Katsina, 4 September, 2024 - “Before today, my child never received any form of vaccination,” says 27 years old Fatima Abubakar, while presenting her eight-months-old son, Adamu, to the team of vaccinators who had visited the remote Gadare settlements in Batsari Local Government Area (LGA), Katsina State, where she resides. 
Having given birth at home, Fatima explained that her non-compliance with the routine immunisation schedule was due to her residence being far from a primary healthcare facility and her being unaware of any previous visit by a mobile vaccination team to her village. 

“It is my first time witnessing a vaccination team go from house to house to vaccinate all eligible children in this village. Many children in this settlement have never received any vaccine since birth”, Fatima added. 

Besides residing in a hard-to-reach area, many children in the locality were not privileged to get vaccinated due to the security situation in the region, which negatively impacted their protection against vaccine-preventable diseases, including the circulating Variant Poliovirus type 2 (cVPV2). 

Leaving no children unreach
This year, Katsina state has reported  16 cases of cVPV2 in five LGAs, with Batsari LGA reporting 98% of the cases. 
To interrupt the spread of the virus, the Katsina State Government, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, revised its immunisation strategies to ensure all vulnerable children receive life-saving vaccines. 

The state adopted the engagement with community gatekeepers”, which included high-level advocacy for society gatekeepers and local volunteers' identification, training, and deployment through traditional leaders to serve as vaccinators and champions in high-risk communities. 
With testimonies from mothers like Fatima, the devised strategy yields the desired result.

“I  was comfortable presenting my son for vaccination because the vaccinator is someone from my settlement. He educated me of the benefits of immunisation and assured me that it is safe and at no cost,” she added. 

As of June 2024, the local response team in Katsina had reached 253,006 children out of the 326,069 targeted children across 11 local government areas in the state with live-saving vaccines.

Taking urgent action
In Nigeria, interrupting the cVPVD2 virus, particularly in the Axis of Intractable transmission (AIT) states (Katsina, Kano, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi), is of utmost importance for the country to achieve its polio eradication goals. 

Appreciating the WHO and its partners’ continual support, Katsina State Governor Dr Dikko Umaru Radda said, “The State Government will continue to work closely with WHO and partners to sustain the improvements.”

Dr Radda said, “WHO is playing a critical role in supporting the state in its quest to interrupt the spread of the virus. The continual support received from WHO is very timely and commendable. Despite the challenges, we’ve recorded immense progress in ensuring vulnerable and exposed children are reached with vaccines, thus contributing to interrupting the virus.”

Reiterating WHO’s commitment to supporting Nigeria in reaching all eligible children with life-saving vaccines and succeeding in its polio eradication goal,  the WHO State Coordinator, Dr Abdulnasir Adamu, said every child deserves a better future and access to quality healthcare services. 
“WHO’s relentless support to the Government of Katsina is part of the triple billion target and the implementation of its fourth Country Cooperation Strategy (CCSIV), of ensuring health for all regardless of their difference. 

Expressing his gratitude to the Government for its leadership and firmness in interrupting this virus at the community level, he added that  “WHO is providing technical support to ensure effective coordination of partners and strengthening of thematic areas such as data management, community engagement, and surveillance.

With over 5000 technical and community structures, such as technical officers, field volunteers, local government facilitators, and community informants in the state, WHO is assured that vulnerable children will be reached with life-saving vaccines, thus disrupting community transmission.”

Meanwhile, Fatima is glad that her child benefitted from the vaccination exercise. She has decided to convince other mothers in her community whose children have not received any vaccination to do so.