‘Diphtheria Kills 520 Children in Kano’

Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano

The Director General of Kano State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (KSPHCDA), Mr. Nasir Muhammad, has said that at least 520 children were killed by diphtheria in Kano State in the last 10 months and needed to vaccinate an additional six million children against the disease.

Muhammad, in a keynote address he presented at a one-day orientation for media practitioners on the outbreak of diphtheria disease yesterday in Kano, lamented the shortage of diphtheria vaccine in the state. 

He said that “the state received 200,000 doses of vaccine which was less than one million doses after the outbreak of the disease. But according to our findings, we need over 6 million children to be vaccinated.”

“We urged the federal government and our partners to do something urgent to effectively control the outbreak of the disease. I also used this opportunity to appreciate UNICEF for their commitment to emergency response and support.”

Speaking earlier, the Chief of the UNICEF Field Office in Kano, Mr. Rahama Mohammed Farah, described the outbreak as a threat to children’s survival and their well-being.

Farah said: “It is very important to understand that the analysis of the vaccination status of the suspected cases shows that 60.8 per cent of all suspected cases were children who have not been vaccinated.

“As of last week, over 400 suspected cases with 11 deaths have been reported in Kano State. Eight LGAs were the most affected: They are Ungogo (2651), Dala (989), Fagge (943), Gwale (714), Kumbotso (713), Nassarawa (538), Kano Municipal (506) and Tarauni (269).”

He further explained that UNICEF has been in collaboration with the government and other international partners to respond to the emergency to save the lives of children in the state.

He added that the Kano field office has been supporting the diphtheria response since its first outbreak in December 2022. “UNICEF has been and continues to support the diphtheria response in Nigeria, focusing on providing technical and financial support to the government in all affected states, especially Kano state.

“Last week, UNICEF delivered 1.2 million vaccines to the Kano State government in our continuing support to the government for a response to the Diphtheria outbreak Diphtheria which is highly contagious, and can cause death,” he said.