As part of interventions to contain the Dipheria Outbreak in the country, door to door sensitization of Nigerians on ways of halting further spread of the disease is ongoing nationwide.
In addition to awareness creation which is being carried out by the Nigerian Red Cross Society with support from it’s numerous partners including volunteers, there is increased monitoring of new infections and vaccination to reduce person to person transmission.
The National President, Nigerian Red Cross Society, Prince Adeaga Oluyemisi Adetayo made this known at a news conference in Lagos, tagged “Diphtheria Emergency Appeal”.
Prince Adeaga Oluyemisi Adetayo said although containing the Dipheria Outbreak has been challenging, great achievements were recorded, with the disease conquered in some states including Lagos and Osun States.
Prince Adetayo noted that working with it’s partners including states governments and the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, NCDC, Red Cross has so far reached about 5.4 million Nigerians in its intervention to subdue the disease, as he stressed the need to upscale efforts to avoid a resurgence.
“The Nigerian Red Cross Society in conjunction with the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) initially targeted funds towards combatting this emergency, with an intervention aimed at reaching 1,585,080 individuals.
“We have since surpassed that number and are now attempting to reach over 5.4m people.
“Key achievements from the first phase of Diphtheria Emergency include: • NRCS extended the Diphtheria intervention to Kaduna and the FCT where new cases had just been reported at the time. 507,130 partially immunized/unimmunized children were mobilized for Routine Immunization which is the administration of the pentavalent vaccine.
“Red Cross supported the Routine Immunization Vaccine Intensification in Kano, Katsina and Osun, with 120 vaccination teams deployed and supported with stipends/logistics by the NRCS/State Primary Healthcare Development Agencies. • 640 volunteers trained in the 6 states for conducting Risk Communication and Community Engagement activities and social mobilization for immunization • 313 suspected cases were also identified by Red Cross volunteers and were referred to the treatment centers through the PHC Disease Surveillance Notification Officers. Seventeen live, interactive, call-in radio shows were produced in the 6 targeted states.
” The problem continues to spread However, as the enormity of the problem has become obvious, we have been forced to scale up to 12 states, up from the 6 in which we were operating.
” Initially we operated in Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Osun, Kaduna and FCT but have now added Bauchi, Yobe, Jigawa, Zamfara, Borno and Sokoto.
Prince Adetayo called for maximum support and cooperation of members of the public, to ensure the vaccination of more children, pregnant women and the aged, as well as frontline workers, who are more at risk, while announcing the plan of the society to expand surveillance to “hard to reach areas”.
Identifying Kano as among the most affected states he explained that following immediate and massive deployment of interventions, there was drastic reduction of the Dipheria infection between June and July, before the nation started witnessing a spike by September to October.
“Vaccination coverage remained a concern, with only 43.2% of confirmed cases being fully vaccinated. However, in the months of September and October, there was a a spike with over 15,000 suspected cases, 9,772 confirmed cases, and 530 fatalities reported.
” The severity of the outbreak is compounded by low vaccination rates, insufficient testing, and challenges in accessing affected areas. The outbreak, as noted by technical analysis, is the worst in a decade and may escalate further without immediate intervention.
“Another challenge which some of you may have noticed is deliberate campaigns of disinformation and misinformation targeting the efforts of the Nigerian Government to get people at risk, vaccinated. There have been well packaged, professionally produced, viral videos on social media discouraging people from getting vaccinated. I want to use this platform to advise citizens to ignore any baseless information and instead focus on getting the proper healthcare for they and their children, free of charge, at the nearest Primary Healthcare Facility.
As things stand now, the Nigerian Red Cross Society is actively engaged on several fronts, conducting active case searches in hard-to-reach areas” he assured.
“The next 4 months will be crucial, and we seek collaboration from the media, government, and the public to effectively address this public health crisis. You have already been extremely cooperative and we ask for more understanding, moving forward.
” I would like you to please understand that Nigeria’s Diphtheria outbreak is not just a collection of statistics. It is a devastating crisis that has families mourning the loss of for their loved ones and communities in despair.
“The outbreak has now spread to 20 states, and in many areas, the lack of active case finding, contact tracing, and vaccinations has resulted in a heartbreaking 20% plus fatality rate.
“As we move into what is effectively the second phase of this Diphtheria Intervention, what we really want to do based on the needs that our volunteers have seen in the field;
“Provide logistics support to 2,620 vaccination teams in high, zero-dose and hard-to-reach areas for Td and Routine vaccination.
” Train approximately 2,000 NRCS volunteers to support contact tracing activities and active case finding with partnership with the state surveillance officers and the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Conduct mass awareness-raising campaigns including road walks in 13 targeted states.
” Support NCDC/NPHCDA with the airing of jingles, radio shows and public service announcements in all targeted states.
“Conduct Risk Communication and Community Engagement Diphtheria and Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices surveys on Diphtheria in partnership with partnership with the NCDC.
Conduct targeted advocacy to key stakeholders, gatekeepers and opinion leaders to address vaccine hesitancy and to increase demand for vaccine uptake.
“Conduct a perception survey in five priority branches to access knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of the people toward the outbreak and toward vaccine uptake.
” Intensify social media engagement for increased coverage and NRCS visibility.
“NRCS’s two-way feedback system through toll free lines, focus group discussions and community meetings, which include community consultation and sharing of final evaluation with the community.
” Through the efforts of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies-Disaster Relief Emergency Fund, we utilized CHF 430,654 (Swiss Francs) in the first round of operation.
Now, things have changed. The Nigerian Red Cross Society, now recognizing that the NEEDS have increased, now seeks to raise 5.4M CHF (Swiss Francs) to help it reach more people across 12 of the affected states.”, added Adeaga.
On her part, the Health and Care Officer, International Federation of Red Cross, Joan Ojukwu while speaking on their supportive role in curbing the outbreak, noted that immediately it was announced, the body released funds to help in interventions, in addition to mobilizing at least 500 volunteers to increase uptake of immunization in 4 high risk states, namely Lagos, Kano, Katsina and Osun.
Joan Ojukwu however reported challenges in the areas of testing , vaccination and others, which called for deployment of more interventions.
Also commenting, the Immunization Program Coordinator, Lagos State Health Care Board, Dr. Akinpelu Adetola reiterated the target of the board to ensuring zero mortality of children, by strengthening health care and making sure that vaccines are delivered in equitable manner and everyone is vaccinated.
The Director of Programs , Nigerian Red Cross Society, Mr. Adeyemo Andronicus who described society as the oldest Humanitarian Organisation in the world, with 106 years of existence, encouraged people of good will to get actively involved in saving lives.
The Nigeria Center for Disease Control declared an outbreak of diphtheria in January this year after cases began to surface in May 2022.
Diphtheria is a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening bacterial disease which affects the respiratory tract and skin.