More than 520 children have lost their lives to diphtheria in Kano State, the state Primary Healthcare Development Agency has revealed.
The Director General of the agency, Muhammad Nasir Muhammad, made the disclosed this statistic during a key address at a one-day orientation for media practitioners regarding the diphtheria disease outbreak.
Dr Muhammad pointed to a severe shortage of the diphtheria vaccine in the state, particularly in Kano, where approximately 8,000 confirmed cases have been reported, constituting 80 percent of the cases.
According to him, “the state received 200,000 dosages of vaccine and less than one million doses after the outbreak of the disease. But according to our findings, we need over 6 million children to be vaccinated”.
He called on the federal government and partners to do something urgent for speed and effective control, “I use this opportunity to appreciate UNICEF for their commitment to emergency response support.”
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Speaking earlier, the Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Kano, Mr Rahama R Mohammed Farah, described diphtheria as a current Diphtheria Outbreak is, however, a threat to child survival, health, and the well-being of children.
Mr Rahama Farah noted, “It is very important to understand that the Analysis of the vaccination status of the suspected cases shows that 60.8% of all suspected cases are children who were not vaccinated”.
“As of last week, over 400 suspected cases with 11 deaths have been reported in Kano state.
Eight LGAs are the most affected: They are Ungogo (2651), Dala (989), Fagge (943), Gwale (714), Kumbotso (713), Nassarawa (538), Kano Municipal (506) and Tarauni (269)”.
He disclosed that “UNICEF is therefore collaborating with government and partners to respond to the emergency to save lives of children affected.”
The chief of UNICEF Kano Field Office added that the Kano field office supported the Diphtheria Response since the first case of the Diphtheria disease in December 2022, “UNICEF has been working with government and partners to respond to the emergency.”
“UNICEF has been and continues to support the diphtheria response in Nigeria, focusing on providing technical and financial support to the government in all affected states, including Kano state, to implement the Diphtheria outbreak response.”
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He pressed that the outbreak needs to be urgently stopped, controlled, and prevented from spreading, “last week, UNICEF delivered 1.2 million vaccines to the Kano State government in our continuing support to the government for a response to the Diphtheria outbreak Diphtheria is a highly contagious, infectious disease that can cause death”.
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“The media has a key role to play, particularly in infection prevention risk communication and community engagement. You will need to educate the public and increase the awareness of parents and communities on the disease and the outbreak, on the importance of immunization, and what parents need to do in case
of suspected cases and how to prevent infection from further spreading”, UNICEF said.
Tribune