THE United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, UNICEF has said that Alimosho LGA accounts for the highest number of unvaccinated children in Nigeria.
Media reports state that the international organisation works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfil their potential from early childhood through adolescence.
In a recently published article titled 'Health workers are reaching zero-dose children in Nigeria's urban slums,' the Agency said Nigeria is home to the second largest number of zero-dose children in the world, 2.2 million.
The report reads in part, "In Lagos State, the Alimosho Local Government Area (LGA) had over 35,000 zero-dose children in 2021, the highest number of any LGA in Nigeria. Kosofe had nearly 17,000 zero-dose children in 2021. It also had around 17,162 partially immunized children, the second highest number for an LGA in Lagos State."
According to the article, health officials in the country and partners have long worked to overcome the barriers that prevent mothers from vaccinating their children.
To sustain the vaccination exercise and with support from UNICEF and the United States Government, the programme provides weekly integrated immunization outreach specifically aimed at reducing the number of zero-dose children in the State.
These children, known as “zero-dose children,” are more likely to suffer from illnesses and die. The majority of these children live in vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities that lack health services. While efforts to reach these children with vaccines for such life-threatening diseases as diphtheria and pertussis have improved significantly over the past 20 years, the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously eroded these gains.
