Past vaccination failure cause of diphtheria resurgence

highlights past failures.

Diphtheria, as described by the World Health Organisation , is a highly contagious disease preventable through vaccination. It is primarily caused by Corynebacterium diphtheria, with Corynebacterium ulcerans also identified as a source. The disease spreads through direct contact or respiratory droplets in the air, posing a significant risk to unimmunised children. Symptoms typically start with a gradual onset, including a sore throat and fever.

The Federal Government has urged state governors of affected states to institute face-covering requirements such as facemasks in public gatherings in order to slow down the progress of the diphtheria outbreak. The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, during a briefing on diphtheria, said, “I would like to call on governors of affected states to institute face-covering requirements such as facemasks in public gatherings.

With over 30,000 primary health care centres scattered across the country, only about 4,000 of them are actually functional at any given time.

“However, the most important thing that increases the spread of all these diseases is the human behaviour component. The key thing is to vaccinate children. In Abuja, there is a vaccination program, especially in high risk areas. The FCT Disease Surveillance and Vaccination unit is going round vaccinating children. But will people bring their children out to be vaccinated is another thing.

“What the government can do is to recognise that it needs to ramp up the public health concern about it, and be on the same page as WHO and realise that this is a disease that can become an epidemic for the country. This way, you can become more aggressive by setting up different public health interventions. Having diphtheria spreading to this level means that there is a failure in the current immunisation programme.

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