By Iyemah David
The World Health Organisation (WHO), says Nigeria has degraded its biggest Cholera outbreak which commenced in 2021 with over 100,000 suspected cases reported.
Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Country Representative, Nigeria, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja, at the Global Task Force on Cholera Control training on oral cholera vaccine request and campaign planning organised by WHO.
Cholera is an acute diarrhea illness caused by infection of the intestine with Vibrio cholerae bacteria.
People can get sick when they swallow food or water contaminated with cholera bacteria. The infection is often mild or without symptoms, but can sometimes be severe and life-threatening.
Mulombo acknowledged the role of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control and the country support platform (CSP) in the global roadmap for cholera control, especially in endemic countries through the development of the country’s national control plans (NCPs) including not only vaccination but also WASH activities.
“We are mindful of the support by different partners/donors through WHO for the response, including reactive vaccination with over 1.7 million persons vaccinated each with 2 doses of Oral Cholera Vaccination (OCV) across 7 LGAs in 4 states of Bauchi, Jigawa, Yobe, and the Zamfara States.
“Working in line with the preparedness towards future campaigns, we believe that the recently approved GTFCC application for Nigeria with approximately 9million doses of OCV to implement two campaigns in 14 LGAs in 9 states, and the FCT, would significantly mitigate the risk of and upsurge of cholera cases during this raining season, he said.
The WHO rep, however, reiterated the need for early allocation and shipment of these vaccines to ensure these vaccinations were carried out sooner than later.
“The challenges identified during the 2021 annual GTFCC stakeholder meeting, including a,) Poor quality reactive and preventative OCV campaign requests b) Lack of OCV use as an outbreak response in some settings, and c) Inadequate monitoring and evaluation of OCV campaigns and need to be addressed sooner than later.
“WHO is cognizant of the need to implement quality campaigns and the operational challenges in different contexts,” he said
He said that Nigeria had demonstrated the capacity to implement campaigns in difficult settings, including security challenges as experienced in the two LGAs in Zamfara as well as addressed and improved Campaign data quality, through the use of real-time reporting by vaccination teams using hand mobile phones.
He said that under addressing equality and equity issues and ensuring reduction in zero doses for children in alignment with the Gavi 5.0 and the Immunization Agenda 2030, Nigeria must ensure that all opportunities for vaccination campaigns were used to specifically target areas with huge zero doses and ensure that these often-missed children were not only offered OCV but opportunities for all routine vaccination.
“Cholera control efforts is a holistic one including more than just vaccination. The need to address issues around WASH remains critical in the long term.
“This brings to bear the need to improve coordination of cholera control efforts and ensure that clean and safe water as well as improved hygienic practices as highlighted in the Cholera control plans are implemented sustainably to ensure we achieve the desired goal.
“We look forward to the outputs of this training and assure you of WHO Nigeria’s support to the Government of Nigeria in implementing the NCP (when finalized), including ensuring quality vaccination campaigns while also monitoring and evaluating the implementation of this plan,” he explained.
It would be recall that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said that the number of cases reported nationally in 2021 was 111,062 with 3,604 deaths across the country as it exceeded the number of cases reported in 2020.
