Implication of vaccination on measles reduction and elimination in Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Availability of a safe and effective vaccine encouraged the establishment of measles mortality reduction and elimination goals in six World Health Organization regions. In the WHO-AFRO region, they intend to eliminate measles by 2020. This initiative led to the successful elimination of measles in 2012 in the American region. This study mined data from independent investigations in two geographical regions in Nigeria, in order to observe the prospects of preventive measures against wild measles virus in a resource limited setting. Materials and methods: Retrospective data from 757 children between the ages of 10 months and 13years were used. 500 were from children in Kano, Northwest Nigeria and 257 from children in Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria. Data analysis was done using SPSS 16.0. Results: In all, 386 (75.4%) of the vaccinated children were protected while 121 (23.6%) were not protected. Among the unvaccinated children, 63 (25.7%) were protected while 135 (55.1%) were not protected (X2 = 120.919, p=0.000). In Kano, 81% of the vaccinated children were protected while 18.4% were not protected. In Ibadan, 95% of the vaccinated children were protected (X =22.129, p=0.000). Conclusion: The herd immunity in Kano and Ibadan in this study is not sufficient to reduce wild measles virus infection. But this finding is encouraging, because Kano has suffered several epidemics prior to the vaccination campaigns resulting from religious apathy which is the bane of vaccination efforts in Northern Nigeria. Therefore, with the right approach in Northern Nigeria, it is possible to sustain national and global immunization drive.