Bauchi State Government, on Wednesday, declared that it has recorded outbreak of Diphtheria in Six LGAs of the state confirming that already, two death cases have been reported.
The declaration was made by the executive chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (BASPHCDA), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed while briefing Health Reporters at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC), Bauchi.
Rilwanu Mohammed said that 58 samples have been collected from January to date saying, “Out of this number, 3 are confirmed diphtheria cases from the laboratory out of which two deaths have been reported in Jama’are local government area.”
The EC lamented that “These cases are mostly among Fulani nomads and children with zero doses of immunisations”.
According to him, “The disease is among children between ages Eight months to Four years and there is a case of a Seven years old. The Agency had to close schools in Jama’are local government area because of the reported cases in a school.”
The executive chairman added that re-active vaccination will be conducted for all the pupils irrespective of immunization status in the schools.
On yellow fever, Mohammed said there is an outbreak in the state with 248 suspected cases from Dambam, Ganjuwa, and Jama’are local government areas.
“We have Nine presumptive positive cases out of which Five have been confirmed,” he said.
The Chairman however lamented the delay in confirming a positive case as it takes almost Five to Seven months for laboratory results to come out.
“Samples from the State are taken to the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja, from where they are taken to Dakar, Senegal, that is the problem we are facing.
“First of all, it was yellow fever in some part of the state, out of the 248 samples of yellow fever we took, only 9 of them were presumptuous of diphtheria and are from Ganjuwa, Dambam, Gamawa LGAs.
“It is very important to note that we have an outbreak of yellow fever in 2020 and 2021. It was very massive in Alkaleri LGA and part of Toro but this time around, it is in Ganjuwa, Dambam and Jama’are.”
“And you know that one of the vectors that bring about the issue of yellow fever is this anopheles mosquito which is found in the bush and most of the people, almost majority of them are Fulani.”
He continued; “We have the problem of getting the results because after you have done the presumptuous test, you go to the National Lab to also do their own test and send it back here.”
Rilwanu Mohammed, however, assured that government is on top of the situation as it has mobilized to curtail it to remain in the affected LGAs while it is doing everything possible to see that it did not spread to the neighbouring LGAs.
