The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (UNICEF) said incidence of measles among children under the age of five increased more than two-fold in the northern part of Nigeria between 2014 and 2016.
The Executive Director of the Agency, Faisal Shuaib, said a surveillance data shows that measles incidence among children under five years increased in the northern part of Nigeria from 190 million in 2014 to 527 million in 2016.
Shuaib made the disclosure on Thursday in Abuja at a one-day media orientation forum for the 2017/17 Measles Vaccination Campaign.
While acknowledging the country’s challenge with measles, he, however, said the federal government plans to mitigate this through a nationwide measles vaccination campaign.
He noted that Nigeria still accounts significantly for the global measles burden, despite the successes achieved in the reduction of measles-related morbidity and mortality.
Mr. Shuaib said that the Measles Vaccination Campaign aims to reach 33 million eligible children in Nigeria.
He said that though the agency was able to reach 85 per cent of children in 2015, this year’s campaign must cover at least 95 per cent of children eligible for the vaccine.
Also speaking at the event, a UNICEF official, Margaret Adaba, said Nigeria has over 3.3 million of children affected by measles, followed by India with 2.9 million.
She said that Nigeria needs to work on creating more awareness on measles vaccination
The nationwide Measles Vaccination Campaign will commence in the last quarter of 2017 and will focus on children between the ages of nine and 59 months.