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The warning came as the FCTA intensified its response to the outbreak, deploying a multidisciplinary Incident Management Team to affected communities, including Karshi and surrounding rural and urban areas, to prevent further transmission of the potentially fatal bacterial infection.
Mandate Secretary, Health Services and Environmental Secretariat, Adedolapo Fasawe, disclosed this at a community sensitisation and advocacy programme on diphtheria in Karshi.
According to her, the FCT had investigated 15 suspected cases as of last week, with laboratory tests confirming five cases and recording two deaths.
She, however, said several of those infected had responded to treatment and been discharged, stressing that early detection and prompt medical intervention remained critical to preventing deaths.
Fasawe particularly warned residents against attempting to remove or tamper with the pseudo-membrane that could form at the back of the throat of a diphtheria patient.
She recalled a tragic incident in which a child reportedly bled to death after a local barber attempted to cut the membrane from the child’s throat.
The incident, she said, underscored the danger of relying on unqualified persons or local remedies when dealing with suspected cases.
Fasawe urged residents to immediately report anyone exhibiting symptoms of diphtheria to public health authorities or take them to designated healthcare facilities for proper diagnosis and treatment.
She explained that diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection that primarily affects the nose and throat and may sometimes affect the skin.
Early symptoms, she said, could include fever, cough, and catarrh, but the disease could progress rapidly to swelling of the neck and severe difficulty in breathing.
To contain the outbreak, Fasawe said the FCTA had activated a multidisciplinary Incident Management Team to conduct contact tracing, administer preventive antibiotics and intensify community mobilisation.
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She added that health officials were engaging residents in local languages, including Hausa and Gbagyi, to ensure that information on symptoms, prevention and treatment reached vulnerable communities.
The Chief of Karshi, Ismaila Mohammed, represented by the District Head of Karshi, Alhaji Ahmed Doka, also sought to dispel concerns over the location of the fatalities, clarifying that the deaths did not occur directly in Karshi town but in a neighbouring border settlement in Nasarawa State.
He commended the FCTA for its swift intervention and pledged the support of traditional and religious leaders in ensuring that residents took sick children to designated health facilities instead of relying on unverified remedies.
Representing the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Hanatu Bello assured residents of the agency’s technical and operational support to the FCT response.
She said the NCDC was working with the FCTA to interrupt the chain of transmission and strengthen risk communication across communities and other public platforms.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also urged residents to take advantage of routine childhood immunisation to close vaccination gaps that could leave children vulnerable to vaccine-preventable diseases.
The FCT Coordinator of WHO, Imaobong Adebayo, represented by Dr Jibril Alkasim, said vaccines provided through routine immunisation were available and safe, while reaffirming the organisation’s support for field operations, active case searches and efforts to improve vaccination coverage among vulnerable populations.
Director, FCT Public Health Department, Teresa Nwachukwu, said there was no cause for panic, assuring residents that the territory’s health system had functional outbreak response mechanisms covering surveillance, case management and risk communication.
Nwachukwu identified children aged five to nine as the most vulnerable group based on available data and urged parents and caregivers to ensure that children received their routine vaccinations.
She also called for improved environmental hygiene and early presentation at healthcare facilities, describing the measures as critical to stopping the spread of diphtheria and ultimately eliminating the disease from the FCT.
