Against the background of Diphtheria outbreak in Nigeria, UNICEF has said there is need to reach children who had missed out on their vaccines due to the COVID-19 lockdown as a strategy to curb spread of the disease as well as needless deaths.
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 (CFR) of 8.7 per cent.
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Ms Cristian Munduate said,
“Many children did not receive their vaccines during the COVID-19 lockdown.” “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.”
In light of these sobering statistics, she said UNICEF has Nigeria urged all parents and guardians to ensure their children receive routine immunisations to protect them from preventable diseases like diphtheria. 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.
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 two to 14 years.
“It’s heartbreaking to note that only 22 per cent of the confirmed cases received their routine childhood immunisation vaccinations,” said Munduate.
“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.”
In response to the outbreak, UNICEF is closely collaborating with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), the affected States and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), providing technical support to plan and operationalise the response. 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; training health workers and volunteers for service delivery, risk communication, and community engagement and supervising outbreak response activities.
Others are procuring and supplying face masks, hand sanitisers, and antibiotics to treat diphtheria and the supplying of laboratory consumables and biosafety cabinets for testing of suspected cases at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
Ms Munduate emphasised the pressing need to reach children who had missed out on their vaccines due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
