They said 30 years after the last yellow fever epidemic outbreak in the country, no nationwide vaccination had been conducted since, stating that over 101 million Nigerians are at risk of being infected with the disease.
The warning is coming amidst recent outbreak of yellow fever in six districts of Cameroun bordering Cross River State, which places Nigeria at risk because it is the only country among 13 in West Africa yet to conduct mass vaccination.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting yesterday in Abuja on the Preparation for Mass Vaccination against yellow fever in high risk states in Nigeria, the Chairman, Expert Review Committee (ERC) on Polio Immunisation, Prof Oyewole Tomori, disclosed that about 377 local government areas in 25 states in the country had been marked out as high risk states.
He warned, “We’re a large population and if we don’t conduct this mass vaccination, we cannot predict what will happen.”
“We need to put the money where it is important. We don’t want a situation where we cure, so let’s put the money on prevention.”
Tomori also bemoaned Nigeria’s reliance on other countries in the world for its vaccine needs.
According to him, “There’s no reason why Nigeria should be depending on other countries for its vaccine. We had a vaccine manufacturing firm in Yaba, Lagos in 1994 which has gone under. We need to rescusitate it. Is it not lamentable that a country like Senegal is also one of the countries producing vaccine for us?”
Mathematical models used in assessing Nigeria’s situation suggest an urban area like Lagos could see up to 4.5 million cases along with 128,000 deaths, requiring millions of vaccine doses, which take considerable time to produce.
In his presentation, the chief consultant epidemiologist, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Akin Oyemakinde, said that an outbreak of Yellow Fever at this level would have enormous consequence on the economy and on the health system.
He added that there would be potential of Nigeria exporting yellow fever to other countries, if there’s an outbreak
According to him, Nigeria’s last vaccination against yellow fever was in 1995 after an outbreak that lasted eight years resulted in 20,000 cases and killed more than 5,000 people.
He noted, ‘Millions currently have no protection against yellow fever virus, leaving herd immunity low around the country’
The mass vaccination programme is planned to start 2013 and take up to five years to complete because of the country’s size.
The World Health Organisation has called it “one of the biggest campaigns ever” for which Nigeria has to be ready.
Source: Leadership
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