Over 100 million Nigerians are at the risk of yellow fever infection due to government's failure to conduct vaccination, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has warned.
Health experts at a stakeholders meeting for yellow fever preventive campaign in Abuja said the disease outbreak is imminent as no mass vaccination has been conducted in the nation since the last outbreak 30 years ago.
Speaking at the event, chairman Expert Review Committee on polio eradication and routine immunization, Professor Oyewole Tomori said Nigeria is already endangered with a recent outbreak in nearby Cameroun.
Some 377 local government areas in 25 states have been marked as high risk areas, an assessment survey of the country.
Tomori said, "We are sitting on a tinderbox due to our population, if we have not done a mass vaccination campaign; it means we have a large number of people who are vulnerable."
He pointed out that a recent outbreak of yellow fever in six districts of Cameroun bordering Cross River State has placed Nigeria at risk because it is the only country among 13 other countries in West Africa yet to conduct mass vaccination.
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