No fewer than 83 person’s have been reported to have died from the disease out of the 836 confirmed cases of diphtheria in 33 Local Government Areas across seven states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

The states are Cross River, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Lagos, Osun, Yobe, and FCT,

The Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, who made the disclosure at a press conference in Abuja on Monday, July 31, 2023, said as it stands, vaccination against diphtheria has become important, especially for children.

Shuaib lamented that despite efforts of the Federal Government to provide safe and cost-effective vaccines, a significant number of children in Nigeria still remain unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, thus compromising the country’s goal of achieving population immunity.

He added that suboptimal vaccination coverage has been the main factor contributing to the outbreak, with the most affected age group being those between 2 to 14 years.

Shuaib, however, disclosed that the NPHCDA, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, NCDC, the states, and their partners were currently mobilising all necessary resources to respond effectively to the outbreak, through activation of a comprehensive response plan to detect cases early, contain the spread, and prevent further transmission through a multi-phased strategy.

The NPHCDA boss said: “To facilitate our immediate response plan, we are leveraging surveillance data from NCDC and direct information from the states to ensure effective planning and resource deployment.

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“The agency is working closely with partners to ensure adequate supplies of Tetanus Td for children 4 to 14 years and Pentavalent vaccines for children under 4 years.

“Currently, we are collaborating with the affected state teams and other stakeholders to conduct intensified mass vaccinations for identified at-risk populations in the affected states, administering pentavalent and tetanus and diphtheria vaccines.

“Additionally, we are conducting awareness campaigns to educate the public about the disease, its symptoms, and preventive measures.

“The response to the ongoing diphtheria outbreak will be carried out in two phases. Phase 1, the immediate response, will encompass 25 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across four States: Bauchi, Katsina, Yobe, and Kaduna. This phase is scheduled to begin on the 7th of August 2023 and will continue until the 11th of August 2023.

“Phase 2 will cover outbreak response in 171 LGAs. Six States (Kano, Katsina, FCT, Yobe, Kaduna, and Bauchi) will have a state-wide outbreak response, while there will be targeted outbreak responses in LGAs across eight States: Jigawa (8 LGAs), Borno (4 LGAs), Osun (4 LGAs), Lagos (3 LGAs), Zamfara (3 LGAs), Gombe (3 LGAs), Plateau (1 LGA), and Nasarawa (1 LGA).

“This phase is planned to be conducted in three rounds. The first round will commence on 21st August 2023, followed by the second (2nd) and third (3rd) rounds tentatively set for 18th September 2023 and 16th October 2023, respectively. Each of these three rounds will span five days.

“The vaccination campaign will utilize both fixed and mobile teams. Parents and caregivers are therefore urged to take their children, from birth to 14 years, to nearby health facilities for vaccination with the pentavalent or Td vaccines and other age-appropriate vaccines.”

On his part, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, disclosed an ongoing partnership with NPHCDA to organise the first phase of a vaccination campaign targeting children from age 0 to 14 years in four states, alongside a support of N92 million.

He also said WHO was requested by NCDC to procure DAT and erythromycin IV for the case management of diphtheria cases.

1800 vials of Diphtheria Antitoxin (DAT) are expected to arrive in the country on August 2, and erythromycin between one to two weeks, pending government’s authorisation.

He said: “These health commodities are essential for saving lives and reducing the sequelae in the affected patients, thus need to be prepositioned in the country and ready to be deployed to the states in need.

“This weekend NCDC requested support from WHO for the deployment of 18 rapid response teams to support Bauchi, Kaduna, and Katsina response.

“The deployment process is underway following the requested profile, and a mix of the workforce from the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (NFELTP), Avoc-SURGE, and WHO staff will be used.

“WHO’s team is on the ground in Yobe and Kano, improving surveillance at health facility and community level, supporting the active case search, and assisting with the decentralized isolation centres and referral to the state reference treatment centres, in alignment with State Ministry of Health request and NCDC guidance.

“WHO is supporting FCT in conducting an integrated Active Case Search and Household Sensitization in FCT, optimizing the opportunity for the fIPV + nOPV2 RI intensification campaign. WHO is supporting the procurement of laboratory commodities to increase the result turnaround time to support the case definition and management at an early stage.”

The Star