By Linus Aleke, Abuja
The European Union (EU) has announced the release of €1,000,000 (N847 million) in humanitarian funding to Nigeria to fight the outbreak and spread of the diphtheria disease and assist the most affected communities.
Press Officer, Delegation of the European Union to the Federal Republic of Nigeria and ECOWAS, Politics, Press and Information Section, Mr. Modestus Chukwulaka, in a statement said, the financial aid is part of EU’s response to the unprecedented diphtheria outbreak in Nigeria.
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This, he said, comes in addition to €150,000 which the EU allocated to the Disaster Response Emergency Fund (DREF) of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in March 2023 in an effort to help control the epidemic.
Mr. Chukwulaka, said, this new EU funding will enable UNICEF and the medical NGO ALIMA to contribute to the response by providing technical and staff support to frontline health agencies to enhance surveillance and case detection, treatment of cases, community awareness raising, and to assist with the procurement of vaccines.
Nigeria, he said, is currently facing the world’s second largest diphtheria outbreak with 10,322 confirmed and 16,616 suspected cases since the beginning of the year.
“Kano State in the Northwest represents the outbreak’s epicentre with 8,447 confirmed cases and 589 deaths. The most affected states are Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Borno, Bauchi, and Kaduna which collectively account for 96% of all suspected cases. Despite control efforts since the start of the outbreak in late 2022, the disease has gradually spread to other states in the Northwest and Northeast. Children aged 1 to 14 years represent 72% of all confirmed cases. Analysis of the vaccination status reveals that over 60% of all suspected cases have not been vaccinated,” the statement revealed” the statement further said.
The EU added that this funding is part of the its Epidemics tool, created to provide rapid funding in case of a disease outbreak.
Diphtheria, it noted, is a highly contagious bacterial infection transmitted between humans, stressing that it causes an infection of the upper respiratory tract, which can lead to breathing difficulties and suffocation.
“Those most at risk are children and people who have not been fully vaccinated against the disease,” the statement said.
