No fewer than 122 deaths have been recorded as a result of the outbreak of diphtheria in 27 states of the country, the United Nations Children’s Fund has said.
UNICEF Nigeria, in a statement made available to journalists and obtained by our correspondent in Bauchi on Thursday, 3,850 suspected cases had been reported while 1,387 had been confirmed.
According to the statement entitled: “Diphtheria Outbreak in Nigeria: UNICEF Intensifies Response,” the case fatality rate was 8.7 per cent as of July 2023.
“UNICEF Nigeria is amplifying its efforts to counter a growing outbreak of diphtheria that has affected children in 27 states. 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 of 8.7%.
“The outbreak has affected mainly Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Lagos, FCT, Sokoto, and Zamfara, which account for 98.0% of the suspected cases. Most confirmed cases, approximately 71.5%, have occurred among children aged 2 – 14 years,” it stated.
The statement quoted UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Ms. Cristian Munduate, as saying: “It’s heartbreaking to note that only 22 % of the confirmed cases received their routine childhood immunisation vaccinations.
“Most of these affected children, especially those who unfortunately passed away, had not received a single dose of the vaccine. The need to reach the unreached has never been more critical.”
According to the statement, in response to the outbreak, UNICEF is closely collaborating with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, the affected States, and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, providing technical support to plan and operationalise the response.
It said that UNICEF’s commitment extends to several key interventions, including planning, implementing, and funding risk communication and community engagement activities, transporting vaccines and related equipment to the affected states and strengthening routine immunisation and training health workers and volunteers for service delivery, risk communication, and community engagement.
It added that it is supervising outbreak response activities, procuring and supplying face masks, hand sanitisers, and antibiotics to treat diphtheria, and supplying laboratory consumables and biosafety cabinets for testing of suspected cases at the NCDC.
The statement further quoted Ms. Munduate as emphasizing the pressing need to reach children who had missed out on their vaccines due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Many children did not receive their vaccines during the COVID-19 lockdown,” she said. “We now urgently need to catch up. These ‘zero-dose’ children, those who haven’t received a single dose of vaccine, are a primary concern.”
According to the statement, in light of these sobering statistics, UNICEF Nigeria urged all parents and guardians to ensure their children and wards received routine immunisations to protect them from preventable diseases like diphtheria assuring that the agency will continue to intensify efforts to address the ongoing outbreak and work alongside the government to achieve a healthier, safer future for every Nigerian child.
