Northern Traditional Leaders and Governors on Tuesday moved to tame the outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis outbreak in some parts of the region, as they held an emergency meeting on the scourge in Kaduna.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole who spoke at the occasion said, one billion dollars is required to vaccinate 21m people in five meningitis endemic states.
It was also disclosed at the occasion that, the outbreak had killed 489 persons in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kabbi, Niger and Katsina State, while 4,637 suspected cases have been recorded.
According to the Minister, “Meningitis vaccination is very expensive, to effectively stop meningitis in Nigeria; we need to vaccinate 21 million people in the five states which will cost about $1 billion. We need Immunity Trust Fund to cater for immunisation, we need to put more money in health to build robust health system that is resilient. Nigeria would need to put more money on vaccine, Nigerian vaccine has been subsidised by Gavi, but in 2015 we said we are the largest economy in Africa, which means we can stand on our own. So by 20 25 Nigeria will need to fund its vaccines by itself.
“The state governments also need to put in more money on health. We want the state governments to support us to revitalise the PHC for every political ward to have at least one PHC. We need to put people there, community health extension workers, and to invest in routine immunisation.
“About seven million births are recorded annually; if we vaccinate all of them we would protect them from meningitis and other diseases.
“North west is our emergency zone. We need to declare public health emergency in North West, where we have robust health system, meningitis will not be a problem. Surveillance aspect, early warning system is very important call us on time. We need to look at local production of vaccines to take charge of our destiny,” he said.
Making presentation on meningitis, the National Coordinator of Nigeria Center for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said the outbreak of meningitis started in Zamfara state in November 2016 but they were only notified on February 7, 2017 and they deployed along with other stakeholders a week later.
“489 deaths have been recorded in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kabbi, Niger and Katsina State. And 4,637 suspected cases of meningitis have also been recorded”, said Dr. Ihekweazu.
Speaking earlier, Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal described the meningitis as a dangerous epidemic, saying that his state had recorded over 1000 cases so far.
According to him, “In Sokoto state, we had cases in about seven local governments. We had over 1000 cases reported and the state government had to mobilised with traditional leaders in the state and other stakeholders, particularly our development partners.
“We had collaboration with the federal ministry of health, we received over 20,000 vaccines from the federal ministry of health and we are expecting about 800,000 more vaccines, our target is to have 2 million vaccines for vaccinations to cover most of the areas.
“We have mobilised a team led by the commissioner of health. We have had challenges of drugs and challenges of health personnel as well”, he said.
Also, Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai said that it was a matter of great sadness for governors to see the number of deaths recorded in their states due to meningitis.
He lamented that, the North West zone has been battling meningitis epidemic for the past two months, saying it is a type of meningitis that health care professionals in their states were not conversant with the type C meningitis.
“The action so far taken by the federal government has slowed down the spread. Here in Kaduna state, we have 17 suspected cases across the 11 local governments with one type C case and one death.
“We have instituted measures, alongside the measures instituted by neighbouring states and with the proactive steps we have taken, we hope the epidemic will not occur in Kaduna state.
“We have intensified surveillance and engaged in mass media enlightenment, while mobilising appropriate medicines and medical supplies in our hospitals across the state.
“Your royal highnesses, I hope at the end of this meeting, you will take this battle with the same zeal you took in the polio eradication. This meeting is timely and hopefully we will come up with strategies to combat this epidemic,” said El-Rufai.
The Convener of the meeting and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, who was represented by the Emir or Zazzau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, said the meeting was timely and commendable. “Traditional leaders in coordination with stakeholders will do everything possible to assist in ensuring appropriate medical asistance promptly to avoid future outbreak of meningitis in the North.”
