EU Earmarks €1 Million To Fighting Diphtheria Outbreak In Nigeria
Princess-Ekwi Ajide Abuja
European Union, EU, has released €1,000,000 (N847 million) in humanitarian funding to fight the spread of diphtheria outbreak in Nigeria and assist the most affected communities.
This response comes in addition to €150,000 which the EU allocated to the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in March this year in an effort to help control the epidemic.
With 10,322 confirmed and 16,616 suspected cases since the beginning of the year, Nigeria is currently facing the world’s second largest diphtheria outbreak and 8,447 confirmed cases and 589 deaths in Kano State in the Northwest region, makes the State the outbreak’s epicentre.
Despite control efforts since the start of the outbreak in late 2022, the disease has gradually spread to other states in the Northwest and Northeast with children aged between one and fourteen representing 72% of all confirmed cases.
This new EU funding will enable UNICEF and the medical NGO ALIMA to contribute to the response by providing technical and staff support to frontline health agencies to enhance surveillance and case detection, treatment of cases, raising community awareness, and to assist with the procurement of vaccines.
Analysis of the vaccination status reveals that over 60% of all suspected cases have not been vaccinated hence this funding is part of the EU’s Epidemics tool, created to provide rapid funding in case of a disease outbreak.
Diphtheria is a highly contagious bacterial infection transmitted between humans.
It causes an infection of the upper respiratory tract, which can lead to breathing difficulties and suffocation.
Those most at risk are children and people who have not been fully vaccinated against the disease.
The European Union, together with its Member states, is the leading donor of humanitarian aid in the world which aims to save lives, prevent, and alleviate human suffering and safeguard the integrity and human dignity of populations affected by natural disasters and man-made crises.
