The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, said six states account for staggering 97 percent of all reported diphtheria cases in the country.
The agency’s director general,Dr Faisal Shuaib,who disclosed this on Tuesday,at the Diphtheria Outbreak Response Press Conference,in Abuja,named the states as Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Borno, Kaduna, and Bauchi, respectively.
Emphasizing that the six states were bearing the brunt of the disease in the country,Dr Shuaib said Kano alone carries the weight of over 84% of these cases, making it the epicenter of this outbreak.
While regretting that Diphtheria, a preventable disease, has cast a dark shadow over communities, particularly impacting children who he described as “our most vulnerable citizens”,Dr Shuaib in recent months, the agency has launched rapid and comprehensive vaccination campaigns across the affected regions.
” These campaigns have been meticulously planned and executed, with a laser focus on the epicenter of the outbreak.
“Kano, as the epicenter of this outbreak, has been at the forefront of our vaccination efforts. Working with the state governments, we implemented rounds 1 and 2 of the vaccination campaign in five high-burden local government areas in February and April 2023 respectively.
“Subsequently, round 3 was integrated with routine immunization intensification, further bolstering our response. An additional 8 LGAs in Kano underwent reactive vaccination exercises in the last week of August,”he explained.
Speaking further,he said:”Today, we stand united in the face of a public health challenge that demands our unwavering attention and swift action.
“Diphtheria, a preventable disease, has cast a dark shadow over our communities, particularly impacting our most vulnerable citizens, our beloved children.
According to him,”Beyond Kano, we expanded our response to include Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, and Yobe in our Phase One response. These states engaged, trained, and executed vaccination campaigns in 25 high-burden LGAs within their borders with the commencement of reactive vaccination in August 2023. Borno State also conducted reactive vaccination exercises in four LGAs during the same period.”
While saying it was crucial to note that routine vaccination continues daily at all government facilities across the nation,the NPHCDA boss explained that the “reactive vaccination exercises just serves as an additional layer of effort, a testament to the commitment of the Federal Government and our partners to curb the spread of this infection.”