Kano seeks additional diphtheria vaccines from FG
August 26, 2026 11:03 am
By Tukur Muntari
The Kano State Government has appealed to the Federal Government to supply additional diphtheria vaccines to enable the state to conduct mass vaccination against the disease across the state.
The Director-General, Kano State Centre for Disease Control, Prof. Muhammad Abbas, made the request while addressing a news conference on Tuesday night.
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“I want to tell you that we had over 38,000 cases from 2022 till date, out of which over 31,000 cases were confirmed. But the disheartening thing is that more than 55% of those are what we call zero-dose children who have not received any form of vaccination. More than 16% of the cases and another 10 to 15% of them were partially immunised. Only a few of them were fully immunised, which means we have a very big deal in our hands.
“As I am speaking to you now, my team is in Rano. They want to dig out. Sometimes, certain deaths may be due to other diseases. In that situation, we carry out what we call verbal autopsy. We interview the parents and see what happened, what led to the death of these children,” he concluded.
On Monday, the Kano State House of Assembly called on the governor to urgently intervene in a diphtheria outbreak that had reportedly killed over 50 children in Rano Local Government Area.
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Kano State appeals to the Federal Government for additional diphtheria vaccines to combat a deadly outbreak, urging early reporting to save lives.
punchng.com
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Kano State Investigates Suspected Diphtheria Deaths
Salihu Ali, Kano
August 26, 2026
The Kano State Centre for Disease Control has launched an investigation into reports of children dying from suspected diphtheria in Rano Local Government Area.
The agency, however, said its official surveillance records did not currently support the reported number of deaths.
The KNCDC Director-General, Prof. Muhammad Adamu Abbas, disclosed this while responding to concerns raised by the Kano State House of Assembly over the reported deaths.
Speaking with journalists in Kano, Abbas said 32 diphtheria cases had been recorded in Rano, including 25 in August and seven between May and July.
He said seven patients had been transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital in Kano, the designated isolation and treatment centre for diphtheria, while other patients were receiving treatment at health facilities in Rano.
According to him, the agency conducted an active case search in the area on August 19, leading to the identification of additional suspected cases.
Abbas said the agency had yet to establish that all the reported deaths were caused by diphtheria, noting that other illnesses could have been responsible for some of the deaths.
He said further investigations, including verbal autopsies, were being conducted to determine the actual circumstances surrounding the deaths.
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The Kano State Centre for Disease Control (KNCDC) has launched an investigation into reports of children dying from suspected diphtheria in Rano Local Government Area.
von.gov.ng
