The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has enjoined parents and caregivers in Kano State and other parts of the country to ensure that their children under one year are fully vaccinated with pentavalent vaccines and other childhood vaccines.
The childhood vaccines are bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), Rota virus vaccine, polio vaccine, inactivated polio vaccines (IPV), measles vaccine, yellow fever vaccine and meningitis vaccine.
The executive director of the agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, gave the advice yesterday in Abuja while fielding questions from Daily Trust on Sunday on the recent diphtheria outbreak in Kano and other states.
He said diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease, adding that keeping up to date with recommended vaccines is the best protection against the disease.
Dr Shuaib said the outbreak was a clear indicator of poor immunisation performance in the affected areas in Kano State.
He said the agency was collaborating with Kano State and the affected local government areas, as well as all other stakeholders involved in immunisation service delivery to improve the routine immunisation performance in the state.
