The Federal Government has sought the help of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to procure Diphtheria Antitoxin (DAT) and erythromycin IV for the case management of diphtheria cases.
On Monday, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) confirmed 836 cases and 83 deaths in 33 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across Cross River, Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Lagos, Osun, Yobe, and FCT.
The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib said despite the efforts of the federal government in providing safe and cost-effective vaccines, a significant number of children remain unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, compromising Nigeria’s goal of population immunity.
According to WHO’s Representative, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO was working with NPHCDA to organize the first phase of a vaccination campaign targeting children from 0 to 14 years old in four states, and the support cost was about N92 million.
About 1,800 vials of DAT are expected to arrive in the country on August 2nd, and erythromycin in about a week or two, pending the government’s authorization.
He explained that these health commodities were essential for saving lives and reducing the sequelae in affected patients.
WHO’s team is currently in Yobe and Kano, improving surveillance at the health facility and community level, supporting the active case search, and assisting with the decentralized isolation centers and referral to the state reference treatment centers, in alignment with the State Ministry of Health request and NCDC guidance.
Dr. Walter also confirmed that WHO is supporting the FCT in conducting an integrated Active Case Search and Household Sensitisation in FCT, to optimize the opportunity for the fIPV + nOPV2 RI intensification campaign. WHO is also supporting the procurement of laboratory commodities to increase the result turnaround time to support the case definition and management at an early stage.
NPHCDA is currently collaborating with affected state teams and other stakeholders to conduct intensified mass vaccinations for identified at-risk populations in the affected states, whilst administering pentavalent and tetanus & diphtheria vaccines.
The organizations have started conducting awareness campaigns to educate the public about the disease, its symptoms, and preventive measures.
According to Dr. Walter, “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.”
He added that “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).
The phase is to be conducted in three rounds; the first round will commence on 21st August 2023, and then the second and third rounds are tentatively set for 18th September 2023 and 16th October 2023, respectively. Each of the three rounds will span five days.
