•Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger under siege
By Azoma Chikwe and Kemi Yesufu, Abuja
The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed a total of 745 deaths, representing 9.2 percent mortality rate, from the recent Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) outbreak at Monday, April 17, 2017.
NCDC, in a statement signed by its spokesman, Lawal Bakare, said in the last four weeks, a total of 38 Local Government Areas (LGAs) across six states— Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, and Yobe—reached epidemic threshold status. He said over 8,057 suspected cases have been reported across the country out of which 230 (three percent) were laboratory confirmed. Bakare further disclosed that 7,519 cases (93 percent) have occurred in the five states that have reached outbreak levels for Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) serotype C.
The Centre further disclosed that its response to the outbreak includes triggering alert threshold in LGAs reaching the epidemic threshold.
The statement read in part: “Although suspected case numbers have increased in Yobe State, no Neisseria meningitis C cases (observed in other states) has been reported in the state.
“NCDC Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) deployed to affected states continue to provide onsite technical assistance. Mass vaccination campaigns are planned in Sokoto during April 24 – 28, 2017. National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) is coordinating the vaccination activities with NCDC and other partners.”
Bakare also assured that the distribution of medicines and laboratory commodities to affected states was ongoing.
Recall that the Federal Government announced that with 500,000 doses of vaccine distributed as at April 4, Nigeria was still expecting an additional 823,970 doses of Meningitis C vaccines from the United Kingdom to support vaccination activities in states most affected by the outbreak.
Meanwhile, the CSM National Emergency Operations Centre at the NCDC is leading the national coordination and support for the outbreak response in affected States. According to the Incident Manager of the response, Dr. John Oladejo, “We are grateful to all Rapid Response Team members, including government agency and partner staff who have remained at their different field posts, through the Easter period working on this outbreak response and control.”
On the need to ensure citizens are continuously engaged on the response, the CEO of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said: “The NCDC will continue to engage proactively through all our channels of communication online and offline. We will also continue to work with our health reporters and journalists across the country to ensure easy reporting of facts. We need all hands on deck.”