In Nigeria, a yellow fever epidemic has so far
killed 172 people, the World Health Organization said Friday.
As Africa’s most populous nation struggles with the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple concomitant disease outbreaks, and a humanitarian
crisis in the northeast, the WHO said the outbreak presents an additional challenge to the country’s health system.
Since 2017, Nigeria has been
fighting consecutive outbreaks of yellow fever.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters in Geneva
that this new outbreak was identified in November.
“As of November 24, the outbreak has been reported in five states in Nigeria: Delta, Enugu, Bauchi, Benue and Ebonyi,” he said.
“A total of 530 suspected cases have been reported, including 48 that have been confirmed by lab testing.
“A total of 172 deaths have been reported out of those 530 suspected cases.”
He said sample processing through
national reference laboratories was ongoing.
The spokesman said that the priority of the Nigerian national and state authorities was on the
Covid-19 pandemic response, restricting the human resources required to conduct investigations and yellow fever outbreak response activities.
In certain hospitals, capability has been expanded to better treat
the symptoms and complications of patients who contract yellow fever.
Sixteen of the 36 states in Nigeria and
the federal capital territory have currently completed vaccination campaigns
In the first quarter of 2021, 6 more are scheduled to do so with a further six
planned to do so by the end of next year, taking the total to 28, the WHO said.
In many parts of Africa, the percentage of people vaccinated against yellow fever
remains poor, even though the vaccine is almost 100 percent effective and relatively inexpensive.
No specific treatment exists for yellow fever, which
is primarily spread by mosquitoes in urban environments.
Nigeria has been spared the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic so far like
the rest of Africa, but the authorities are wary of a new wave.
So far, over 68,300 cases of Covid-19 have
been reported and 1,179 deaths have been reported.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN