The federal government of Nigeria has appealed for a sum of 1 billion USD to acquire meningitis vaccine for at least 22 million people in five states battling meningitis outbreak, Daily Trust reports.
“The vaccination of 22 million in the five affected states will cost $1.1bn. The vaccine is expensive, scarce and it takes about a month to be imported into the country,” said Dr. Emmanuel Odu, an official with the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA)
According to Dr. Odu, Nigeria currently has 500,000 doses of the vaccine and 823,000 doses are expected as well.
Nigeria is working with an Indian firm to source for 2 million vaccines to fight the infection spreading in the West African nation. A drop of the vaccine costs between 30 USD and 50 USD according to Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu from the National Coordinator of the Centre for Disease Control.
The Meningitis outbreak began in December 2016 in Zamfara State in northwestern Nigeria before spreading to 16 other states. The disease has recorded 2,524 cases across 16 states of the country.
eNCa reports that at least more than 300 people have died since December, in what officials are calling the worst outbreak in the country in almost a decade.
“Presently we have 1,828 suspected cases… and we have 269 deaths in about 15 states,” Olubunmi Ojo of the National Centre for Disease Control told local television.
