KANO — The Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaibu on Wednesday said over 570 persons have lost their lives to diphtheria outbreak in the country.
Dr. Shuaibu made this known when he led the Diphtheria Emergency Task team on a visit to Kano State to assess level of response to the outbreak in the state.
He also said it has already embarked on conduct of active case search and contact tracing to control the spread of the outbreak.
The NPHDA Boss expressed the readiness of the federal government to ensure no stone is left unturn to combat the outbreak.
He however expressed optimism that with the level of commitment and response by the Kano state government and other key players in no distant time or next few weeks it will overcome the outbreak as normalcy will return.
According to him, “As you may be aware, Kano is the epicenter of Nigeria’s diphtheria outbreak and what we have been able to see is how the state government has been doing a lot of efforts to make sure that the outbreak is brought under control as soon as possible.
“So far, we have data that shows over 10,000 suspected cases of diphtheria since December last year (2022) and we have reported over 570 deaths. 7,000 cases out of the over 10,000 cases have been confirmed. But what the last couple of days have shown is a progressive reduction in number of cases that are reported. Its signals that we have a full control of the outbreak. But these are the early preliminary indication that Kano is doing a great job. We have also been to Borno, Yobe, and Jigawa states and the indication are that the diphtheria outbreak are gradually been controlled.
“It is not time to roll out the drum that we are successful but the early indication are that all of the interventions and resources that have been put together are really working.
“We are also conducting active case search, that is, going to communities to educate nigerians about the symptoms and signs of diphtheria. We are doing contact tracing. The more we are doing contact tracing, we are seeing additional cases. Even where we are not seeing cases yet, we are making sure that we are asking questions about the symptoms so that we do not have a situation where suboptimal surveillance gives us a false sense of confidence that there are reducing numbers of these diphtheria cases.
“At this juncture, I will like to appreciate the leadership provided by Mr. President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu by making this a priority directing that the Federal Ministry of Health should ensure that few Nigerians suffer either from the illness or death due to this diphtheria outbreak,” Dr. Shuaibu said.
The NPHDA Boss however noted that 80 per cent of cases and deaths reported as a result of the outbreak were children who were never vaccinated.
“We see this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen the health system. We cannot allow this kind of crisis to fade without learning a lesson. The principal lesson here is we need a strong routine immunization system, parents should always take their children for vaccination. Over 80 per cent of cases reported or deaths recorded were never vaccinated. Highest number of kids that have died were between 5 to 14 year of age,” Dr. Shuaibu however stated.
