From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
The Federal government and Jigawa State Government in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has allocated 1,580 teams for the October 2025 integrated Polio, Measles-Rubella Vaccination campaign in Jigawa state.
This was announced by the Chief of UNICEF Kano Field Office Mr Rahama Rihood Muhammed Farah, while delivering his speech at the state flag-off ceremony for the October 2025 integrated polio MR Campaign held on Tuesday in Buji local Government area.
Mr Farah added that a total of 1.8 million doses of Novel Oral Polio Vaccines (nOPV2) and 1.8 million doses of Bi-valent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) targeting over 2 million children under five years of age.
He said, Jigawa is implementing the Oct 2025 integrated campaign across all 287 wards and 27 LGAs, adding that over 3 million children from 9 months to 14 years of age will also be vaccinated against MR in Jigawa.
According to him, the campaign will be implemented using : fixed, temporary post and sweep teams strategy.
“Jigawa Sate with the support of UNICEF has trained and deployed 1,500 health workers and 264 Non-Compliance Resolution Teams (NCRTs) members.
“88 NCRTs team contains a community influencer, traditional leader and vaccinator will be deployed to convert/resolve noncompliance cases during the campaign on real time across wards in Jigawa state”, he said.
The Chief of field office said, Jigawa State Primary Health Care Management Board with the support of UNICEF has deployed 4 state facilitators, 18 LGAs facilitators, 288 Voluntary Ward Supervisors (VWSs), 74 Polio Survivor Groups (PSGs) and 4,880 Voluntary Community Mobilizers (VCMs) for October campaign.
According to him, in 2025 Jigawa has reported 4 cases of a variant of polio virus (cVPV2) one from each of the 5 LGAs (Sule Tankarkar, Hadejia, Gwaram and Garki ) compared to 12 cVPV2 cases from 6 LGAs in 2024.
He said, the October integrated campaign presents another opportunity for us to work towards targeting vaccines preventable diseases including polio.
Mr Farah added that, everyone in Jigawa state has a role to play, including the caregivers, parents, community leaders, chairmen of LGAs, health workers, Jigawa government, and the network of volunteers and field supervisors.
“We request that all LGA chairmen to take the lead in ensuring that all children in their respective LGA are vaccinated and all cases of noncompliance are identified and resolved.
“We want an overall performance of not less than 95 percent in jigawa.
Let me assure the good people of Jigawa once again that UNICEF is committed to supporting the immunization efforts in the state and across Nigeria.
“We will continue to work with you all to provide technical support in engaging communities, delivering vaccines to the last mile — and ensuring no child is missed, especially in hot spot areas.
“We deeply appreciate the tireless work of health workers, volunteers, and community leaders.
Your continued efforts are central to building a healthier future for Jigawa’s children”, Mr Farah said.
