No fewer than 15 persons have been confirmed dead following an outbreak of diphtheria infection in Kano State since last week Friday.
It was gathered that the disease is being treated as an outbreak in Kano and Lagos states while the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has commenced monitoring of cases in Yobe and Osun states.
The child killer disease was first recorded at Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano state toward the end of 2022 with several cases recorded at the Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital within the state.
Truth Live News reports that Diphtheria infection is a serious infection of the nose and throat, which is easily preventable by vaccines.
Some of the signs and symptoms of diphtheria, according to the experts, may include, sore throat, hoarseness, swollen glands (enlarged lymph nodes) in the neck, difficulty breathing or rapid breathing, nasal discharge, fever, and tiredness.
Diphtheria was first discovered From the record of the state Ministry of Health, not less than 58 suspected cases of the disease were documented at the outbreak, while six were placed on admission just as 25 patients died as of January 13, 2023.
NCDC reportedly deployed medical personnel to the state last week due to te massive outbreak of the disease in the state
Meanwhile, Médecins Sans Frontières, popularly known, as Doctors without Borders, have established a case management center at the Murtala Muhammed Hospital and have been providing essential drugs.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr Aminu Tsanyawa, who confirmed the development to newsmen on Thursday said, the state emergency preparedness committee met on Thursday morning on the matter.
According to him, the State Rapid Response team has been reactivated and an index action plan to check the spread of diphtheria has been put in place.
“Right now we have presented a budget for this to the government and it has been approved,” the commissioner emphasized.
He added that the low routine immunisation, which escalated the spread of the disease, was due to the hard-to-reach areas in the state.
He noted that the state is, however, strengthening its routine immunization exercise to checkmate the trend.