Using art competition to raise awareness on immunisation Angela Onwuzoo Paediatricians under the aegis of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria have underscored the importance of increasing childhood immunisation uptake in the country. One of the ways, in which they said awareness can be created on immunisation was to educate secondary school students in Lagos State on the important role art competition can play. The paediatricians, who organised a creative art competition for students, explained that it was organised to reach every Nigerian with the message of immunisation, The event was organised by PAN, to celebrate this year’s Children’s Day, with the theme, “Investing in our Future means investing in our Children.
” The child health specialists said creativity speaks a lot, stating that the children’s art competition will not only help children to be better educated about immunisation but will also help parents, communities, and teachers to know more about immunisation through art. President of PAN, Prof Ekanem Ekure, in her welcome address, reeled out some worrisome statistics on the number of zero-dose children in Nigeria and urged that immunisation becomes everybody’s business if the country must increase uptake. Prof Ekanem Ekure The Professor of Paediatric Cardiology, College Of Medicine, University of Lagos, said it was sad that Nigeria accounts for 2.
2 million out of the 4.4 million zero-dose children in West Africa, which makes Nigeria home to the seco.
