The World Health Organization, WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund, Kaduna State Primary Healthcare, and Zaria Local Government have returned to Tukur-Tukur community in Zaria local government for the second round of immunization on the reported outbreak of Diphtheria, which has claimed the lives of approximately five children.
While receiving the team, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the Director of Publicity and Advocacy of the Northern Elders Forum, said, “The Tukur-Tukur community is grateful for the prompt arrival of a combined medical team to address the recent diphtheria outbreak in the area and timely response to their distress call.”
He announced that the community has already set up a monitoring and sensitization system to ensure compliance with government health initiatives, saying that they are committed to working closely with the team to combat the outbreak.
The medical team, according to him would continue the ongoing immunization program in the community and also conduct a house-to-house survey to ascertain the extent of the disease’s spread, stressing that diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease, and the team is dedicated to working with the community to achieve its total eradication.
“Diphtheria is a serious and highly contagious disease but we are confident that with the community’s cooperation and the collective efforts of the medical team, we can effectively control and eliminate this outbreak,” Suleiman explained.
He expressed the community’s gratitude for the quick response from the health authorities, assuring that the community is committed to working closely with the medical team to ensure the successful implementation of the immunization and disease containment efforts.
WHO, UNICEF, Kaduna PHC return to Tukur-Tukur community for Diphtheria Immunization