Following Diphtheria Outbreak, Zamfara State Government to Launch Vaccination Campaign on Thursday
The Zamfara State Government says it has received doses of the Diphtheria vaccine and will begin administering them to children across the state starting Thursday. The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Nafisa Maradun, disclosed this during a meeting in Gusau on Tuesday.
Dr. Nafisa stated that this step follows an outbreak of Diphtheria in the state, which has claimed 44 lives out of 367 confirmed cases, while over 200 patients have recovered.
She added that cases have been reported across 11 local government areas (LGAs) in the state, making it imperative to begin distributing the vaccines to children in the affected areas starting this coming Thursday.
Nafisa noted that an investigation by the state Ministry of Health revealed that most of the infected children were either unvaccinated or had not completed their routine childhood immunizations.
She also urged traditional leaders to step up community awareness on the importance of vaccination and to encourage parents to bring their children to immunization centers.
According to her, the Sultan Foundation, under the Z-TRACE initiative, is working tirelessly to identify unvaccinated or zero-dose children and those with incomplete vaccinations to ensure they get vaccinated and mitigate the threat of the epidemic.
The initiative covers seven local government areas identified as having high numbers of unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children.
The Zamfara state officer for the Sultan Foundation project, Jamilu Sarkin-Gulbi, stated that 269,421 unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children were identified across the seven local government areas. He said the project aims to reach 30 percent of these identified children over the next 17 months.
Jamilu added that the Z-TRACE project focuses on identifying children and ensuring they receive appropriate vaccinations, working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, health agencies, traditional rulers, and community organizations.
Finally, he called on traditional rulers and other stakeholders to assist in sensitizing parents and ensuring that children receive their vaccines.
For its part, the state government also urged the media to step up public awareness on the importance of vaccination, especially as the state prepares to launch the Diphtheria immunization drive.