The United Nations Children’s Fund has said Nigeria bears the highest global burden of unvaccinated children, with over two million children yet to receive a single dose of any routine vaccine
UNICEF Health Officer, Bashir Elegbede, made this known on Tuesday at a one-day media dialogue to commemorate the 2025 World Immunisation Day in Damaturu, Yobe State.
Elegbede said that of Nigeria’s estimated 8.7 million children under the age of one, 2.1 million—or 24 per cent—are considered “zero-dose” children, meaning they have not received any vaccines as recommended in the national immunisation schedule.
Meanwhile, the global goal is to reduce the number of ZD children by 25 per cent by 2025, and by 50 per cent by 2030.
He noted that children not immunised have been seen to have a relatively high risk of being infected and succumbing to vaccine-preventable diseases like polio, measles, meningitis, yellow fever, and viral hepatitis, among others.
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