The Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (BSPHCDA), has confirmed an outbreak of diphtheria in six local government areas of the state.
The Executive Chairman of the Agency, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, confirmed an outbreak of the disease at a news conference on Wednesday in Bauchi.
He said the agency collected 58 samples of suspected cases of the disease from January 2023 to date.
“Two of the three confirmed diphtheria cases died in Jama’are local government area of the state.
“These cases are mostly among normands and children with zero immunisation dose.
“The disease is among children between ages eight months to four years, and there is a case of a seven-year-old child.
“The agency had closed schools in Jama’are because of the reported suspected cases of the disease in a school,” he said.
According to Mohammed, the agency will scale up immunisation of pupils in schools across the affected communities.
Meanwhile, the agency has confirmed outbreak of yellow fever following the report of 248 suspected cases in Dambam, Ganjuwa and Jama’are LGAs.
“We have nine presumptive positive cases of which five had been confirmed,” and decried delays associated with obtaining results of the suspected cases from the laboratory.
“Samples from the states are sent to the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja where they are taken to Dakar in Senegal, that is the problem we are facing”.