The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has supported the Bauchi state government with over 2.5 million doses of Oral Polio Vaccines to be administered to children in the state.
Dr. Nuzhat Rafique, UNICEF Chief of Bauchi Field Office, stated this on Thursday at the cold store of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) where the vaccines were kept.
According to her, the vaccination exercise is starting in the whole of Bauchi state from 24 to 29 of April, 2025.
She called on all stakeholders to ensure that there was massive awareness campaign before the commencement of the exercise. This, she said would enhance the level of turnout of parents and guardians.
“This is because Bauchi state is one of the very important states in which we have 13 out of 20 local governments that have zero dose children.
“Zero dose children means that no vaccines ever reached them and the comprised of almost 556,000 children who have never received any vaccines. You can imagine how high risk they are.
“We are starting with these LGAs on 24 and I request you to give this message to all communities in Bauchi state that this is the month for polio campaign.
“UNICEF has supported in bringing in the 2.5 million plus doses of polio vaccines which are already here in the cold room of this hospital.
“We are targeting every under 5 children in this campaign but in those 556,000 children who are zero dose, we are hoping that they will not be anymore zero dose,” she said.
The UNICEF boss also advocated for all communities to cooperate and mobilise resources to go to the vaccination centres or anywhere the teams would be going to get their children vaccinated.
She affirmed that this, was not only important for them but for the future of the generation to come in Nigeria.
Also, Mr Patrick Akor, Health Officer, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, explained that UNICEF has also provided pen markers that would be used to finger mark the children already vaccinated.
“We are going to ensure that all the local governments, all teams have adequate vaccines during the implementation exercise,” he assured.
Bappah Jika, a representative from the Bauchi state Primary Healthcare Development Board, who confirmed the receipt of the vaccines from UNICEF, appreciated the Fund for the ‘life saving’ support.
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