 500 million people worldwide. It has also increased the number of children failing to get their recommended vaccinations both globally and in Nigeria.
About 22.7 million children were unvaccinated in 2020 globally.
COVID-19 has decreased child immunisation coverage, increased the prevalence of malaria and tuberculosis, and shortened life expectancy worldwide, experts have said.
Children need vaccinations to prevent common infections that injure or kill newborns, kids, and adults. The danger of infections like measles, whooping cough, and tetanus, which can be fatal or have long-term crippling consequences on survivors, is highest in children who have never received vaccination.
Low level of immunisation
Only 36 percent of children aged 12-23 months in Nigeria received all recommended vaccines in the previous five years (2014-2018), according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and National Immunization Coverage Survey (NICS).
This means that at least 64 percent of children in Nigeria between the ages of 12 and 23 months did not receive all recommended vaccines over the period.
Enugu and Ebonyi had the lowest percentages of children who did not obtain vaccinations, reporting 1 percent and 0 percent respectively, while Sokoto had the highest rate of 51 percent.
There has been an increase in the proportion of children who received all of their recommended vaccinations or have been immunised during the past 15 years. For instance, from 13 percent in 2003 to 31 percent in 2018, the proportion of children who have got all recommended immunisations has increased. Similarly, the number of kids without vaccination fell from 27 percent in 2003 to 19 percent in 2018. However, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 targets getting more than 90 percent coverage of all basic vaccines among children aged 12-23 months by 2030.
The mother’s educational background, insecurity, spousal opposition, the quality of the health services, and vaccine worries contribute to poor childhood vaccination rates, experts say.
A medical practitioner, Dr Jefferey Ajoko, said there were a number of causes for the high proportion of children without vaccination, noting that COVID-19 was one of them.
To address that, he proposed that the government educate the populace about the consequences of not receiving the vaccination and that the procedure for receiving it be streamlined.
In Nigeria right now, meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3 of getting more than 90 percent coverage of all basic vaccines among children aged 12-23 months seems farther and farther away.
However, experts have advised that support and education for new parents should be intensified to prevent parents becoming overburdened due to lack of experience or due diligence.