A total of 7.8 million children from 9 months to 14 years of age will be vaccinated against Measles and Rubella fever in Kano by the state government, supported by the United Nations Children Funds, UNICEF.
Mr Rahama Rihood Farah, Chief of UNICEF Field Office Kano said this at a Media Dialogue, Orientation and Mobilization Session on the Integrated Measles-Rubella Polio Vaccination Campaign in Kano, Monday.
He said the campaign will be implemented using a fixed, temporary post and sweep teams strategy.
Each Measles-Rubella team comprises 11 team members having two members in every sweep team for polio vaccination.
“To support the cold chain and vaccines management system 3 VSLs, 44 LGAs Vaccines Accountability Officers (VAOs) and 684 Ward Vaccines Accountability Officers have been trained and deployed in the state in support the integrated Measles-Rubella Polio Vaccination Campaign.”
“For the success and visibility of the integrated Measles-Rubella Polio Vaccination Campaign, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, with the support of UNICEF, has provided to Kano state, 88 publicity banners, 3,347 vaccination post banners, 1056 posters, 44,000 key messages for caregivers, 13,200 FAQs for health workers, 1,320 Christian sermon guides, 30,380 Muslim sermon guides, 8,800 key messages for local influencers, 880 key messages for media and 176 general banners”, Rahama explained.
He added that there would be a training of 3,300 health workers on improved Interpersonal (IPC) Communication Skills, including the training of 870 Non-Compliance Resolution Teams (NCRTs) members.
”A total of 290 NCRTs (each team comprises a community influencer, traditional leader and vaccinator) will be deployed to convert/resolve noncompliance cases during intra campaign phases on real time basis in Kano, he explained.
The Chief Filed Officer noted that from the VCMs Network, has deployed 8 state facilitators, 44 LGAs facilitators, 486 voluntary ward supervisors (VWSs), 385 Polio Survivor Groups (PSGs) and 4,864 voluntary community mobilizers (VCMs) in support of the campaign.
“While we acknowledge the progress made possible by the Government and partners, our goal of halting the circulation of the polio virus in Kano State is yet to be attained. Kano has reported 3 cases of a variant of polio virus (cVPV2) so far in 2025, one each from Warawa, Bunkure and Nassarawa LGAs compared to 31 cVPV2 cases from 17 LGAs in 2024. ”
With only two months until December, the agreed date for achieving this goal, UNICEF tasked the Kano State Government to ensure publicity and the release counterpart funds to LGAs on time.
Rahama said the LGAs chairmen are to personally oversee the pre, intra and post campaign phases and be regularly chairing the evening review meetings during the campaign, and LGAs Teams to intensify the supervision for the quality implementation of campaign.
He urged the Honourable LGA Chairmen to sustain this momentum in the October campaign, adding that the October Integrated Polio Vaccination Campaign presents another opportunity to eradicate polio. Everyone has a role to play, including the media.
He explained that Nigeria has planned to implement a Measles-Rubella, MR, campaign integrated with Polio in all 36 states in two phases starting from 6th October 2025 till 16th February 2026.
Kano State falls under Phase One of the Campaign which will be implemented in 21 states in two streams. The phase 1, stream 1, holds from 6th October to 17th October 2025.
Explaining that this year, between August and September, Kano State implemented two In- between Round Activities (IBRA) targeting 354,173 children under five years of age in 3,223 settlements from 125 wards across 44 LGAs achieving 82% and 98% coverage respectively by E Tally data.
“The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency with the support of UNICEF has allocated 3,347 teams, provided 4.6 million doses of Novel Oral Polio Vaccines (nOPV2) and 4.5 million doses of, bOPV, targeting 3.9 million children under five years age in the state for the October polio vaccination campaign.”
Kano: 7.8 million children to receive Measles, Rubella vaccination – KPHDA