 The World Immunization Week is an annual public health campaign aimed at promoting the importance of vaccines and preventing deadly diseases. This year's theme, the big catch-up focuses on catching up on vaccination programs disrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The theme emphasizes the need for coordinated efforts from healthcare providers, government and communities to get vaccination rates back to pre-pandemic levels. And we are now being joined by a public health practitioner, Dr. Olalesi Osadiae. Good morning, doctor. Morning. How are you? Fine. Thank you. I hope I have not murdered your name. I want to say too much about that. But it's fine. It's fine. All right. Thank you so much. Away from that, let's quickly go into the questions. I want you to tell us the ultimate goal of a World Immunization Week. It's more for children. Is it more for children and adults and their communities to be protected from vaccine or preventable diseases or allowing them to live happier and healthier lives? How are we doing in this regard here in Nigeria? Can you expand on this a little bit? Okay. So thank you very much for having me in the studio, number one. Number two, World Immunization Week has basically been targeted for children because most of our immunization shadow is targeted towards children. We've noticed that with COVID, a lot of our immunization rates have dropped and it's not only in Nigeria. It was globally, generally, but definitely worse in some countries, Nigeria inclusive. And the goal of World Immunization Week this year is for, as you've said, catch up. So we want to get back to where we were before. We were not at 100% before, definitely. And then we won't drop even further. So we want to at least catch up and go back to where we were. And then we take strikes towards hitting the marks of having at least 80% of our children immunized against certain diseases. So when we're talking about catch up in terms of World Immunization Week, we're talking about the fact that we want as many children that are at the age at which they should be immunized to get their full immunization. So we don't want children under immunized or, you know, unimmunized. We want them to be fully immunized as appropriate for age. And we're trying to make sure that everyone comes together with a concerted effort to reach that Okay, now data from the WHO indicates that 25 million children were unvaccinated or under vaccinated in 2021 alone. How do we exceed this vaccination level to attain this big catch up? How do we do one? How do we how do we maintain the the big catch up level? How do we maintain the big how do we exceed this vaccination levels so we can attain this big catch up? Okay, so getting catching up really it's a it's a it's a joint effort. So it's a joint effort of the government and the people and that's part of why we will come and you know give a lot of information. Now we need people to understand the importance of immunization. We need mothers, we need families, we need head of head of communities to understand the fact that's number one, getting your child immunized immunized rather is safe and it is beneficial for the child and for the community. So regularly we know we get updates on you know, for example, I'm sure a lot of people have seen them come to give their children, let's say polio polio is one of the most common things and they are walking on the streets, they go to schools, they go to so many places. I know a couple of years, I think last year or two years ago, we did something on catch up on measles. So we went to schools. So a lot of these things are done to actually bridge the gap and we need information to go out and because I know the government is also trying to make sure that vaccination is accessible to everywhere. They go to hard to reach areas, people that live on water, people that live in fiery places and you know, you will be surprised at the places that government workers, especially at the local government level, go to actually get children immunized. So we want people to be aware of the importance of immunization, we want them to be aware that the fact that the vaccines are there to make sure that the children don't get disease so that when the government is approaching them, when the workers are getting to them, number one, there is accessibility, they are able to accept it and then women actually bring their children to the local government to actually get their children immunized because they understand the importance of getting that child immunized. We had something of sort in terms of diphtheria, not so long ago and it also has a little bit to point to our vaccine theory. So we need to catch up and make sure that our children are well protected. Alright, now I'll just ask the last question. The WHO estimates that 48,109 deaths in 112 countries because from disruptions in measles, rubella, HPV, hepatitis B, meningitis and yellow fever vaccination, and that's between 2020 and 2030. So what actions should Nigeria and Africans be taking towards this? Okay, well it's still the same thing. So we have this, how like, as I said, the immunization rate has reduced. So what do we do? Number one, get our children vaccinated. We speak to a lot of mothers in the hospital and we say okay why did your child miss the stones? Oh, I was busy. Oh, I couldn't make it and then you forgot about it. Or we ask a mother that her child has not been immunized. So why didn't you bring your child for immunization? And she goes, um, no reason. So I think part of the things are that the people that have, maybe due to COVID or due to whatever the pandemic, they actually had a break. They couldn't get to the hospitals and they couldn't get their children immunized. They should please at least take their children back to the hospital so that we can give the appropriate vaccinations and the immunization status can be up to date. Remember that when you immunize a child, you're not only only immunizing the child, you're protecting the community as a whole. So we need people once the children are born, especially for those that are within the age zero to five, get your child to the hospital at the appropriate times, at the appointments due. The local governments are always available. Every primary healthcare center across the country is available to get people, um, children immunized appropriately for age. So we want people to go out there. And when we come to you, because you know, sometimes we have to come and when the health workers come to you, please give them room to get your child vaccinated. I think that we will be able to catch up and everybody can be able to go together. Thanks. Okay. Thank you so much, doctor. You've actually given us an expose of what, you know, we should be expecting during times of immunization. Thank you for joining us. Have a great day. Thank you. Hello. Hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.