The Federal Government is putting the finishing touches on plans to establish a national diphtheria laboratory to test suspected diphtheria cases.
The news comes as the government reports that the deadly disease has spread to at least 18 states, infecting 13,204 people. There have been 8,406 confirmed cases in 114 local government districts and the Federal Capital Territory.
Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news conference in Abuja on Tuesday that works were underway to create a national diphtheria laboratory.
Diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease caused by a toxin produced by the bacteria Corynebacterium diphtheriae. It is covered by one of the vaccinations usually offered through Nigeria’s childhood immunisation programme.
According to Adetifa:
“Last week, the national diphtheria task force deployed the National Rapid Response Teams to Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Jigawa and Zamfara to support the outbreak response in the states across all pillars.”
He stated that the teams were providing on-the-ground monitoring and reaction assistance in the impacted states.
He said:
“Through the laboratory network, we continue to conduct preliminary and confirmatory testing at sub-national and national levels. Currently, we have 14 laboratories in the Diphtheria Laboratory Network with capacity to support diphtheria testing. Optimisation of five additional laboratories at the subnational level is currently ongoing.
“There is also continuous provision of technical support to public health laboratory scientists across states. We are currently finalising the development of the National Diphtheria Laboratory.”
Meanwhile, the NPHCDA’s Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Faisal Shuaib, stated that the government has started swift and thorough immunisation efforts in the afflicted regions in recent months.
“Kano, as the epicentre of this outbreak, has been at the forefront of our vaccination efforts. Working with the state governments, we implemented round one and two of the vaccination campaign in five high-burden LGAs in February and April 2023.
“Beyond Kano, we expanded our response to include Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, and Yobe in our Phase One response,” he stated.
cc: Punch Ng
