Celine Lafoucriere, Chief of the UNICEF Lagos Field Office, sounded a warning on the 29th of April, during the World Immunization Week and Walk for Polio Week 2025 in Lagos, on the resurgence of Polio in Lagos.
According to her, “Right here in Lagos, we are detecting a resurgence of polio. Low immunization coverage, poor sanitation, and malnutrition are keeping the door open for polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases. Routine immunization is our best bet. We already have the tools—the oral polio vaccine is safe, and effective, and it works. But do we have the knowledge and the coverage?”
She lamented that despite the growing availability of vaccines, some segments of the population only have access to them during campaigns, which she noted is unsustainable.
Routine immunization must become the norm for every child born in Lagos. This is the only way to ensure a vaccination calendar can be established for every child, ensuring that vaccination is indeed powerful.
The Chief of the UNICEF Lagos Field Office assured that the agency would continue to support Lagos State and the Nigerian people by delivering vaccines to the hardest-to-reach children through vaccination campaigns, training and equipping health workers, and building trust in every community to ensure no child is left behind.
Lafoucriere revealed that, to date, two million Nigerian children remain zero-dose or unimmunized, also noting that since 1974, vaccines have saved over 150 million lives—equivalent to more than 3 million lives per year or 6 lives every minute over the past five decades.
While emphasizing the extraordinary power of vaccines, she acknowledged the role of global efforts, noting that the world has seen a 99.9% reduction in polio cases since 1988, concluding by stating that before the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, 1,000 children were paralyzed every day, and that, as of today, the oral polio vaccine has helped prevent 24 million cases of paralysis.