Kano govt makes U-turn, denies outbreak of measles

By Muhammed Yakubu On Mar 6, 2024

Diphtheria, kill, Minjibir LG, hospital, Kano — Diphtheria kills 4 , 28 hospitalized in Kano

The Kano State Ministry of Health has denied a media report that there was a measles outbreak in Kano Municipal LGA.

SOLACEBASE on Sunday reported that authorities at the Kano Municipal Local Government Council of Kano State had confirmed an outbreak of measles in some parts of the local government area.

The Council information officer, Fatima Abdullahi, said the coordinator, noted they received reports of several cases of measles and other infectious diseases from various health centres in the Municipal Local Government Area.

The statement said the suspected affected areas with cases are Sharada, Madatai, and Gandun Albasa.

However, on Wednesday, the government said that it was the report of its emergency preparedness response meeting that the information unit of the LGA wrongly perceived that there was an outbreak of measles in the locality.

In a press release issued from the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry, the Director Public Health and Disease Control, Dr. Imam Wada Bello, was quoted to have vehemently debunked the story in its entirety.

However, denying the situation, Dr. Imam pointed out that before disease is declared outbreak, there were certain procedures and indexes that are being considered, including laboratory investigations and examinations as well as assessing its gravity and number of people contracted.

In the case of Kano Municipal LGA, according to him, none of the procedures were conducted to warrant the declaration of measles outbreak, urging people to disregard the story because it lacks empirical and clinical evidences to substantiate it.

The Director assured that the Ministry is very vigilant on all public diseases causing havoc to the lives of the people by taking all necessary measures to contain the effect such diseases might bring about.

He further assured that the Ministry and its 44 LGAs Emergency Preparedness Response (EPR) were on alert to timely response to outbreaks in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders.

Dr. Imam noted that the Surveillance Outbreak Response and Management System (SORMAS), a national dashboard that showcased a summary of Kano state measles report from January to March 2024, indicated that there was 697 “suspected cases” of measles in 23 LGAs in which Kano Municipal has the highest number of 647, adding that five samples were taken for a laboratory test and none confirmed positive.

The Director reasoned that Kano Municipal became the LGA with a high number of “suspected cases” because of the presence of Hasiya Bayero Paediatric Hospital which serves as a centralized facility for diagnosing and managing paediatrics cases including measles across the state not only within the municipality, stressing that it was that centralization that made the facility to lead in high reporting incidence of cases in the LG compared to other LGAs.

When contacted, the Kano Municipal Primary Healthcare Coordinator, Aliyu Jinjiri Kiru, whom the report was attributed to, said he did not at any point made such declaration.

He emphasized that it was the report of their emergency preparedness response meeting that the information unit of the LGA wrongly perceived that there was outbreak of measles in the locality.

Mr. Kiru said what they reported was that they received “suspected measles and diphtheria cases” from the health facilities within the LGA including the secondary facility with the intent of alerting the stakeholders to support the PHC department to curtail the situation in case it is confirmed.