More than 60 million dollars would be required by Nigeria to prosecute the proposed first and second phases of the national measles elimination programme, said a report.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise is expected to cover not less than 54 million persons nationwide.
This is contained in the report of the first 2015 meeting of the Inter-agency Coordinating Committee (ICC) obtained by NAN in Abuja on Wednesday.
The report was presented to the committee by Dr Nneka Onwu, Head, Supplementary Immunisation Activities at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
The report indicated that GAVI, an international non-governmental organisation, and other partners were expected to provide over 20 million dollars out of the needed sum for the exercise.
It said the first phase of the follow up campaign in the 19 northern states and the FCT was being planned for Sept. 2015.
The report said the second phase of the campaign which would expectedly be conducted in October, this year, would cover the remaining 17 southern states of the federation.
It also said the campaign would cover over 54 million people within the age bracket of nine months to 10 years.
It said the decision to step up Nigeria’s campaign against measles was in line with the country’s commitment to the global community plan to achieve measles elimination by 2020.
The report said the Federal Government acknowledged the need to achieve pre-elimination and elimination targets by 2015 and 2020.
The report put the total suspected measles cases in 651 local government areas in 36 states and the FCT at 9,290.
According to the report, there are 4,494 confirmed cases from 317 local government areas and 67 deaths caused by measles, while the age group of most affected children was nine to 59 months.
It said the NPHDCA and other stakeholders had adopted a vaccination strategy that entailed fixed and mobile equipment, utilising established polio structures in security compromised areas.
The ICC said in the report that the overall goal of the project was to eliminate the disease in the country while the objective was to minimise outbreaks.
According to the report, the objectives of the proposed measles campaign include minimising outbreaks by ensuring the highest quality coverage of 95 per cent in all the 774 local government areas in the country.
NAN also reports that the follow up campaign for the elimination of measles was recommended by a technical advisory group constituted by the federal government.
The last measles Supplementary Immunisation Activities was conducted in 2013 following the recommendation of the group.