WHO, UNICEF raise alarm over Nigeria, Africa’s missed vaccination targets

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have raised fresh concerns over childhood immunisation in Nigeria and across Africa, warning that the region remains off track to recover from pandemic-era setbacks, leaving millions of children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

The warning comes as the latest WHO-UNICEF Estimates of National Immunisation Coverage (WUENIC) show that while global vaccination rates improved modestly in 2025, Africa continues to lag behind pre-COVID-19 levels, with conflict, weak health systems, poverty and vaccine hesitancy slowing progress.

The report is particularly significant for Nigeria, which has consistently ranked among the countries with the highest number of “zero-dose” children—those who receive no routine vaccines during their first year of life.

Despite ongoing efforts by the government and development partners to expand immunisation, many Nigerian children, especially in conflict-affected and underserved communities, remain beyond the reach of essential vaccination services.

Globally, an estimated 90% of infants, about 116 million children, received at least one dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine in 2025, while 85% (110 million) completed the recommended three-dose schedule. Although both indicators increased by one percentage point from the previous year, global coverage remains below 2019 levels.

An estimated 13.5 million children received no vaccines at all during their first year of life in 2025. While this represents about 750,000 fewer children than the previous year, WHO and UNICEF warned that progress is being undermined by increasing numbers of children who begin vaccination but fail to complete the full schedule.

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More than half of the world’s zero-dose children live in fragile and conflict-affected settings, many of them in Africa, where insecurity, displacement and underfunded health systems continue to disrupt routine immunisation services.

The report also highlights growing concerns over measles. Around 7.3 million children received their first DTP vaccine but failed to receive their first measles dose. Consequently, global coverage for the first measles vaccine remained at 84%, while only 77% received the second dose, well below the 95% coverage required to prevent outbreaks. In 2025, 57 countries reported large or disruptive measles outbreaks.

While the Americas and South-East Asia have recovered to or surpassed pre-pandemic immunisation levels, Africa, alongside the Eastern Mediterranean and Europe, remains below its 2019 baseline. The Western Pacific region also recorded a decline.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said the recovery in global vaccination rates masks the reality that millions of children continue to be left behind.

“Governments and health workers have helped global vaccination rates bounce back after dropping significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. But millions of vulnerable children are still being left unprotected due to conflict, displacement and poverty. We must reach every child, and we must rebuild trust where it is fraying. No child should suffer from a disease that a simple vaccine can prevent,” she said.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described immunisation as one of the world’s most cost-effective and equitable public health interventions, stressing that every child deserves protection regardless of where they are born.

The agencies also warned that shrinking investments in immunisation programmes and disease surveillance threaten decades of progress. They noted a sharp decline in the number of national immunisation surveys conducted worldwide, raising concerns that countries may struggle to identify children who are missing vaccines before outbreaks occur.

WHO and UNICEF urged governments, donors and development partners to strengthen immunisation services in fragile settings, counter vaccine misinformation, increase domestic and international funding, and invest in stronger health data and disease surveillance systems.

Although the number of zero-dose children has fallen by 40% over the past 25 years, the agencies warned that the world, and Africa in particular, remains off track to meet the Immunisation Agenda 2030 target of ensuring that every child, everywhere, has access to life-saving vaccines.