File photo: Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate
The Federal Government has deployed 500,000 doses of diphtheria vaccines to Katsina and Kano states and activated an emergency task force to contain an outbreak of the disease among children in the two states.
The development was contained in a press release signed by the Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Ado Bako, in Abuja on Friday.
The intervention followed a directive by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, with the government also moving to strengthen disease surveillance, expand access to treatment and close immunisation gaps in affected communities.
According to the ministry, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency deployed the 500,000 vaccine doses “to support intensified immunisation activities in affected and at-risk communities.”
