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No fewer than 10,096 clinically confirmed measles cases and 109 deaths were reported in Nigeria in 2021, the data from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has revealed.
The disease control centre also added that 8,295 children out of the confirmed cases were not vaccinated with any dose of measles vaccination.
Measles, a viral infection, spreads through the air by respiratory droplets produced from coughing and sneezing.
According to the NCDC, 157 local government areas across 33 states and the Federal Capital Territory suffered outbreaks of the disease.
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The NCDC listed the affected states as follows; Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, FCT, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Keats, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara for the Northern part of the country and listed Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and Rivers for the southern states.
“Borno (7,857), Yobe (753) and Ekiti (604) States accounted for 58.4% of the 15,792 suspected cases reported. Of the suspected cases reported, 10,096 (63.9%) were confirmed (1,724 lab confirmed 2,734 epi-linked and 5,638 clinically compatible), 5,171 (32.7%) were discarded and 525 (3.3%) are pending classification.
“The age group 9 – 59 months accounted for 7,573 (75.0%) of all confirmed cases. A total of 109 deaths (CFR = 1.0%) were recorded among confirmed cases.
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“Up to 8,295 (82.2%) of the confirmed cases did not received any dose of measles vaccination (“zero dose”)”, the NCDC noted.
A consultant paediatrician at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Olatunde Ogundare, told Sunday PUNCH correspondent that the country was in dire need of herd immunity to curtail the outbreaks of the disease.
He said, “Measles is a disease caused by virus known as the measles virus. Measles is spread through the air. It is an airborne infection mainly. It can also spread when someone touches a contaminated surface and that hand then touches the face or the nostrils.
“The virus can be in the air for up to one hour even after an infected person has left an environment after coughing or sneezing in the area
“Low immunization coverage predisposes to increased rate and spread of the infection as the herd immunity will be low. If a person who is infected gets exposed to a group of people who lack immunity, as much as 90% of that group of people will likely come down with measles infection.
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“However, if the herd immunity of a group of people is up to 95 per cent, the remaining five per cent will be protected. Herd immunity refers to the population that needs to be immunized for the whole population to be protected.”