Katsina, 13 August 2018 - The Federal Government with the support of World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a reactive vaccination campaign in Danja local government area (LGA) of Katsina state in response to a recently identified outbreak of Yellow Fever.

The reactive vaccination campaign will protect 154,131 persons aged between 9 months to 45 years from this disease. The vaccination exercise  to be implemented from 09 to 18 August 2018 complements government’s plan as guided by the Eliminate Yellow fever Epidemics (EYE) strategy by 2026, which was launched in April 2018 by the WHO Director General in Abuja.

Since September 2017, Nigeria is experiencing ongoing outbreak of yellow fever, an acute viral haemorrhagic disease, with confirmed cases reported in 22 LGAs across 11 states. From the onset of the outbreak, 2,400 suspected yellow fever cases including 47 deaths have been reported by the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). 

“The campaign in Katsina is a reactive vaccination in response to confirmed Yellow fever case. WHO is committed in continuing this effort and supporting Nigeria to better protect its population against this disease,  ensure better health and well-being,” said Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu the WHO Country Representative (WR).

He stressed that “with one single injection, we can provide life-long immunity against this disease at a cost of approximately one US dollar (US$1).” Dr Alemu however noted that ensuring availability of adequate vaccine supply to reach all those at-risk is a constant challenge.

With the support of Gavi, 12 million doses of Yellow fever vaccines in 2018 and 19 Million in 2019 will be made available to Nigeria.
The assistance from GAVI will ensure that all persons aged 9 months to 45years will be vaccinated during ongoing campaign in Danja LGA, bringing  the overall number of states where the vaccination drive has been implemented to 10 (Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Nasarawa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Kwara and Zamfara) and in IDPs camps in Borno state.

Yellow fever response in Nigeria led by the government is coordinated through the National Yellow fever Technical Coordinating Committee (NYFTCC) with participation by all partners.

The Director, Disease Control and Immunization at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Dr Dorothy Nwodo, recently confirmed the level of preparations for the reactive campaign saying, “all activities have been implemented as part of the pre-implementation to ensure quality implementation. Supervisors, technical management support teams and Partners from the national level have been deployed to supervise the activity to ensure quality campaigns.”
Preventive mass vaccination campaigns are underway for 08 – 17 November 2018 in Sokoto, Kebbi, Niger, FCT, Plateau and Borno states as phase2b of Nigeria’s EYE strategic plan. Nigeria aims to vaccinate 25 million citizens by the end of 2018 and the Polio infrastructure in the states continue to provide the required  support to other non-polio vaccination campaigns. 

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