Diphtheria: MSF Calls For Long Term Vaccination Efforts

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also known as Doctors Without Borders, has called for long term vaccination efforts against diphtheria and other vaccine preventable disease as NIgeria records 600 diphtheria deaths.

The organisation, in a statement, noted that in Kano state, where almost 12.000 suspected cases have been reported, around 7o percent  of the patients admitted in MSF facilities were not fully vaccinated or vaccinated at all, showing the alarmingly low vaccination coverage in the state. 

According to the statement, “In the North-West, full vaccination coverage is of high concern, ranging from 6 percent in Sokoto to 10 percent in Zamfara and 18 percent in Katsina, against a national average of 36 percent. In North-East the coverage is seemingly alarming, as only 15 percent  of the patients treated for diphtheria in our MSF facility in Gwange Paediatric Hospital in Maiduguri were fully vaccinated.

“While MSF medical teams encourage the efforts from international and national bodies, we wish to continue calling and urging for long term plans of routine immunisation across the different states and local government areas of Nigeria to reach a maximum of children. It is the only lasting solution to curb and prevent future outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases such as diphtheria, measles, polio, or tetanus that are responsible for numerous deaths every year.”

MSF called on donor countries and institutions like GAVI, ECHO or Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to invest in vaccination both on the short term to curb ongoing outbreaks and  a long-term plan to increase the country’s vaccination coverage,