The Katsina State Government Saturday debunked news report by some media houses that 115 people died in a mysterious disease outbreak which hit Matazu Local Government Area during the week insisting that the casualty figures being quoted on the outbreak in that local government should stand at 45 reported cases with 18 deaths recorded

The Executive Secretary of the State’s Primary Health Care Development Agency, PHCDA, Dr Shamsudeen Yahaya told The Nation during an exclusive interview that 11 samples already collected from patients in Matazu Local government area, were subjected to laboratory tests out of which 5 were returned negative while the results of the remaining 6 were still been awaited, to enable the personnel to confirm whether the attack is yellow fever or not.

He said, “we have a line list of the victims collected serially with clear indications of the Epid numbers, names, ages, sex, onset specimen and their outcomes whether dead or alive.

‘’we are equally worried about the attitude of some citizens towards vaccination and refusal to accept health care services despite the fact that the state government spends heavily on health care delivery.”

The PHCDA boss further disclosed that Kofar Shia Ruwa in Matazu Ward A is the worst hit in the attack and that presently 88% of total targeted population of 154,152 has been covered on Yellow fever vaccination in Matazu

Meanwhile the Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Health, Dr Kabir Mustapha has state that it has completely vaccinated about 6.3million citizens against yellow fever attacks and other sundry epidermises insisting that with the conclusion of the vaccination campaigns in 33 out of the 34 local government areas in the state, there is no much cause for concern on the Yellow fever outbreak in the state

The Permanent Secretary, who told The Nation in another exclusive interview that the State Government is always proactive in handling heath care challenges, further assured that with the acquisition of about 7m vaccines by the state Government plus the current massive campaign efforts, the state is no longer vulnerable to yellow fever attacks

He said, “we have recorded over 80 percent coverage of the state‘s population in the vaccination campaign targeting the ages of 9 months to 44 years.

‘’our major concern now is to find out whether the victims have accessed vaccination, whether they migrated from one location to another, and whether the vaccination they received was subjected to forensic investigation to establish its potency.” (The Nation)

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