The number of unvaccinated children in Kano, Jigawa and Katsina accounts for about 40 per cent of the total unvaccinated children in Nigeria.
Amother, Rahama Husseini, could not understand why her newborn could not receive the first dose of vaccine at the Hotoro Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State.
Mrs Husseini who gave birth on 26 February said the child, Auwal Yusuf, was not administered the first dose of vaccine at the point of birth at the healthcare centre until 20 July - five months later.
"When I gave birth, the child was not vaccinated and I was reluctant to come back to the facility until today (20, July). I was not told about the routine immunisation at the hospital during childbirth and my family is not keen about giving the child the vaccine," Mrs Husseini told PREMIUM TIMES.
Mrs Husseini's baby is among the 2,439 born at the Hotoro primary healthcare facility in 2022 and another 1,023 birthed between January and June this year.
The majority of those children did not get the appropriate vaccines at the right time, mainly because the cold chain for vaccine storage at the facility had broken for several years, PREMIUM TIMES found out.
During that period, the healthcare facility could not provide cold chains for the storage of vaccines for the immunisation of the children at appropriate times - leading to missed opportunities for the children to get immunisation after birth.
PREMIUM TIMES' findings at the health facility revealed that the solar-powered refrigerator meant for the storage of vaccines stopped working more than four years ago and led to a stoppage of the routine immunisation mandated on primary healthcare facilities.
An official at the healthcare facility explained that the cold chain for the vaccine storage in the PHCs has been faulty since 2019. This has led to interrupted immunisation as health workers travel, at intervals, to another part of the city to get vaccines from the main cold store, the official said, asking not to be named because they were not authorised to speak to journalists.
"The solar-powered refrigerator has stopped working for over four years. We travel to the main vaccine storage facility within the metropolis to get the vaccines when needed and this resulted in the intermittent administration of the vaccine on the newly born babies," the official said.
More newborns miss immunisation
At the point of routine immunisation visited by PREMIUM TIMES, on 20 July, several lactating mothers said their babies born at the facility missed the first dose of vaccination.
Maryam Ibrahim gave birth to her baby in April. She was told to come back to the hospital several days later for her child to be vaccinated. Another mother of a three-month-old baby, born on 1st April at the Hotoro PHC, said she had to come back to the facility days later before the newborn was given the first dose of vaccination.
"I am much aware of the importance of the vaccine being given the moment after a child was born but when I delivered at the hospital, there was no vaccine available because they said it was on Saturday, meaning that the vaccinators are not on duty," the lactating mother said.
Another mother, Mariya Aliyu, also told our reporter how her child missed the opportunity for vaccination at the healthcare centre after she delivered on 8 July.
"He could not get his first dose of immunisation until today (20 July)," Mrs Aliyu told PREMIUM TIMES.
300,000 children in Kano miss vaccinations - UNICEF
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said over 600,000 children in three Nigerian Northwest states - Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina - are yet to be vaccinated against childhood killer diseases, and half of these children are in Kano.
The UN agency said it is concerned when children don't get immunised, warning that when children have no access to immunisation services, their basic fundamental right is not fulfilled.
The UN agency said the number of unvaccinated children in the three states accounts for about 40 per cent of the total unvaccinated children in Nigeria."This is closer to about 40 per cent of the total unimmunised children in Nigeria. Over 300,000 of those children are in Kano State, representing 50 per cent of the three states under the UNICEF Kano Office. This situation is unacceptable and should be reversed urgently," the organisation warmed in one of its recent statements in Kano.
UNICEF urged the governments of the three states to ensure the provision of one functional primary healthcare per political ward to assist the population in accessing healthcare services.
"Immunisation is the single, most cost-effective, and high-impact intervention which protects children against illness and death caused by vaccine-preventable diseases. Yet, despite the proven safety, efficacy, and availability of vaccines, Immunisation uptake has not always been optimal," UNICEF said.How vaccine protects children from childhood killer diseases - Expert
"The vaccination aims to prevent child mortality by building their immunity to withstand killer diseases," said Shehu Ibrahim, a routine immunisation expert from the Jigawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
Mr Ibrahim said a newborn baby who misses a vaccine is at risk of contracting killer diseases.
"One of the vaccines is only effective within 24 hours after birth and one other is effective on babies who are two weeks old," the expert added.
According to him, primary healthcare facilities are mandated to conduct daily routine immunisation and present six key messages on how the immunisation is being carried out on children. He said the messages must be adequately communicated to mothers and caregivers at the PHCs, first at birth and during routine visits.
"When children are fully vaccinated from the first visit to the sixth on routine immunisation, they will be protected from Tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, hepatitis B, Pneumonia, measles, Diarrhoea, meningitis, Yellow fever and others," Mr shehu said.
"The aforementioned illnesses are vaccine-preventable diseases that can be curtailed through routine immunisation," he added.
The recent outbreak of vaccine-preventable disease
Kano State accounted for 819 confirmed cases, out of the total 836 cases of diphtheria, between May and June, according to the diphtheria situation report released by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The confirmed cases were recorded across 33 local government areas (LGAs) in seven states and the FCT.
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Within the period under review, NCDC stated, a total of 2,455 suspected cases were reported from 24 states. It added that 71.5 per cent of the confirmed cases occurred among children aged two to 14 years.
Despite diphtheria being a vaccine-preventable disease, NCDC noted that only 181 (21.7 per cent) out of 836 confirmed cases were fully vaccinated with a "diphtheria toxin-containing vaccine."
We'll turn around the negative indices on Health - Commissioner
The Kano State government, which is responsible for managing the PHCs in the state including the one in Hotoro, acknowledged the problems in routine immunisation across the state. The state's commissioner of health, Abubakar Labaran, said the new administration, which assumed office on 29 May, will turn around the situation for the better.
"Kano State is going to give routine immunisation the topmost priority it deserves. As we came, we noticed the problems with routine immunisation and the upsurge of some of the preventable diseases in the state.
"I believe that there are several zero-dose children (children who have not received a single dose of vaccine since birth). We are assuring that the present administration will do everything possible to turn around whatever is on the ground now," Mr Labaran said last Wednesday at a media dialogue on Routine Immunisation organised by the National Orientation Agency Kano with the support of UNICEF.
