Nigeria: Urgent Funds Needed to Manage Diphtheria

Nigeria Diphtheria

Save the Children (SCI) has reported that three in every four confirmed diphtheria cases in Nigeria or 73.6 percent of all cases are of children under 14, with those aged between five and 14 bearing the brunt of the disease.

Development Diaries reports that 7,202 cases of diphtheria were confirmed in Nigeria last week, with cases skyrocketing in recent months and children severely affected.

Diphtheria is a highly contagious bacterial infection that can be fatal without treatment, and 453 deaths have been confirmed since the outbreak started in May 2022, with most cases recorded in the past three months.

It is understood that Nigeria had one of the lowest immunisation rates in the world before the Covid-19 pandemic, despite insignificant success in efforts to increase routine immunisation coverage and lower under-five mortality.

Currently, just 42 percent of Nigerian children under 15 are fully protected against diphtheria, and in this most recent outbreak, it has been discovered that 80 percent of the confirmed cases are among unvaccinated individuals.

The only way to save children’s lives in the midst of this outbreak is to urgently inject funding to provide for a large supply of vaccines that will contain the outbreak.

SCI is therefore calling for more financing to help local health services deal with the surge in diphtheria cases, buy more vaccines, and launch a widespread immunisation campaign.

Photo source: UNICEF

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