By Francesca Hangeior.
The President of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, Professor Ekanem Ekure has lamented that Nigeria disproportionately accounts for 2.2 million of the 4.4 million zero-dose children in West Africa, the highest in the world.
According to her, only 23 per cent of children were fully immunised according to the Expanded Programme on Immunization schedule in 2021.
She stated this at the Paediatric Association of Nigeria’s Children’s Art Competition on Immunisation to commemorate the 2024 Children’s Day in Lagos.
While expressing concern that Nigeria has the highest under-five mortality rate in the world, the physician lamented that these children are dying from diseases that can be prevented.
She noted, “The statistics of children who have received all the vaccines in the national programme is 23 per cent, which is low. It is not surprising that our under-five mortality rate is so high.
“We have the highest under-five mortality rate in the world, and unfortunately, these children are dying from diseases that can be prevented, for which the government has made vaccines available for free.
“Zero-dose children are children who have not received any immunisation. West Africa has 4.4 million zero-dose children, and Nigeria has 2.2 million zero-dose children, which is very sad.
“The top areas where those zero-dose children tend to be more located are the urban slums, conflict areas, and remote and hard-to-reach communities in Nigeria. So, a lot has to be done to reach these children in those communities to ensure that they receive these immunisations.”
She noted that traditional assessments miss a child’s creativity, adding that they launched the competition to let children express the importance of immunisation through art.
The physician said the children harnessed their creativity to express the importance of health and well-being through their beautiful artwork.