In a bid to combat the rising threat of measles and other preventable childhood diseases, the Federal Government of Nigeria, in collaboration with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), is set to roll out a nationwide vaccination campaign targeting over 100 million children in October 2025.
The initiative was announced at a media roundtable in Abuja, where Dr. Joseph Forbi, an epidemiologist with the U.S. CDC Nigeria, underscored the urgency of the campaign. He revealed that Nigeria is among the top 10 countries globally with the highest number of measles cases, largely due to low immunisation coverage.
“For now, around three million children in Nigeria remain unprotected,” Dr. Forbi said, warning that failure to act swiftly could jeopardise efforts to eliminate the disease.
Supported by a grant from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the mass immunisation campaign will cover children between the ages of nine months and 15 years. It is a critical step in Nigeria’s commitment to achieving the global goal of eliminating measles and rubella by 2030.
Health officials say the campaign will involve both routine and supplementary immunisation efforts to reach under-immunised and previously unreached children in rural and urban areas alike.
