More than 100,000 previously unreached children have now been identified and vaccinated under a targeted campaign aimed at reducing the growing burden of zero dose children in Lagos State.
The campaign, known as the Better Opportunities for Optimised Targeted Intervention (BOOST) project for Zero-Dose and Unimmunised Children in Nigeria, is being implemented in Lagos by Save The Children International, Nigeria, in collaboration with the Lagos State Primary Health Care Development Board (PHCB), with support from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
The intervention is focusing on hard to reach communities in Ikorodu and Alimosho Local Government Areas.
Speaking during a courtesy call to the Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State PHCB, Dr. Ibrahim Mustapha, the Chief of Party for the Immunisation Programme at Save The Children International, Dr. Olatunde Adesoro, said, "Lagos accounts for the largest share in absolute numbers because of its huge population and expanding informal settlements.
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"In Lagos, particularly in Alimosho and Ikorodu local governments where we are working, we are targeting about 140,000 zero dose children," Adesoro said.
"Out of that target, our last count showed we had already reached over 100,000 children, that means we are on track."
Adesoro said many of the children are concentrated in migrant settlements, riverine areas, slums and densely populated informal communities where access to healthcare services remains poor.
"They are in migrant communities, hard to reach communities, informal settlements and slums."
Further, he said a major breakthrough of the project is the deliberate mapping of neglected communities and the use of outreach services to take vaccines directly to families unable to access health facilities because of distance or economic hardship.
"The first thing we did was identify where these zero dose children are and work with community people to reach them and ensure immunisation services get to them.
"One of the things we do is take services directly to them because many of them find it difficult to come to facilities," Adesoro said.
He emphasised that reducing the number of unreached children was critical to preventing future disease outbreaks in Lagos and across Nigeria.
"The risk is not just for them, it is also for the community as a whole," he noted.
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The current intervention is being used as a pilot model that could eventually be scaled up by the Lagos State Government across other local government areas.
