Progress Towards Measles Elimination in Nigeria: 2012 – 2016

Tuesday, 23rd of April 2019

Europe PMC Funders Group Author Manuscript J Immunol Sci. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2019 April 03. Published in final edited form as: J Immunol Sci. 2018 August 2; Suppl: 135–139.

 

Progress Towards Measles Elimination in Nigeria: 2012 – 2016

 

Balcha Masresha1* Fiona Braka2 Nneka Ukachi Onwu3 Joseph Oteri3 Tesfaye Erbeto2 Saliu Oladele2 Kyandindi Sumaili4 Abimbola Aman-Oloniyo4 Regis Katsande1 Sisay Gashu Tegegn2 and Amadou Fall5

1World Health Organisation- Regional office for Africa. Brazzaville Congo

2World Health organisation – Country office for Nigeria. Abuja Nigeria

3National Primary Health Care Development Agency Nigeria

4United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) - Country Office for Nigeria. Abuja Nigeria

5World Health Organisation- Inter-country support team for West Africa. Ouagadougou Burkina Faso

Abstract

 

 

Introduction—Nigeria has adopted the African Regional measles elimination targets and is implementing the recommended strategies. Nigeria provides routine measles vaccination for children aged 9 months. In addition since 2006 Nigeria has been conducting nationwide measles supplemental Immunisation activities (SIAs) or mass vaccination campaigns every 2 years and has established measles case-based surveillance.

 

Methods—We reviewed routine and supplemental measles immunization coverage data as well as measles case-based surveillance data from Nigeria for the years 2012 – 2016 in an attempt to determine the countrys progress towards these elimination targets.

 

Results—The first dose measles vaccination coverage in Nigeria ranged from 42% and 54% between 2012 and 2015 according to the WHO UNICEF national coverage estimates. Nigeria achieved 84.5% coverage by survey following the 2015 nationwide measles supplemental immunisation activities (SIAs). During this period the incidence of confirmed measles ranged from 25 - 300 confirmed cases per million population per year with the Northern States having significantly higher incidence as compared to the Southern States. At the same time the pattern of confirmed cases indicated a consistent shift in epidemiological susceptibility including older age children.

 

Conclusions—In order to accelerate its progress towards the measles elimination targets Nigeria should build population immunity on a sustainable basis by addressing systemic issues in order to scale up routine immunisation coverage especially in the Northern half of the country;

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

*Correspondence: Dr. Balcha G Masresha WHO Regional Office for Africa Brazzaville Congo; Telephone No: +263 77 503 5369; masreshab@who.int.

 

Conflict of Interest

None