Over 2.9 million children have been immunised against polio in Katsina State.
The milestone was announced on Friday by Heartland Alliance LTD/GTE as part of activities marking World Immunisation Week 2026, themed “for every generation, vaccines work.”
The organisation’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Bartholomew Ochonye, said the achievement followed sustained intervention in high-risk communities, noting that Katsina has recorded 11 consecutive months without a new polio case.
He, however, warned that the progress remains fragile, stressing that missing even one child could sustain the virus.
Ochonye disclosed that as of March 2026, the campaign had vaccinated over 2.9 million children across the state, helping to prevent new cases of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2).
He also revealed a major gap uncovered during the exercise, with more than 50,000 children found to have never received a single vaccine dose.
The intervention, which began in April 2025, involved over 4,000 field teams conducting house-to-house surveys across 2,356 hard-to-reach settlements, covering more than 836,000 households.
It also led to the vaccination of over 1.6 million children in its first phase, surpassing initial targets.
Ochonye called for sustained funding and stronger collaboration among government, partners, and the private sector to strengthen immunisation systems and reach underserved communities.
He added that despite Nigeria being declared free of wild poliovirus in 2020, vaccine-derived outbreaks continue to pose risks, especially in areas with low coverage and weak health systems.
