‘About 7.8m children in Kano to benefit from nationwide immunisation’

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says about 7.8 million children in Kano state will be vaccinated against measles-rubella in an upcoming national immunisation campaign, amid renewed concerns about outbreaks of preventable childhood diseases.

The integrated Measles–Rubella and Polio Vaccination Campaign, which begins on October 6, will run in two phases across the country until February 16, 2026. Phase One will cover 21 states, including Kano, in two streams between October 6 and 17, 2025.

Rahama Farah, chief of UNICEF field office in Kano, said during a media dialogue on Monday that the campaign is “the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa” and will require significant collaboration among federal and state agencies, international partners, and civil society groups.

Partners include the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), the World Health Organisation (WHO), Gavi, the Gates Foundation, and UNICEF.

For Kano alone, 3,347 vaccination teams have been deployed, with 4.6 million doses of novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2) and 4.5 million doses of bOPV allocated to target 3.9 million children under five years.

In addition, all children aged nine months to 14 years, about 7.8 million in total, are expected to receive the measles–rubella vaccine.

Despite progress, Farah expressed concern that Kano still recorded three cases of circulating variant poliovirus type 2 (cVPV2) in 2025, compared to 31 cases from 17 local government areas (LGAs) in 2024.

With Nigeria targeting to halt transmission by December, he urged state and local governments to prioritise timely campaign flag-offs, funding releases, and community mobilisation.

According to Farah, UNICEF and partners have trained 3,300 health workers, set up 42 internally displaced persons (IDP) camps for potential emergencies, and mobilised nearly 5,000 community influencers, polio survivor groups, and volunteers to boost coverage.

Ahmed Tijani, Director of Disease Control and Immunisation, said the integrated approach — covering measles–rubella, polio, routine immunisation (including hepatitis and HPV), and onchocerciasis — was designed to cut costs and reduce the strain of multiple campaigns on families.