The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA has advised parents and caregivers across the country to ensure their children under one year are fully vaccinated with pentavalent vaccines and other childhood vaccines.
The agency listed the childhood vaccines to include; Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), Rotavirus vaccine, polio vaccine, inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), measles vaccine, yellow fever vaccine and meningitis vaccine.
Dr Faisal Shuaib, the executive director of the agency explained that the recent diphtheria outbreak in Kano and other states was a serious concern that requires urgent attention to control the situation
He assured that diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease, saying that the best protection against the disease is keeping up to date with recommended vaccines.
According to him, poor immunisation performance in the affected areas in Kano State was the reason behind the outbreak of the disease.
To improve the routine immunisation performance in the state, the agency, he disclosed, was collaborating with Kano State and the affected local government areas, as well as all other stakeholders involved in immunisation service delivery.
