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Worried by the increasing spread of the childhood throat disease, Diphtheria, the Federal Capital Territory Administration said it will take all preemptive measures to guard against the emergence of the dreadful disease in the territory.
The FCT Executive Committee, FCT EXCO, at its last meeting, directed the Health and Human Services Secretariat to ensure increased surveillance and sensitization by all its relevant agencies, to curb the risk of the disease emerging and spreading within the territory.
It urged the FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat to liaise with the Area Council Services Secretariat, as well as the Chairmen of the six Area Councils in the territory to convene an emergency meeting with relevant technical partners and work out modalities to effectively confront the disease should it rear its ugly head in the FCT.
The meeting enjoined the Health and Human Services Secretariat to galvanize the support of all stakeholders and ensure massive sensitization of all residents to further minimize the risk of contracting the ailment as cases have been reported in some states around the FCT.
Our correspondence gathered that the FCT immunization coverage currently stands at 83percent, as against the national average of 57percent, which is less than the 95percent children expected to be vaccinated in order to assure herd immunity and prevent the spread of the disease.
Diphtheria is a bacterial infection caused by the organism referred to as Corynebacterium diphtheria which affects the throat, nose, and sometimes, skin of unvaccinated children and rarely adults with poor immunity.
The disease spreads easily between people through direct contact with infected people, droplets from coughing or sneezing, and contact with contaminated clothing and objects.
The symptoms of the disease also include fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough, red eyes, neck swelling, and difficulty in breathing.
To reduce the risk of contracting the disease, children are expected to get fully vaccinated with three doses of the Pentavalent vaccine as recommended in the National childhood immunization schedule.
The FCT Executive Committee presided over by the FCT Minister, Mallam Muhammad Bello, also directed the Abuja Metropolitan Management Council to restrict the activities of the Point of Sales, POS, operators scattered around the FCC to only commercial areas because of security concerns.
It observed that POS is a commercial enterprise, and, therefore, should be conducted only in the designated commercial areas.
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