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Tag: Salisu Muazu

  • Diptheria kills 10 in Jigawa as cases rise

    Diptheria kills 10 in Jigawa as cases rise

    Jigawa has recorded 91 suspected cases of diphtheria in 14 local government areas. It also suspects the loss of 10 children to the childhood infection.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Permanent Secretary, Jigawa Ministry of Health, Dr Salisu Muazu, disclosed this to newsmen on Saturday in Dutse.

    He said: “There has been diphtheria outbreak in the northern parts of Nigeria in the last four months. This is especially in neighbouring Kano, Yobe, Katsina and Bauchi states.

    “About two weeks ago, we received patients that had symptoms of diphtheria in 14 local government areas bordering states that already established the infection.

    “The National Reference Laboratory in Abuja confirmed two of the 91 suspected samples we sent to have tested positive to diphtheria”.

    Muazu further said the two confirmed samples were those from Kazaure and Jahun local government areas of Jigawa.

    He explained that majority of the victims were those that either did not receive complete immunisation or those that received zero dose of childhood immunisation.

    “In fact, in the last 10 years, we have not had diphtheria in Jigawa, but in those neighbouring states that now have the epidemic.

    “The reason why we have it now may be due to the COVID-19 period when healthcare services completely broke down,’’ he said.

    Muazu urged parents and community leaders to support and cooperate with health workers as government had concluded plans to conduct mop-up immunisation in affected local government areas.

    He also called on residents to promptly report persons with symptoms of diphtheria to Disease Notification Officers in the local government areas or to the nearest health facility.

  • Suspected Meningitis outbreak kills 38 in Jigawa

    Suspected Meningitis outbreak kills 38 in Jigawa

    No fewer than 38 persons have died of suspected Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) in Jigawa, an official, have confirmed.

    Dr Salisu Muazu, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, told newsmen in Dutse on Thursday that the state recorded a total of 398 suspected cases  between October 2022 to date.

    Muazu said the disease was detected in 56 political wards across seven local government areas of the state that boarder Niger Republic.

    He said the outbreak was initially from the neighbouring Niger Republic, and later spread to the border communities in the state, through trans border activities.

    The permanent secretary listed the affected areas to include Babura, Maigatari, Suletankarkar, Birniwa, Gumel, Gwiwa and Yankwashi.

    “This is in spite of the fact that last year, we conducted immunisation against this disease across the state.

    “But after getting the report of the outbreak, we took the samples for test in the laboratory, and we discovered it was a strange disease.

    “It is not a normal CSM disease that we commonly know which is the type A, this one, we discovered that it is bacteria, known as type B.

    “And immediately after results were obtained, the state government, through the ministry, swung into action, by offering free treatment, control and prevention measures in the affected areas,” he said

    Muazu further stated that the ministry had established an isolation centre at Gumel General Hospital, to which affected persons are being referred to for treatment and observation.

    He, however, stressed that the situation had been brought under control, as cases are being sporadically recorded.

    “As of now, we record only one to two cases per day. In fact there are some days that passed without recording a single case, as the last was recorded on Saturday,” he said.

    The permanent secretary commended the UNICEF, WHO and NCDC for thier support to the ministry in tackling the outbreak.