Nigeria’s centre for disease control has confirmed the outbreak of Yellow
Fever in Bauchi State.
The Director General of the NCDC, Chikwe Ihekweazu, in a statement said the
agency was first notified of the outbreak on August 29.
He said the agency received the report of a confirmed case of yellow fever
in Kano State from a laboratory in its network.
The Executive Secretary, Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development
Agency, Rilwan Mohammed, said the Ministry of Health had a yellow fever case
linked to Yankari Game Reserve.
The outbreak is also linked to the death of four students of the College of
Education, Waka-Biu, Borno who had gone on a field trip to Yankari Game
Reserve, in Bauchi State as part of their course work.
On Wednesday, at least four of the people had been confirmed dead and 12
hospitalised.
According to the statement, three of the confirmed cases are residents of
Alkaleri Local Government Area (LGA).
The fourth case is a tourist who was visiting Kano State and also visited
the Yankari Games Reserve in the same LGA in Bauchi.
This development is coming weeks after confirmed cases of yellow fever
outbreak in Ebonyi State.
The outbreak in Ebonyi State began on July 15 with some deaths recorded.
Also, the Borno State Epidemiology Team on Tuesday had reported deaths
among students of Waka College of Education in Biu LGA Borno State.
The NCDC said of the 95 Students that visited the resort (Yankari Game
Reserve), eight of them developed symptoms and six had died. The others are in
a stable condition while samples from these cases are being tested.
Since it was notified, the NCDC said
it has been collaborating with the state epidemiologists and the World Health
Organisation country office to investigate these events.
“Samples of the other suspected cases from Bauchi and Borno states are
currently being transported to the NCDC National Reference Laboratory in Abuja
for further testing,” .
NCDC said it has also activated the Emergency Operations Centre to
coordinate the response to the outbreak.
Ihekweazu said the yellow fever vaccine is available for free in all
primary healthcare centres in Nigeria as part of the routine childhood immunisation
schedule.
