The Federal Government has deployed a national multi-agency task force to Kano and Katsina states to contain diphtheria outbreaks affecting children in both states, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said in a statement at the weekend.
The ministry said the task force was constituted on the directive of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, and that 500,000 doses of diphtheria vaccine had been deployed to the two states.
Ado Bako, Assistant Director of Information and Public Relations at the ministry, said the response would combine intensified immunisation, active case search and risk communication in the affected communities.
“The federal government reaffirms its resolve to protect Nigerian children from vaccine preventable diseases and remains committed to a swift, coordinated and evidence based response to bring the outbreak under control,” Bako said.
Nigeria has recorded more than 40,000 suspected diphtheria cases and over 1,000 deaths since the current outbreak began in 2022, according to the ministry.
Diphtheria is a bacterial infection of the throat and nose that is preventable through the pentavalent vaccine given in infancy. Case fatality rises sharply where diphtheria antitoxin and antibiotics are not reached quickly, and the outbreak in northern Nigeria has been sustained by gaps in routine immunisation coverage.
The two states named in the deployment are among Nigeria’s most populous, and both have reported repeated diphtheria waves since 2022 without the outbreak being declared over.
Why it matters: Sustained diphtheria transmission in Nigeria’s most populous northern states signals immunisation gaps that reach far beyond the two affected states.
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