Measles-Rubella: Kwara targets 1.8m pregnant women, children for vaccination

Kwara state government will in first week of October embark on integrated Measles Rubella vaccination campaign for about 1.8 million pregnant women and children out of a total number of 1.2 billion people in the country.

Speaking at a media orientation programme on the vaccination exercise in Ilorin, the executive secretary of the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Professor Nusirat Elelu, said that the vaccination exercise was aimed to bring down the unacceptable morbidity and mortality rate of measles and Rubella diseases among the target population.

Represented by the director, Primary Healthcare System in the agency, Dr. Michael Oguntoye, Professor Elelu called for support of media practitioners in fighting against misconception, misinformation and rumour, towards achieving effective health campaign.

In his lecture, Professor Adekunle Salaudeen, a consultant in the International Vaccine Action Centre (IVAC), said that Measles remains one of the leading causes of death among under-5 years children in Nigeria, “contributing significantly to under-five disease burden and mortality rates”.

Professor Salaudeen said that Nigeria reported a total of 94,305 confirmed measles cases with 719 deaths between 2019 and 2024, reflecting a case fatality rate (CFR) of approximately 0.76%.

“The Northeast region recorded the highest number of confirmed measles cases with 57,060 (60.5%) and 63.4% of the deaths. Borno state in the North East, accounts for 45 per cent of the confirmed measles cases and 44.8 per cent of the deaths in Nigeria within this period. As at Epi-week 1-15, Bauchi has the highest number of confirmed cases with 285 (18.5%) in 2025”, he said.

He also said that 162 deaths were recorded out of 13,682 cases in 2022 (1.29%), 57 deaths out of 7,992 (0.7%) in 2023 and 53 deaths out of 6,104 cases in 2024.

Also speaking, Dr. A. Usman of the UNICEF, described mass media as veritable vehicle for media campaign, called for support of all stakeholders, especially, mass media professionals, to help get the information on the vaccination exercise to grassroots areas in order to have a successful campaign.

He explained that mode of administration of the integrated measles and Rubella vaccination is through injectable and oral, saying that vaccination is not an option but an exercise that should be supported by every stakeholder.

The UNICEF official said that problem of measles and Rubella are prevalent where people are not vaccinated, adding that Rubella disease, which is prevalent among pregnant women, has severe implication in pregnant women with irreversible health burden.

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