How To Tackle Diphtheria Disease, Spread In Nigeria Effectively-Expert

By Akeem Oduyoye

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said diphtheria is totally preventable through vaccination. 

He, however, said despite efforts by the federal government to provide safe and cost-effective vaccines, a significant number of children remain unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, thereby compromising the country’s goal of achieving population immunity. 

Shuaib, an epidemiologist, stated this during an interview with DailyTrust in Kano, the epicentre of the outbreak.

According to him, diphtheria being a communicable disease needs a collaborative approach among government, public and other stakeholders to arrest the situation.

He said the reason why Kano had the highest number of cases was as a result of congestion of the environment and poor sanitation, hygiene, and water. 

The epidemiologist while the government should intensify funding and policy implementation to address the problem, the general public should also contribute through tracing the suspected cases and also sanitising their environment. 

“When we are talking about issues that have to do with an outbreak, we do look at issues of priorities, issues of control and then issue of management.

In the case of diphtheria, we can look at it from the issue of overcrowding and Kano is a known crowded area in Nigeria.” 

Shuaib said among the measures to be taken in addressing the problem involved coordination and support among the various stakeholders. 

“Not just the government, not just the people affected. We all need to be involved. Secondly, when we are talking about controlling diphtheria, we need to look at the area of funding. The issue is not getting necessary attention. There should also be an actionable plan and approach that are targeted towards controlling the outbreak. 

“It is also very important to undergo an actionable search for diphtheria. Because there are differences between cases that are clinically confirmed and cases that are confirmed from the laboratory. We should also be able to confirm active cases from the communities in order to intensify the fight against the disease,” he said.