Nigeria: Measles-Rubella - Kwara, 20 Other States to Repeat Polio Vaccination

Kwara State and 20 other States, including federal capital territory (FCT) are to repeat the polio component vaccination of the nationwide Integrated Measles-Rubella campaign held in October 2025.

The campaign, targeting under five children, though currently put on hold, will be carried out by the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KWSPHCDA) in collaboration with Unicef, World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners at a latter date.

Speaking at a media dialogue on the November SNIPDs, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) and Human papillomavirus (HPV) intensification campaign, the WHO coordinator for Kwara State, Dr Eyitayo Emmanuel, said Nigeria saw the need for the affected states to repeat the excercise following some "identified gaps" observed during the last vaccination campaigns in the affected states.

Emmanuel, who spoke through Dr Gwomson Dauda, said feedbacks from the field indicated that in some places "schools declined receiving the vaccines claiming that they did not receive notification letters informing them ahead of the excercise."

"Some military and federal schools declined receiving vaccines despite receiving letters," he added.

Emmanuel also cited the inability of some team officials to gain access to some residential estates, a combination of factors which he said necessitated the need to repeat the polio component of the Integrated Measles-Rubella campaign.

He urged Nigerians to disregard myths about polio and other vaccines, saying the polio is real.

"Some of the old people that you see that cannot walk well were affected by Polio, we even have one of our staff who was affected by Polio and he is now working with WHO in one of the state. So polio is real," he said.

He, however, praised the Kwara State government for paying her counterpart fund, which according to him, made the state recorded a huge success in the other components of the excercise with 1m children successfuly immunized.

"Kwara is one of the state that always stand out when it comes to implementation becuase the government always fulfilled it obligations," he stated.

Read the original article on Leadership.