Nigeria, the most populous black nation has some communities that are hard-to- reach, scattered, underserved, security compromised and nomadic in nature that makes access to regular Routine Immunization (RI) services a challenge. This is a source of concern as it affects the implementation of public health intervention such as RI service delivery and NSTOP has been on its toes in ensuring health services especially RI are available to service seekers at the appropriate time. It was against this back drop that the US CDC funded the implementation of a demand generation project being implemented in selected Local Government Areas of Sokoto state. Sokoto state has an RI coverage of 3% (MICS/NICS 2017) and it necessitated its selection for the project implementation.
NSTOP in company of US CDC visited Sokoto state to assess the ongoing demand generation activities being implemented in the state and to monitor the Optimized Integrated Routine Immunization Sessions (OIRIS) in the state. The government with support from NSTOP are implementing the project which is aimed at boosting RI coverage in the state due to the low RI coverage of 3% as revealed in the MICS/NICS. The activities conducted were Supportive supervisory visits during Fixed RI sessions, RI outreach sessions and ward Development Committee meetings. Community interviews and advocacies were conducted with findings documented.
With the support of stakeholders in the state, especially the commissioner for Health, Balarabe Shehu Kakale Shuni, lingering issues were addressed.