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The Zamfara State Government has announced plans to begin a diphtheria vaccination exercise on Thursday following an outbreak that has killed 44 people in the state.
The State Commissioner for Health, Nafisa Maradun, announced this during a one-day State-Level Traditional Leadership Engagement Meeting on the Zamfara Tracking and Accountability for Equitable Immunisation (Z-TRACE) Project in Gusau on Tuesday.
The outbreak has so far recorded 367 identified cases, with more than 200 recoveries, according to the state government.
The Director of Public Health in the state Ministry of Health, Dr Yusuf Haske, had confirmed the outbreak in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Gusau.
Following the outbreak, the State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology extended the school resumption by two weeks.
Maradun said the state government had secured vaccines and would begin administering them to children in affected Local Government Areas from Thursday.
The commissioner, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Rilwan Zurmi, said 11 LGAs in the state had reported diphtheria cases.
She said a ministry analysis showed that most children who contracted the disease had either not been vaccinated or had not completed their immunisation.
Maradun described vaccination as essential to protecting children against preventable diseases and urged traditional rulers to intensify community sensitisation on the importance of immunisation.
She also said the Sultan Foundation, through the Z-TRACE Project, had targeted zero-dose and under-immunised children in seven LGAs identified as having a high number of such children.
According to her, the project was designed to identify and reach children who had never received vaccines or had not completed their routine immunisation schedules.
Maradun stressed the importance of traditional leaders in mobilising parents and communities to make their children available for vaccination, particularly as the state prepares to commence the diphtheria vaccination exercise.
Speaking at the meeting, the Programme Officer of the Sultan Foundation in Zamfara, Jamilu Sarkin-Gulbi, said the project aims to reach 30 per cent of the 269,421 zero-dose and under-immunised children identified across seven LGAs over the next 17 months.
He said Z-TRACE is a community-driven accountability initiative designed to track children and strengthen accountability from households to health facilities to improve equitable access to immunisation.
Sarkin-Gulbi said the project would operate through three key pillars: leadership and policy under the Ministry of Health and the State Primary Health Care Board; traditional institutions and community structures; and LGA teams and Community-Based Organisations.
He said the involvement of traditional rulers was critical because of their leadership roles and ability to mobilise parents to ensure their children receive routine vaccinations.
Sarkin-Gulbi appealed to Emirs, District Heads, Ward Development Committees, Community-Based Organisations and other stakeholders to support the implementation of the project across the seven participating LGAs.
He also urged the media to intensify public awareness on the importance of vaccination and take the message to households across the state.
