1,000 Measles Cases Recorded In 3 Months In Sokoto, Nigeria
Ali Inname, the Sokoto State Commissioner of Health, has announced that, between January and March of this year, the state has recorded 1,000 measles cases. Mr. Inname, who spoke in Sokoto, stated the each of the cases were recorded in all of the 23 local government areas of the state. He made mention that medical officers have been dispatched to the most affected areas to study the ongoing situation and tackle the spread of measles.
Mr. Inname said those who were most affected were unvaccinated children and urged parents and guardians to immunize their children.
“Though there were cases of children who were vaccinated but still got affected. But their cases were not severe compared to those unvaccinated.”
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The commissioner stated that a few children had already lost their lives within three communities of Dan Madi, Kaurare and Aljannare in the Tambuwal Local Government. He said that some parents were still refusing to vaccinate their children even though there is the provision of 500 centres for routine immunisation across the state.
“In Sokoto state, we’ve 500 centres that are providing routine immunization and we have adequate vaccines. But we have some communities that are still not responsive to our immunization campaigns.”
Sokoto State is one of eight states in the country with the worst cases of measles outbreaks in the country according to the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control. Sokoto state is also one of the states with the lowest rates of child immunisation.
The United Nation Children Fund estimated that less than one-tenth of the children within the state receive immunisation against early childhood diseases like measles.
The infant mortality in the state is as high as 78 per 1,000 live births. The state government initiated a programme in 2017 to roll back the outbreak of measles in the state. It launched a vaccination campaign that was aimed at immunising 1 million children against measles. But the recent outbreak in the state indicates that the campaign was far from reaching its mark.
