The Nasarawa State Ministry of Health has confirmed 15 cases of diphtheria in the state, with 11 of the infections recorded in Keffi Local Government Area.
The Director of Public Health, Dr. Attah Peter, disclosed this in an interview on Wednesday, saying three cases were recorded in Lafia and one in Wamba.
According to him, the affected children are aged between two months and 11 years, with the majority of the cases involving children who were not immunised.
“Most of the children that are actually coming down with diphtheria are all those unimmunised children, children whose parents or caregivers actually failed to take the children during the routine immunisation after birth,” Peter said.
He expressed concern that an 11-year-old child could still be vulnerable to diphtheria, stressing that the child should have been protected through routine vaccination.
“It has been a recurrent thing. You begin to wonder why an 11-year-old is coming down with diphtheria at this age. Eleven years ago, that caregiver should have taken this child for vaccination. That was not done, and so the child even at this age is still vulnerable,” he said.
Peter said the situation was not peculiar to Nasarawa, noting that unvaccinated people remain vulnerable to the disease regardless of age.
“If you don’t receive the vaccination, you won’t develop the immunity to actually be able to prevent yourself from coming down with it,” he said.
On fatalities, the director said Nasarawa recorded deaths from diphtheria last year, but no death had been recorded this year among patients who presented at health facilities.
“Because this year we were prepared for it, and all those ones that presented themselves in the facility, we don’t have any case of fatality,” he said.
He attributed the absence of fatalities this year partly to clinicians’ high index of suspicion and the early commencement of treatment.
Peter said vaccines had been deployed to the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi, and the Federal University Teaching Hospital, Lafia, to support the management of cases, including the patient referred from Wamba.
He urged parents and caregivers to take advantage of free routine immunisation available at primary healthcare facilities across the state.
“For every child, the routine immunisation is free. It’s just for you to make effort to take this child to where these vaccines are available, and they are free, and they’re readily accessible to almost every primary healthcare facility,” he said.
He reminded caregivers that routine immunisation begins from birth and continues through 18 months, with vaccines against diseases including yellow fever and measles administered at nine months, while a measles booster is given at 15 months.
He also encouraged eligible girls to receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to protect against cervical cancer.
The director advised anyone showing symptoms suggestive of diphtheria to report immediately to the nearest health facility to ensure early diagnosis and treatment.
