Kwara Records Significant Gains In Child Immunisation, Nutrition – Elelu

Kwara State has recorded encouraging improvements in childhood immunisation coverage and nutrition, with more children receiving essential vaccines and fewer experiencing malnutrition, according to the 2025–2026 Nigeria Mini-Demographic and Health Survey (mini NDHS).

The executive secretary of the Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KWSPHCDA), Prof. Nusirat Elelu, made this known in a statement i, describing the latest survey findings as encouraging indicators of progress in child health across the state.

Elelu disclosed that based on the survey just released by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the proportion of children aged 12–23 months surveyed in Kwara who received the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine (Penta 3) increased significantly from 34.9 per cent in 2024 survey to 50.4 per cent in 2025–2026 survey.

She added that the proportion of children who had received no vaccines declined from 48.1 per cent to 27.3 per cent within the same period, reflecting substantial progress in reaching more children with life-saving immunisation services.

Elelu explained that the indicator pentavalent vaccine given at 6, 10 and 14 weeks of age protects children against five serious diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

“This improvement in our pentavalent vaccine coverage underscores the Kwara State government effort at improving child health and further reaffirms the importance of routine immunisation in protecting children and promoting healthy development”, she said.

She also highlighted notable improvements in child nutrition indicators among children under five. According to the survey, stunting declined from 40.8 per cent to 35.5 per cent, wasting reduced from 6.1 per cent to 3.5 per cent, while underweight prevalence dropped from 24.5 per cent to 14.8 per cent.

She noted that these improvements represent encouraging developments in efforts to promote child survival, healthy growth and overall wellbeing in Kwara State. “This is one of the greatest improvements in our nutrition indices recorded in Kwara in recent years.

“The investment of the state under the leadership of His Excellency, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq CON through support for primary healthcare level nutrition sensitive interventions as well as the biannual Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week is yielding tremendous results”, she added.

Elelu reiterated the agency’s commitment to strengthening primary healthcare delivery through routine and outreach immunisation, community mobilisation, nutrition services and growth monitoring to ensure that more children benefit from essential healthcare interventions.

She also encouraged parents and caregivers to sustain the gains by taking their children to the nearest primary healthcare centre for free routine immunisation, keeping their immunisation cards up to date, participating in community outreach programmes and ensuring regular monitoring of their children’s growth.

She reaffirmed that the agency would continue working with healthcare workers, development partners, community leaders and families to expand access to essential healthcare services and build on the progress recorded in improving the health and wellbeing of children across the state.