By Victoria Ojeme
ABUJA – Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, yesterday said over 1 million children have lost their lives due to refusal by some parents to have them immunised.
Speaking in Abuja during the first National Vaccine Summit, the SGF accused parents of the affected children of relying on rumours and outdated religious beliefs to deny their wards of immunisation.
He said: "It is indeed inexcusable that despite the availability of simple cost-effective health measures such as vaccines, we continue to lose an estimated 1 million Nigerian children each year to diseases that could have been prevented by vaccination.
"To reverse this trend, it is essential that we all join hands: government at all levels, the private sector, NGOs, development partners, traditional and religious organisations, etc, to educate our people on the benefits of vaccination, dispel false rumours and beliefs, mobilise the necessary resources for vaccination and monitor the entire process of vaccination."
He also attributed the scarcity of vaccines in the country to the increasing childbirths in Nigeria, always higher than projections made for vaccines.
Anyim said: "However, I am aware that with Nigeria's expanding population and increase in births, it is inevitable that there would be gaps, both in terms of vaccine availability and the necessary logistics and materials that would guarantee every eligible Nigerian child access to vaccines as and when due."
"As you deliberate today, to find common grounds and evolve strategies that would assure universal access to vaccines by all Nigerian children. You must bear in mind the need to look inwards and find sustainable local solutions to our problems.
"We must also critically look at long-term opportunities to building our local capacity to manufacture not just equipment and materials necessary for immunisation but also for the production of vaccines."
Vanguard Nigeria