The Oyo State Government has announced a vaccination campaign for over three million children as part of its plan to protect against measles and rubella.
Rubella, also called German measles, usually causes a mild illness in children and adults. However, it is one of the leading causes of death among young children globally. It is not often reported because there isn’t enough monitoring.
Dr. Muideen Olatunji, the Executive Secretary of the Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, shared this information during a press briefing held in Ibadan on Monday.
He said the vaccination campaign will run from October 4 to 14, 2025. Two extra days, October 15 and 16, will be used to catch up on anyone who missed getting vaccinated during the main campaign.
Dr. Olatunji explained that the target group for the vaccination is children between the ages of 9 months and 14 years.
He said, “Based on the state’s population, we aim to reach over 3 million children. To be exact, 3,694,610 children are eligible for the vaccination.
“Most of these children live in local communities, while some are in schools. We want to make sure all of them get vaccinated.”
He also added, “After this campaign, we hope that more people will be aware of the importance of vaccination and will be willing to support future health programmes.”
Dr. Olatunji explained that rubella is very similar to measles. He called them ‘twin sisters.’ He said the best and cheapest way to deal with rubella is to prevent it because once a life is lost, it cannot be replaced.
He said, “This campaign is focused on children aged 9 months to 14 years. We included 14-year-olds so that older children who missed previous vaccinations can still get protected.”
He added that the campaign will use different strategies, including going from house to house, setting up vaccination points at fixed locations, and using mobile teams to reach more children.
Dr. Olatunji said people no longer need to be convinced that vaccines are safe, pointing to past experiences that have shown vaccines do not harm people.
