WHO: 1,800 vials of diphtheria drug will be delivered to Nigeria in August

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says Nigeria will receive 1,800 vials of diphtheria antitoxin on August 2.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection caused by the corynebacterium species that affect the nose, throat, and sometimes, skin of an individual.

Some symptoms of diphtheria include fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough, red eyes, neck swelling, and difficulty in breathing.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Walter Mulombo, WHO country representative, said Nigeria will also receive erythromycin IV in two weeks’ time, pending authorisation by the government.

“These health commodities are essential for saving lives and reducing the sequelae in the affected patients, thus need to be prepositioned in Nigeria and ready to be deployed to the states in need,” he said.

Diphtheria antitoxin is a medication made up of antibodies used in the treatment of the disease while erythromycin IV is an intravenous administration of erythromycin which is a macrolide antibiotic that is used to treat various bacterial infections.

Mulombo said the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had requested WHO to procure the diphtheria antitoxin and erythromycin IV for the management of diphtheria cases.

The country director said a mix of the workforce from the Nigeria field epidemiology and laboratory training programme and the WHO team is on the ground in Yobe and Kano states to improve the surveillance at the health facility and community level.

He added that the organisation is also supporting the procurement of laboratory commodities to increase the result turnaround time to support the case definition and management at an early stage.