In the past few days, a suspected outbreak of diphtheria in Kafanchan, Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State has claimed about 10 lives and in Makarfi Local Government Area of the State killed three children as seven others are reportedly being hospitalised.
The development has prompted the state government to send emergency teams to investigate cases and profer immediate remedies to stem the epidemic in the affected areas.
The Local Council’s Health Secretary in Makarfi Local Government Area, Malam Aliyu Alhassan said the suspected cases occurred at Tashar Na Kawu community in Gubuchi Ward in the area.
He stated further that: “Affected victims were children and the specimen of the victims was forwarded to Abuja for analysis. Those suspected with the disease have been taken to hospital and isolated for medical observation and contact tracing is going on to prevent further spread of the disease.”
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Meanwhile, the Kaduna State government is already alerting citizens on the outbreak and have further directed the Ministry of Health to send an emergency team to investigate cases and take immediate action.
The Chief Press Secretary to Governor Uba Sani, Muhammad Lawal Shehu in a statement, stated that the state Ministry of Health had confirmed cases of diphtheria disease in some communities in Kafanchan, Jema’a Local Government Area.
In an unrelated development, the Chief Epidemiologist at
Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Dr Jeremiah Daikwo, has lamented that some communities in the state were rejecting vaccines against anthrax that broke out in some states.
Anthrax is another bacterial disease that affects domestic and wild animals and can infect human beings especially children who may have had contact with infected animals.
He said in an interview that their findings revealed that 17 people were infected and “we are still doing contact search to identify more people who may have been infected.”
