Measles Outbreak: Northern Nigeria in State of Emergency

Abdullahi Shehu, the Executive Secretary of the Board of Management of primary health Kano has declared a public health emergency due to the outbreak of measles in Kano state, where at least 200 children under 59 months were killed by the measles epidemic in the northern Nigerian state since October last year.

Abdullahi Shehu, the Executive Secretary of the Board of Management of primary health Kano, said the deaths were recorded in the 8000 cases of the disease recorded so far.

"Measles remains the most deadly childhood disease affecting the state and it can be prevented by vaccination," the official said during the closing ceremony of the integrated campaign against measles in 2013 in Kano, the capital of the state.

According to Abdullahi, it is unfortunate that parents and caregivers of children concerned had not been present for vaccination and thus exposing them to the disease.

He noted that the government of Kano State had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the richest man Aliko Dangote Africa and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the revitalization of routine immunization and other services of primary health care in an effort to curb the outbreak.

The training of local vaccinators, technical leaders and state leaders of local communities, which is about to begin, aimed at addressing the challenges facing vaccination in the northern state, does he added.