The federal government has been urged to increase routine vaccination rates in order to stop outbreaks in their tracks by the World Health Organization (WHO).
The decision was made during a media conference held online by WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus.
Nigeria, according to Mr. Tedros, is dealing with a serious diphtheria outbreak. In 17 states, he claims, there have been reported more than 9000 suspected cases, resulting in 307 fatalities.
This year’s diphtheria outbreak is in its second wave, he said.
The WHO director stated that diphtheria is a highly contagious, vaccine-preventable disease that can be fatal in five to ten percent of cases, with a higher mortality rate in young children.
Vaccination, surveillance, case management, and risk communication were all being improved, he claimed, with help from WHO.
Increasing access to vaccines and antitoxins is another goal of our collaboration with partners. In order to prevent outbreaks before they begin, the WHO director said that this outbreak and others demonstrate the need to increase routine vaccination rates.
Before the onset of the winter season in the northern hemisphere, he said, the WHO had continued to observe worrying trends for COVID-19.
In some regions of the Middle East and Asia, according to Mr. Tedros, the death toll is rising.
Mr. Tedros noted that “hospital admissions and ICU admissions are rising in Europe and several regions.” On the other hand, he regretted that “data is limited.”
Only 43 nations, or less than a quarter of WHO member states, report deaths to WHO, and only 20 nations provide data on hospitalizations, according to him.
“A single dominant variant does not exist globally. In contrast to the XBB sub-variants, the interesting variant EG.5 is growing in prevalence. Small-scale detections of the BA.2.86 variant have been made in 11 nations, Mr. Tedros continued. The WHO is closely observing this variant to determine its potential impact and the ease with which it can be transmitted.
The low percentage of at-risk individuals who had recently received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to Mr. Tedros, is one of WHO’s main concerns. According to him, the organization’s advice was to administer the recommended additional dose right away.
Mr. Tedros claimed that the WHO released an annex to the global strategic preparedness and response plan for COVID-19 “which further supports countries in five critical areas.”
