Diphtheria has now spread to 31 out of 44 local government areas of Kano state and more than 100 confirmed patients of diphtheria infection are presently receiving treatment at two newly isolation centres, the state government has said.
The government also said it has activated contact tracing teams to trace patients affected by the diphtheria outbreak in the state and over 2,000 others treated and discharged.
The State Epidemiologist, Dr. Abdullahi Kaura-Matta, who stated this while speaking with newsmen on update of the outbreak in the state, said the teams were deployed to the nooks and crannies of the state, especially high burden Local Government Areas.
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According to him, “Recently, NCDC has released a list or update given the number of states affected with the total number of confirmed cases including the mortality among the children. The report has put Kano among those states with the highest number.
“Currently, we have more than 100 cases on admission. We have treated and discharged over 2,000.
“Through the epidemiology unit, we have now established a contact tracing teams across the high burden LGAs. The team are actively searching for the children with symptoms of diphtheria. With this, we have put searchlight in all nooks and crannies of the state looking for these patients.
“Another effort, since January, this year, the Kano State government through ministry of health established a technical working group on diphtheria. It comprises of a team of experts from different technical background with the support of development partners.
“The committee is saddled with the responsibility of controlling this outbreak in the state. Every day, series of meetings conducted, incident management have since been activated.
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“Already, the Kano State has established a well equipped diphtheria treatment centre at the Murtala Muhammad specialist hospital. And it has been provided with well trained human resource with the support of MSF and other partners. And cases have been managed and discharged continuously.
“And looking at the rising number of cases because of the improved awareness, the government has strategized and opened a new treatment centre within the Infectious Disease Hospital, popularly called IDH just to ensure that every suspected case is thoroughly screened, if found positive he or she is given the required treatment.
Why Kano has high cases of Diphtheria
Dr. Kaura-Matta noted that the resurgence of diphtheria may be linked to the aftermath of covid-19 pandemic which caused lockdown and disruption of routine immunization, leaving many children unimmunized and on the other hand, the attitude of some parents or caregivers who are hesitant to take their wards for immunization.
He said, “Diphtheria has been with us for long but we have successfully immunized our children against it with one of the antigens in PENTA. Caregivers who took their children for immunization would remember PENTA vaccine. But what we are experiencing now is resurgence of diphtheria which scientist have postulated so many reasons that it could be as a result of impact of Covid-19 pandemic. You could recall that when the wave of covid heat hard, which caused lockdown and disruption of routine immunization, leaving many children unimmunized and on the other hand, the attitude of some parents or caregivers who are hesitant to take their wards for immunization.”
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Although the UNICEF recently raised concern on the alarming rate of zero dose immunisation in Kano with about 300,000 children without access to vaccination, Kaura-Matta stressed that government was renewing DPT (diphtheria toxin-containing vaccine) and other infections immunisation campaign to manage the outbreak.