Written by OKOYE BLESSING ONYINYE.
Mac/2018/1221
Things you need to know about dis deadly disease called Dipthheria.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) have confirmed and say some people in Lagos and Kano get Diphtheria.
And they are still making some checks on peoplee living in Yobe state and Osun state
Questions many people are asking now is, what is Diphtheria?
Diphtheria is bad bacterial that spread anyhow and is like catarrh for throat, whoch make it hard for person to breathe, eat, and drink, if they dont treat it.
The bacterial can cause serious heart and nerve damage, it enter inside blood. It spread fast in countries where plenty people haven’t collect the immunization.
Now see 10 things you need to know about Diphtheria:
Diphtheria is serious bacterial infection caused by byacterium called Corynebacterium species , it affects nose, throat and sometimes the skin of the person.
You will start to see signs at the 2 to 10 after you’ve contacted the disease.
Diphtheria can spread from direct contact with the person that get it from their spits or when they sneeze or even from clothes and things that their spits have touched.
People that can contact this disease easily are children and adult that have never collect the vaccine that is called pentavalent, people that lives in a dirty area, people living in an unventilated area, and healthcare workers that get contact with people that are infected.
Signs of diphtheria are fever, cattarh, sore throat, cough, red eyes and the person neck will get big. For people that their own case is serious, thick white or grey patch will appear on the back of their throat which will make hard for them to breathe.
Another problem diphtheria can cause is to block the airway, spoil the heart muscle, damage the nerve, and still cause kidney failure. But for some people, breathing diphtheria can kill them.
To prevent it, the Nigeria childhood immunisation plan to arrange three dose of pentavalent vaccine for children at the age of 6th, 10th and 14th weeks old.
To treat diphtheria, you will need to take di vaccine to stop the bacteria toxin so that it will not spoil things inside the body system and you go still use antibiotics to kill and remove the bacteria. The treatment last for two to three weeks.
Persons that have the disease in their body system before, come collect one dose of the vaccine instead of three dose may die cause the disease will come back. Because of reasons parent should make sure their children collect the compelete three dose of the pentavalent vaccine to stop the disease.
People that get signs and symptoms of diphtheria, are advised to separate themselves from other people and they should also contact the Local Government Area authorities, state disease surveillance officier or call NCDC for their toll-free line (6232).