More than 60 million dollars would
be required by Nigeria to prosecute the
proposed first and second phases of the
national measles
elimination programme,
said a report.
The exercise is expected to cover not less
than 54 million persons nationwide.
This is contained in the report of the first
2015 meeting of the Inter-agency
Coordinating Committee (ICC) obtained in
Abuja on Wednesday.
The report was presented to the committee
by Dr Nneka Onwu, Head, Supplementary
Immunisation Activities at the National
Primary Health Care Development Agency
(NPHCDA).
The report indicated that GAVI, an
international non-governmental
organisation, and other partners were
expected to provide over 20 million dollars
out of the needed sum for the exercise.
It said the first phase of the follow up
campaign in the 19 northern states and the
FCT was being planned for Sept. 2015.
The report said the second phase of the
campaign which would expectedly be
conducted in October, this year, would
cover the remaining 17 southern states of
the federation.
It also said the campaign would cover over
54 million people within the age bracket of
nine months to 10 years.
It said the decision to step up Nigeria’s
campaign against measles was in line with
the country’s commitment to the global
community plan to achieve measles
elimination by 2020.
The report said the Federal Government
acknowledged the need to achieve pre-
elimination and elimination targets by 2015
and 2020.
The report put the total suspected measles
cases in 651 local government areas in 36
states and the FCT at 9,290.
According to the report, there are 4,494
confirmed cases from 317 local
government areas and 67 deaths caused
by measles, while the age group of most
affected children was nine to 59 months.
It said the NPHDCA and other stakeholders
had adopted a vaccination strategy that
entailed fixed and mobile equipment,
utilising established polio structures in
security compromised areas.
The ICC said in the report that the overall
goal of the project was to eliminate the
disease in the country while the objective
was to minimise outbreaks.
According to the report, the objectives of
the proposed measles campaign include
minimising outbreaks by ensuring the
highest quality coverage of 95 per cent in
all the 774 local government areas in the
country.
Also follow up campaign for the elimination
of measles was recommended by a
technical advisory group constituted by
the federal government.
The last measles Supplementary
Immunisation Activities was conducted in
2013 following the recommendation of the
group. (NAN)
