The Katsina State Government, in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said they aim to vaccinate about 4.8 million children against measles-rubella (MR) beginning in October.


The Chief of the UNICEF Kano Field Office, Rahama Fara, disclosed this at a media dialogue and mobilisation in Katsina on Tuesday.

He said that Katsina had been provided with 3,698,500 doses of Novel Oral Polio Vaccines (NOPV2) for 2.3 million children under five years of age, who would be vaccinated through directly observed oral polio vaccination (DOOPV).

“The integrated campaign in Nigeria planned to implement a measles MR campaign integrated with polio in all 36 states of the country in two phases, starting from October 6 to February 13, 2026. Katsina State will implement the polio campaign integrated with MR from October 6-13,” said Mr Fara.

According to Mr Fara, in this campaign, a total of 2,253 teams will be deployed to administer the vaccine using fixed and temporary post strategies from October 4 to 13.

“To support Katsina in implementing a successful campaign, a total of 5,584 teams will provide routine immunisation services and other antigens from October 6 to 10.

“These teams will include 3,761 teams moving from house to house, 993 teams in transit/special points, and 830 in fixed posts. UNICEF has supported the training of 3,300 health workers on improved people skills and the training of 600 Non-Compliance Resolution Teams (NCRTs),” he said.

The chief noted that 200 NCRTs, each comprising a community leader, traditional leader, and a vaccinator, would be deployed to resolve non-compliance cases in advance and during the intra-campaign phase on a real-time basis.

He pointed out that the state, with UNICEF’s support, had deployed six state facilitators, 21 LGA facilitators, 462 voluntary ward supervisors (VWSs), and 4,647 voluntary community mobilisers (VCMs) to support the campaign.

Besides, he said that 34 LGA chairmen and 70 district heads had been engaged on polio, and they have also signed a declaration in support of the immunisation exercise.

He said, “While we acknowledge the progress made so far, our goal of halting the circulation of the polio virus in Katsina State is yet to be attained.

“Katsina has reported 2 cases of a variant of the polio virus from one LGA (Danmusa) in 2025, whereas 17 cases were reported in 8 LGAs in 2024, including 8 from Batsari LGA.”

Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the Katsina State Primary Health Care Agency, Shamsuddeen Yahaya, said the meeting was important, looking at the devastating effect of measles on children.

Mr Yahaya added, “We’ve also found evidence that Katsina has a lot of cases of rubella, although it’s been underreported, and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to ensure that we protect our children. We’re also going to use that period to do our normal polio campaign targeting children from zero to 59 months. We all know that we’re at the verge of eliminating the circulating variant polio virus, and this campaign is also very crucial.”

(NAN)