Anxiety As New Disease Breaks Out in Abuja, Kills 4-Year-Old Boy

By Miracle Ogunde

The Federal Capital Territory, FCT has announced the breakout of a news disease, Ditheria in some parts of the city of Abuja.

FCT Director, Public Health Department, Dr. Sadiq Abdulrahman, announced the outbreak, at a news conference, in Abuja on Monday.

Abdulrahman said the disease had already killed a four-year-old, stressing that outbreaks earlier recorded in Lagos, Ondo, and Kano states in January, had triggered a national response by the Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control, NCDC.

The Director said the outbreak was confirmed after tests on samples of suspected cases in a community near Dei-Dei, came back positive.

According to him, “Two weeks ago, we got information from a community within the FCT of eight cases and that made our team to pick some samples.

“The samples were taken to the National Reference Laboratory, Gaduwa, and the NCDC, and one of the suspected cases came out positive.”

He urged residents to report any strange symptoms, particularly respiratory challenges to relevant authorities and tasked them to maintain good personal hygiene.

Abdulrahman noted that the Department is collaborating with neighbouring states, to checkmate the spread of the disease through border surveillance, and implored residents to ensure that their children were fully vaccinated, in line with the National Childhood Immunization Schedule.

“To reduce the risk of contracting the disease, FCT residents are hereby advised to ensure that their children are fully vaccinated with three doses of the pentavalent vaccine. This is recommended in the National Childhood Immunisation Schedule,” he said.

Diphtheria is an infection caused by strains of a bacteria known as Corynebacterium Diphtheriae which produces toxins that cause difficulty in breathing, and heart rhythm problems, and could lead to death.