Diphtheria: UNICEF team storm Jigawa to support reduction of outbreak

From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse

The representatives of United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) under the leadership of their country Director, Ms Christian Manduate stormed Jigawa state, with aims to support Jigawa government’s effort on fight against Diphtheria outbreak in the state.

Speaking during the courtesy visit to the governor in his office, the UNICEF country Director lauded governor Namadi for achieving milestones on child protection and development in Jigawa.

She said, so far UNICEF supported Nigeria with 3.1 million vaccines for Diphtheria and shared among the affected states in which Jigawa is part of the states to benefit.

Ms Manduate who appealed to governor Namadi to be part of their advocate team in northern states, promised to provide more technical assistance through training of Jigawa health workers.

According to UNICEF country Director, despite effort made by Jigawa government to fight five child killer diseases but, still there is a lot of challenges on the high number of malnurished children in the state.

She maintained that, most of the Diphtheria victims are unimmunized children with zero dose record, adding that UNICEF will continue collaborating with government to improve nutrition and reduce number of out of schools children.

While responding to the team, the state governor Malam Umar Namadi commended UNICEF, said their interventions is yielding a fruitful result in almost all the critical sectors in Jigawa.

Governor Namadi who assured timely releases of counterpart funds to UNICEF, said the state government has gone far on it’s plan to involve Almajiri system into formal education system, with aims to reduce out of schools children.

He then commended UNICEF team for visiting Jigawa and assured more collaboration to save and improve the lives of children in the state.