The National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC)has confirmed the outbreak of Yellow Fever in Bauchi state.
The Director-General of the NCDC Chikwe Ihekweazu in a statement, Friday in Abuja, said the agency was first notified of the outbreak on August 29.
He said the agency received the report of aconfirmed case of yellow fever in Kano state from a laboratory in its network, noting that the Bauchi state government confirmed an outbreak of the disease in the
state on Thursday.
The outbreak is also linked to the death of our students of the College of Education, Waka-Biu, Borno, who had gone on afield trip to Yankari Game Reserve, in Bauchi state as part of their coursework.
According to the statement, three of the confirmed cases are residents of Alkaleri Local Government Area (LGA), even as the fourth case involved a tourist who was visiting Kano state and also visited the
Yankari Games Reserve in the same LGA in Bauchi.
This development is coming after confirmed cases of yellow fever outbreak in Ebonyi state which began on July 15, 2019,with some deaths recorded.
Ihekweazu said subsequent investigations led by the Kano state Epidemiology Team established that the confirmed case of yellow fever “was from a patient who visited the Yankari Game Reserve inBauchi, in
August with his father.
The father died with similar symptoms before asample could be collected and tested, he said.
NCDC added that three more cases were confirmed in Bauchi “due to intensive surveillance.”
The three new cases are all residents of Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi, the centre stated.
“Altogether, we can confirm four cases of yellow fever in people that either live in or have visited Bauchi in the last one month,” he said.
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.
“We have deployed a rapid response team to support Bauchi State to carry out further in-depth investigations, including case finding, risk communications, and support the management of cases.
“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,” it said.
NCDC said it has also activated the Emergency Operations Centre to coordinate the response to the outbreak.
The DG said the yellow fever vaccine is available for free in all primary healthcare centres in Nigeria as part of the routine childhood immunisation schedule.
