RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service

Situation Update No. 1

Posted:2010-03-03, 13:05:19 [UTC]

Ref.no.: EH-20100303-25181-NGA

Situation Update No. 1
On 2010-03-04 at 09:25:11 [UTC]

Event: Epidemic Hazard
Location: Nigeria State of Jigawa 17 local governments

Number of Deads: 19 person(s)

Acute shortage of Cerebral Spinal Meningitis, CSM, vaccines has caused the death of 19 people in the last three months in Jigawa State. At the moment, the state had only about 10 per cent of its total vaccines requirement of the required three million doses. Confirming the incident to newsmen in Dutse, Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Ibrahim Muhammad Nashabaru, said the areas hit by the pandemic include Gumel, Kafin-Hausa, Babura, Yankwashi and Dutse with about six persons were reported dead in Gumel alone. “We need at least three million doses of the vaccines to tackle it effectively but presently we have only 10 per cent of the total amount required,” he said. Nashabaru explained that about 17 Local Governments Areas were affected including Dutse, the state capital, adding that the epidemic was first noticed in January but became more alarming last week. “Of course, there was outbreak of the CSM in the state and I can confirm 13 deaths from January to date. Government has been making effort to address the situation even though we are facing shortage of vaccines right now,” he said. According to him, “as at the time of the initial outbreak, the state had only about 7,300 doses of the vaccines and it got additional 300,000 from the Federal Government last Friday which is grossly in adequate to tackle the situation,” adding that efforts are being made to secure additional vaccines so as arrest the situation before it gets out of hand. The commissioner further said about 89 cases were reported to the hospital from January to date and that the state Ministry of Health had forwarded a request of vaccines to the Federal Ministry of Health since the discovery of the disease, noting that the situation was under control. He said the present method of requesting vaccines from the Federal Ministry of Health was not helping matter as far as addressing meningitis cases is concerned. “Although it was introduced to prevent a repeat of Kano meningitis saga that affected 200 persons, the method is causing delay in the supply of doses to states,” he said.