Civil society groups in Nigeria have called for increased domestic financing to prevent and treat pneumonia, shore up immunisation programmes and strengthen health systems nationwide.
The call marks the third and final key date in the 33 Day to Power Up Immunisation.
“Prevention is better than cure and Immunization is the best strategy to get rid of Pneumonia instead of waiting to treat our children when they fall sick,” said Chika Offor from the Vaccine Network.
“We have to pull our socks and increase our actions because too many children continue to die from Pneumonia,” Offor added at a press briefing to mark the day.
Among 15 countries with the highest burden of pneumonia and diarrhoea, Nigeria only beat Chad and Somalia in interventions against both diseases, profiled in the Global Action for Prevention and Control of Pneumonia and Diarrhea (GAPPD) report for 2017.
The same report shows Nigeria’s inability to meet the Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) coverage threshold of 45% by scoring only 26%.
With a single-point increase from last year, there’s need for greater political will and more local investments that will take the Addis Declaration on Immunization that Africa heads of states endorsed in January 2017, a notch higher, said the Community Health and Research Initiative, CHR.
“We are calling on the Nigerian government to reaffirm its commitments by increasing local financing to immunization, better the policies on immunization and expand the coverage of routine immunization so that all children in the country can benefit, especially those in rural and remote areas, because too many children continue to die from pneumonia,” said Aminu Magashi, head of CHR.
