Poor routine coverage of vaccinations has been identified as the major cause of disease outbreaks in the country.
This came out in the course of a visit to a primary healthcare centre in Suleja, Niger state, by a combined team from the Global Alliance for Vaccines initiative, GAVI and the National Primary health care Development Agency.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines initiative, GAVI, has supported immunisation in Nigeria for years, but Nigeria is close to losing its support following a change in its economic status, having pulled out of the league of low-income countries.
A rollback of funding has begun and Nigeria is expected to take total control for funding immunisation by 2021.
Yet more than eight hundred thousand Nigerian children have died in the last five years, due to insufficient Vaccination coverage across the country.
This, both GAVI and other international bodies believe is cause for concern and the institutions feel feel there may be need for an extension of the support period, but this can only be done if Nigerian’s commitment is visible.
Health and Government officials speak on their level of commitment to make changes.
Despite speaking with so much conviction, it remains to be seen whether Nigeria’s Health officials can readily rise the task of improving the vaccination coverage across the country if given an extension.
