The UNICEF Chief of UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mr. Rahama Rihood Farah, has called on every Local Government Area in Jigawa State to have at least 80% of children from zero to eleven months fully vaccinated with three doses of Penta vaccine against polio.
He made the call in Dutse at a Media Dialogue on November Polio Vaccination Campaign co-organized by the State Primary Healthcare Management Agency.
The UNICEF Chief explained that in this round of polio campaign, Nigeria targets 42 million children in 21 priority states in two phases starting from 29th November till 9th December.
He noted that while Jigawa State has made some progress with 5 Local Government Areas reporting cases this year compared to 6 LGAs in 2024, there was still the need to redouble efforts at ensuring that every eligible child gets immunized.
“The target set was to achieve a zero case count by December 2025, however, since this virus knows no boundaries, a case in point is that in 2025 the country has already reported 72 confirmed cVPV2 cases from 49 LGAs of 14 states.
“We need to be extra vigilant and work hard to prevent further relapses to stop the circulation. To stop this ongoing circulation, we must achieve at least 95% or higher vaccination coverage by immunizing all targeted children during every campaign.
“We also need to pay attention to Routine Immunization, every LGA must have at least 80% of children 0-11 months fully vaccinated with three doses of Penta vaccine.
“For this round the government has allocated 3,060 House to House Vaccination Teams and provided 1.7 million doses of Novel Oral Polio Vaccines (nOPV2) to immunize a total of over 1.5 million children under five years age in the state”, Mr. Farah said.
He explained that 548 special teams will be responsible for vaccination in overcrowded places such as markets, streets and bus stands noting that Vitamin A, deworming tabs and other nutritional supplies will also be served at all health facilities during the period of the vaccination.
He said the Jigawa State government, with the support from UNICEF, has deployed 1,500 health workers and 264 persons to serve as Non-Compliance Resolution Teams (NCRTs).
Farah explained that the an additional 88 NCRTs including community influencers, traditional leaders and vaccinators will be deployed to resolve non-compliance cases during the polio vaccination campaign.
Usman Mohammed Zaria
