Over 600,000 children yet to immunise in Kano, others – UNICEF

<p>Farah expressed appreciation to the media for their collaborative efforts in protecting the rights and promoting the health of children.</p>, <span>Niger has launched an effort to immunise six million children against meningitis</span>, <h2>The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has alerted that over 600,000 children are yet to be immunised of killer diseases in Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states.</h2>, <p>The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that this was revealed by the Chief, UNICEF Field Office, Kano, Rahama Rihood Farah, on Wednesday in Kano, during a Media Dialogue on Routine Immunisation and Zero Dose Campaign in Kano.</p>, <p>“In the three states of the Northwest of Nigeria: Kano, Katsina and Jigawa, there are over 600,000 children who have not been vaccinated against childhood killer diseases.</p>, <p>“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.</p>, <p>“This situation is unacceptable and should be reversed urgently,” he appealed.</p>, <p>Farah, however, called on the governments of Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states (and other states with zero-dose LGAs) to take concerted action to strengthen their primary healthcare system.</p>, <p>He urged them to implement the Nigeria Primary Health Care Under One Roof Policy to ensure one-stop functional primary health care centre per ward, particularly those local government areas with unimmunised children.</p>, <p>He further stressed the need for the governments of the three states to ensure an integrated package of primary health services are provided to families in one functional health facility.</p>, <p>They should also increase strategic interventions to address persistent gap in human resources and recruit additional skilled critical cadres of health workers, including vaccinators, Community Health Influencers and Promoters Services (CHIPS) agents for immunisation demand creation.</p>, <p>Farah