The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has deployed 9.3 million doses of diphtheria vaccines to states affected by the severe outbreak in Nigeria. The statement by UNICEF communication assistant, Nchekwube Nwosu-Igbo, revealed that the doses were distributed to Kano, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Kaduna, and Jigawa States, with four million doses allocated to Kano, the epicenter of the outbreak. An additional four million doses are being procured and will be handed over to the government in the coming weeks.
The diphtheria outbreak in Nigeria has resulted in over 11,500 suspected cases, claiming 453 lives, with more than 7,000 confirmed cases, predominantly affecting children aged 4 to 15 years who have not received any doses of the vital vaccine. UNICEF is actively supporting the Nigerian government’s efforts to combat the outbreak, including the procurement of vaccines to enhance the response.
The statement emphasized the devastating impact of the outbreak and underscored the urgency of vaccination in Nigeria, where 2.2 million children have not received even a single dose of the vaccine, making it the second-largest such population in the world. UNICEF’s rapid intervention aims to significantly reduce this number and protect children from preventable diseases.
