Nigeria to target 30 million people for yellow fever vaccination

The government of Nigeria has said that this year's accelerated yellow fever campaigns phase 4 will target more than 30 million people, according to a news report by This Day.

The seven states that will be targeted by this campaign are (Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Delta, Osun, Ondo, and Oyo) and complete the pending 2019 phase 3 Yellow Fever campaign in Anambra State.

In a statement, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has revealed that the agency is encouraging all eligible persons in the state to come forward and get vaccinated.

He said, "The accelerated yellow fever campaigns phase 4 will target more than 30 million people in 7 states (Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Delta, Osun, Ondo, and Oyo) and complete the pending 2019 phase 3 YF campaign in Anambra State.

"This will be followed by further Yellow Fever vaccination efforts between 2021-2022, which will target more than 95 million persons as part of the push to eliminate yellow fever epidemics".

Shuaibu said while combatting multiple public health challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO), CDC, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will safely relaunch an accelerated series of mass preventive vaccination campaigns to protect Nigerians against yellow fever (YF).

"To enable safe implementation in the COVID-19 context, personal protective equipment (PPE) and enhanced infection prevention control measures have been assured by a collaborative initiative and agile support of the State Ministries of Health, CDC, and World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme, and funding from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance," he said.