Unless something is done quickly, many children in Sokoto State may die or become physically challenged because of infections from childhood diseases like measles, hepatitis B, polio, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria, and other vaccine-preventable diseases, according to data from a Federal Government report.
The data is from the Nigeria Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) and National Immunisation Coverage Survey (NICS) recently launched by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), World Health Organization (WHO), and other partners.
It shows that Sokoto State has the highest dropout rate for childhood vaccination in the country, that is, the percentage of children aged 12 to 23 months who received one dose in the vaccination schedule but failed to receive a later dose.
The report noted that substantially more children are fully vaccinated in the southern zones compared to northern zones.
It stated that the benefits of vaccines are fully realised when children receive all recommended vaccine doses on time.
The typical vaccination schedule for children in Nigeria includes BCG (tuberculosis), HepB (hepatitis B), OPV (poliomyelitis), PENTA (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis [whooping cough], hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenza type b), PCV (pneumococcal infection), ROTA (rotavirus), IPV (poliomyelitis), measles, vitamin A, yellow fever, and meningitis.
According to the report, while the national average for percentage of children between 12 to 23 months who failed to received OPV3, DTP-HepB-Hib3, measles 1 and measles 2, were 30.2 per cent, 20.6 per cent, 18.5 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, the situation in Sokoto State is double of the national average.
In Sokoto State, 50.8 per cent of children failed to receive OPV3; 52.8 per cent failed to receive DTP-HepB-Hib3; 44.4 per cent failed to receive measles 1; while 50 per cent failed to receive measles 2.
Although Zamfara State fared better than Sokoto in measles vaccination schedules, it however, recorded the highest vaccination dropout rate in OPV3, and second highest dropout in DTP-HepB-Hib3.
The report further noted that while at the national level 18 per cent of children between 12 to 23 months did not receive any vaccinations (which is a decrease of 55 per cent from five years ago), 51 per cent of children in Sokoto State remain unvaccinated.
Ebonyi is the only state in Nigeria where all the children have received vaccinations against childhood diseases, followed by Enugu State.