World Health Organisation (WHO) has said Nigeria will receive 1,800 vials of diphtheria antitoxin on Wednesday, August 2.
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Control TV reports that diphtheria is a bacterial infection caused by the corynebacterium species that affect the nose, throat, and sometimes, skin of an individual.
Some of its symptoms include fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough, red eyes, neck swelling, and difficulty in breathing.
WHO country representative, Walter Mulombo in a press conference on Monday, said Nigeria will also receive erythromycin IV in two weeks’ time, pending authorisation by the government.
Mulombo said, “These health commodities are essential for saving lives and reducing the sequelae in the affected patients, thus need to be prepositioned in Nigeria and ready to be deployed to the states in need.”
Diphtheria antitoxin is medication made up of antibodies used to treat the disease while erythromycin IV is an intravenous administration of erythromycin which is a macrolide antibiotic that is used to treat various bacterial infections.
Mulombo noted that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had requested WHO to procure the diphtheria anti toxin, and erythromycin IV for the management of diphtheria cases.
He explained that a mix of the workforce from the Nigeria field epidemiology and laboratory training programme and the WHO team are on the ground in Yobe and Kano states to improve the surveillance at the health facility and community level.
The country director added that the organisation is also supporting the procurement of laboratory commodities to increase the result turnaround time to support the case definition and management at an early stage.
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