Ogun to Vaccinate 2.9 Million Children Against Measles, Rubella

The Ogun State Government has announced plans to vaccinate about 2.9 million children aged between nine months and 14 years against measles and rubella as part of efforts to curb the spread of the diseases across the state.

The Executive Secretary of the Ogun State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr Elijah Ogunsola, disclosed this on Tuesday during a stakeholders’ engagement held at the board’s conference room in the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

According to Dr Ogunsola, the Measles–Rubella (MR) vaccination campaign is scheduled to run from January 20 to January 29, 2026, and is aimed at significantly reducing the high number of measles cases recorded in the state in the past year.

He explained that rubella, also known as German measles, is a contagious viral disease that often presents with symptoms similar to measles, including skin rash, runny nose, cough and red, watery eyes.

Although generally milder, the disease poses serious health risks, particularly to pregnant women, as it can result in Congenital Rubella Syndrome (CRS), leading to complications such as blindness, deafness, heart defects and brain damage in newborns.

Dr Ogunsola clarified that the vaccination exercise would not be conducted on a house-to-house basis but through a settlement-to-settlement approach.

“This is not a house-to-house campaign. What we are doing is a settlement-to-settlement campaign. We shall identify a central place in each settlement where our team of six personnel will vaccinate children from nine months to 14 years,” he said.

He added that the state is targeting over 20,000 settlements during the exercise, with more than 7,000 health personnel to be deployed to ensure wide coverage.

“Our target is to reach 20,000 settlements and vaccinate 2.9 million children during this exercise. The vaccination teams will be stationed at designated points, not more than 500 metres apart, so parents will not have to travel far to get their children vaccinated,” Ogunsola noted.

The executive secretary urged parents, community leaders and other stakeholders to support the campaign by mobilising residents and ensuring that eligible children are presented for vaccination, stressing that the exercise is safe, free and critical to protecting public health.

He reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to strengthening primary healthcare delivery and preventing vaccine-preventable diseases through sustained immunisation programmes.