The World Health Organisation’s Country Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Mulombo, reaffirmed the safety and efficacy of vaccines, stressing that they undergo rigorous review before approval. He made this statement in Abuja on Friday during a two-day capacity-building workshop aimed at enhancing journalists’ health reporting skills and increasing their understanding of global health issues.
“Vaccines are safe, and vaccines are effective. Before WHO approves any vaccine, it goes through an exhaustive review process by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Vaccines and Immunisation, which evaluates all the evidence,” Mulombo said. He added that this process also applied to vaccines recently introduced in Nigeria, including the malaria vaccine and the single-dose Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.
Mulombo urged journalists to combat misinformation and stressed that universal access to vaccination is a human right. “Misinformation spread without verification is a human rights violation because it denies communities access to life-saving tools, contributing to high maternal and child mortality rates.”
He also called for Nigeria to move beyond pilot healthcare projects, urging both the government and communities to collaborate in providing large-scale, high-quality healthcare services.
