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…announces support measures for NCDC, NPHCDA
From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has enumerated measures to assist the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and the affected states to fight diphtheria outbreak.
The measures, according to UNICEF, involve planning, implementing, and funding risk communication and community engagement activities, in addition to transporting vaccines and related equipment to the affected states and strengthening routine immunization.
UNICEF also added that it has taken measures to train health workers and volunteers for service delivery, risk communication, and community engagement, as well as strengthening supervising outbreak response activities.
UNICEF also said it will procure and supply face masks, hand sanitizers, and antibiotics to treat diphtheria, and supply laboratory consumables and biosafety cabinets for testing of suspected cases at the NCDC.
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Ms Cristian Munduate, in a statement, on Thursday,
emphasized the need to reach children who had missed out on their vaccines due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
She said: “Many children did not receive their vaccines during the COVID-19 lockdown. We urgently need to catch up. These ‘zero-dose’ children, those who haven’t received a single dose of vaccine are a primary concern.”
She urged all parents and guardians to ensure their children receive routine immunizations to protect them from preventable diseases like diphtheria, promising to intensify efforts to address the ongoing outbreak and work alongside the government to achieve a healthier, safer future for every Nigerian child.
As of July 2023, 3,850 suspected cases were reported with 1,387 confirmed as diphtheria. The disease has tragically claimed 122 lives, with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 8.7 per cent.
The outbreak has affected mainly Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Lagos, FCT, Sokoto, and Zamfara, which account for 98.0 per cent of the suspected cases. Most confirmed cases, approximately 71.5 per cent, have occurred among children aged 2 to 14 years.
“It’s heartbreaking to note that only 22 per cent of the confirmed cases received their routine childhood immunization vaccinations,” UNICEF added.
