Momoh Umar Momoh, Benin
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said vaccines have saved over 150 million lives since 1974 globally.
Celine Lafoucriere, Chief, UNICEF Lagos Field Office disclosed this on Wednesday at the World Immunization Week and Walk for Polio Week 2025 in Lagos State.
Lafoucriere said the figure represented more than 3 million lives per year or 6 lives every minute in the last 5 decades.
While thanking the global efforts, she noted the world has seen a 99.9% reduction in polio cases since 1988.
The Chief, UNICEF Lagos Field Office, who said before the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 1,000 children were paralyzed every single day, opined that vaccines are extremely powerful.
She added that till date 2 million Nigerian children remain zero-dose or unimmunized while the oral polio vaccine has helped prevent 24 million cases of paralysis.
She, however, added that in Lagos State, the agency has detected a resurgence of polio.
Lafoucriere, attributed the resurgence to low immunization coverage, poor sanitation, and malnutrition that are keeping the door open for polio and other vaccine preventable diseases.
She opined that routine immunization is the best bet to eradicate polio and other vaccine preventable diseases.
“We already have the tools, the oral polio vaccine is safe, effective, and it works. But do we have the knowledge and the coverage?
“Despite the fact that vaccines are powerful proven life saviors, some parts of the population remain misinformed believing in harmful rumors.
“Despite the fact that vaccines are increasingly available, some parts of the population only have access to vaccines during campaigns. This is not sustainable!
“Routine immunization must become the norm for every child born in Lagos.
“This is the only way to ensure a calendar of vaccination can be established for every child, ensuring that vaccination is indeed powerful.
For this to happen, we need action”, she said.
She assured that UNICEF would continue to stand with Lagos state and the Nigerian People to deliver vaccines to the hardest-to-reach children.
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Lafoucriere stated that the vaccines would be delivered through vaccination campaigns, support health workers with training and resources, and build trust in every community so that no child is left behind.
She also assured that routine immunization represents the only hope for the future!
“As we walk today, we make a call for stronger routine immunization systems to be made possible through a renewed political commitment to ensure greater health education (or awareness) is available to the whole population so that no parent ever again in Nigeria will take the risk of leaving their child at risk of dying from preventable diseases!
“One unvaccinated child is a risk to all. But together, united, we can end zero doze, end polio for good,” she added.
