To reduce the risk of diphtheria, parents should ensure that their children are fully vaccinated against diphtheria with the three doses of diphtheria antitoxin-containing pentavalent vaccine given as part of Nigeria’s childhood immunisation schedule; healthcare workers should maintain a high index of suspicion for diphtheria and practice standard infection prevention and control precautions while handling all patients in their care
By Princess-Ekwi Ajide, Abuja
The Federal Government of Nigeria is responding to the escalation of diphtheria in various states of the country through the establishment of an emergency task team.
Following the confirmation of the re-emergence of diphtheria in Nigeria in December 2022, the Federal Government, through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) have continued to respond to diphtheria outbreaks across different states in the country.
It is on this backdrop, that the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, aware of the mounting concerns regarding the recent Diphtheria outbreak across several states in Nigeria, set up a national emergency task team co-chaired by the Executive Secretary of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) for higher level coordination of outbreak response efforts.
There have been 11,587 reported suspected of the disease cases out of which 7,202 were confirmed cases from 105 Local Government Areas in 18 States including the FCT as of September 24th, 2023,
A breakdown of the 7,202 of the confirmed cases showed Kano recorded the most others are Yobe 640, Katsina 213, Borno 95, Kaduna 16, Jigawa 14, Bauchi 8, Lagos 8, FCT 5, Gombe 5, Osun 3, Sokoto 3, Niger 2, Cross River 1, Enugu 1, Imo 1, Nasarawa 1 and Zamfara 1.
5,299 which makes 73.6% of the confirmed cases occurred among children aged 1 – 14 years with those aged 5-14 years bearing most of the brunt of the disease.
So far, a total of 453 deaths have occurred in confirmed cases giving a case fatality rate of 6.3% while 80% of the confirmed cases in the ongoing outbreak are unvaccinated.
Some of the ongoing efforts among other things include ensuring optimal collaboration of all relevant health stakeholders in the fight, implementation of an Incident Management System (IMS) through the activation of a National Diphtheria Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at NCDC, deployment of National Rapid Response Teams (NRRT) to affected states, development of draft National Diphtheria Surveillance and Response guidelines, sensitisation and training of clinical and surveillance officers on the presentation, prevention, and surveillance of diphtheria among others.
Other members of the task force are Director of Public Health, Ministry Of Health, representatives from the Federal Ministry of Information, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), USCDC, USAID, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, among other non-governmental organisations and development partners.
To reduce the risk of diphtheria, parents should ensure that their children are fully vaccinated against diphtheria with the three doses of diphtheria antitoxin-containing pentavalent vaccine given as part of Nigeria’s childhood immunisation schedule; healthcare workers should maintain a high index of suspicion for diphtheria and practice standard infection prevention and control precautions while handling all patients in their care; individuals with signs and symptoms suggestive of diphtheria should promptly present to a healthcare facility or designated diphtheria treatment centres and where possible they and§or healthcare workers should notify their LGA, State Disease Surveillance Officer (DSNO), their State Ministry of Health helpline, or the NCDC through toll-free line on 6232 and a host of other precautions.
However, the most effective protection against diphtheria is vaccination with the Pentavalent or TD vaccine and the Federal Government of Nigeria provides free, safe, and effective vaccines at all Primary Healthcare Centres nationwide.
Diphtheria, is caused by a toxin produced by the bacteria Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
It is a vaccine-preventable disease covered by one of the vaccines provided routinely through Nigeria’s childhood immunisation schedule.
A historical gap in vaccination coverage is a driver of the outbreak given the most affected age group (5–14year-olds) and results of the nationwide diphtheria immunity survey that shows only 42% of children under 15 years old are fully protected from diphtheria.
