By: Ibraheem Olasunkanmi Qoseem
In recent time, Diphtheria disease has become a thing of warying concern among nigerians populace. Its fast rising popularity has generated frenzies due to the threat of potential widespread, following the published data by Nigeria Center for Disease Control of 798 cases that cut across every geopolitical location of the country.
There have also been lot of controversies to why the upsurge of the vaccine preventable disease, despite huge investment and international donations that go to immunisation exercises. Raising many questions that challenge the quality of vaccines, cold chain and its administration.
Comments From the Streets and Marketplace
In order to assess the awarenesse of the populace with respect to Diphtheria disease and knowledge of immunisation: our freelance reporter, Ibraheem Olasunkanmi Qoseem took to the street of Gusau, Zamfara State and it was gathered that most of the interviewees were less aware of the disease and is outbreak.
Bello in his exaggerated statement: “Diphtheria! we have not heard of anything like that here, it might be possible in Southern region but not here” he enthused.
The scores of women were also interviewed on the immunisation schedule and how timely they keep to it. It was surprising that few of the interviewees were consistent in the schedule from first month till 15th month in every childbirth, while others were given flimsy excuses for not meeting up.
At Sabo Tsoho(old market), an elderly man identified as Abubakar was asked about how much he supported his wives especially during the time of immunisation, he went dumfounded for awhile before citing financial constraints as excuse.
“Although, I have no cultural objections toward immunisation exercise, it is just that we were not always meet up with schedule due to our distance location to the hospital and we could not afford transport fare sometimes” he commented.
“We Do Call Them on Phone for Reminder” Nr. Yakubu says
While engaging a nurse by the name Jaafar Yakubu at Federal Medical Center, Gusau, it was gathered that the challenges commonly encountered is negligence but they mostly not rely on them.
In his statement: “they don’t have any excuse even when we didn’t see them, we do give them phone call for reminder. Although they mostly give excuse that they couldn’t remember because their cards were lost.
“There have also been consistency in the administration of vaccines to the children even pregnant women. The support we are gotten from appropriate quarter and the hospital management right from the provision of quality vaccines, storage and personels are incredible.
“And notably, when any impotent vaccines are noticed, we do return them because It is not advisable to inject such vaccines to the children as that could be life-threatening” he said.
Diphtheria and its Growing Strength
Diphtheria is an infection caused by bacteria producing toxins called Corynebacterium Diphtheria. It is an highly contagious disease that can cause difficulty of breathing and heart problems which can lead to death, especially children.
It lives in the mouth, nose and occasionally skin of an infected persons. It can be transmitted when infected person sneeze, skin contact and article contaminated with oozing sores. The disease occur when the bacteria release toxin into the person’s body and the symptoms begin to appear within 2-5days.
According to Nigeria Center for Disease Control, (NCDC) in a press statement released few days back, declared the outbreak of the Diphtheria disease following it’s multiple cases since December, 2022 which estimated to 798 in eight States(Lagos, Yobe, Katsina, Osun among others) including Abuja. Where Kano being the leading State for the confirmed cases.
Although, the disease is vaccine preventable but it saddens that the evidence provided by the agency shows that over 82% of the confirmed cases are unvaccinated which could of course be attributed to poor vaccination coverage. It was also posited that Nigeria may experience increase in number if care isn’t taking.
Barrier to Accessing Immunisation Coverage in Nigeria
Among many scientific breakthroughs, immunisation has proven to be most cost-effective strategies to prevent diseases and death. According to World Health Organization (WHO), “the 2 public health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world’s health are clean water and vaccines”.
The impact of immunisation was also reiterated that every year, it had helped avert 2-3millions death from diphtheria, pneumonia, pertussis, tetanus among others diseases.
It was reported by WHO that out of the global 22.7millions of children with missed or zero doses of vaccine, 3.1millions(14%) reside in Nigeria. Achieving child immunization coverage in Nigeria is bottlenecked by many factors.
Meanwhile, in 2022 WHO did a comprehensive research on the challenges that impede the effective immunisation coverage in Nigeria. It was revealed that the impediment were linked to economy challenges, insurgency and conflict, maternal Illiteracy, fear and misconception, lack of access to vaccination and out of stock of vaccines.
Response From the Stakeholders
In an effort to contain the spread of the disease the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) declared its outbreak, it had activated national multi-sectorial Diphtheria working committee for coordinating surveillance and response activities in the country.
It also set to empower journalists by facilitation of fellowship tagged Media EIS Fellowship in order to bridge gap of public health officials and media to contribute to healthy information systems for health literacy.
Notwithstanding, an Honorable representing Ilorin West/ASA constituency Hon. Mukhtar Shagaya had also sponsored a motion in plenary assembly charging the Nigeria Center for Disease Control on the need to intensify awareness by sensitizing and educating the populace on prevention, treatment and control of disease.
Way forward
According to a Medical Laboratory Scientist from Department of Medical Microbiology, Federal Medical Center, Gusau, MLS. Hameedah described the upsurge Diphtheria cases as thing that requires maximum attention because of its severity and risk of communication.
She also emphasized on the need for public enlightenment on the importance of immunisations and their connection to some of the vaccine preventable diseases. In her statement:
“I suggest the populace need more awareness. They don’t really know how importance these vaccines are. These vaccines are essential in saving lives and protect the next generation. They also help in preserving the money for curating disease and prevent various forms of disabilities.
Scientist Hameedah admonished that at this critical time, crowdy area should be avoided at all cost and if it is a must, children and elderly people should not near it. She explained that Diphtheria is highly contagious and most of these people may either be unvaccinated or having compromised immunity which could make them vulnerable to the disease.
She however call on relevance stakeholders to not only establish task force committee in States where they are recently detected but also charged them to replicate that across the federation.
Scientist emphasized that detection of Diphtheria is not the function of capacity of most the laboratory settings. She mentioned that it requires specialized testing but founding these Committees with adequate funding will help in curtailing the spread through activities like laboratory investigation, surveillance, case management and immunisation exercises.