By Charles Ayodele
The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to arrest the outbreak of diphtheria in order to reduce numbers of fatality presently recorded in some states.
This followed the adoption of a motion moved by Rep. Muktar Shagaya (APC-Kwara) during plenary on Thursday in Abuja.
In his motion, Shagaya noted that 36 States and the FCT had witnessed a total of 555 cases of the disease, as confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its report.
He said that since the outbreak of the disease, more than 75 deaths had been recorded in 21 States, excluding the recent death of a four years old boy in FCT.
He said the cases of diphtheria disease was under-reported by the media in Nigeria in spite of its repeated threats posed to public health campaign.
He said the disease also posed serious threat to respiratory complications, heart rhythm problems and other fatal outcomes in situations of late detection.
He said that the disease is a highly contagious vaccine-preventable disease, which spreads between people mainly by direct contact or through the air via respiratory droplets.
The House, however, called on the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency and NCDC to intensify its sensitisation and enlightenment campaign.
This is to prevent and eradicate the scourge and other related diseases across the country.