Edo State Government yesterday said it has received the delivery of 90 doses of anti-diphtheria vaccines, where 70 has been deployed to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). Recall that two people last week died of the infection in what seemed to be a resurgence of the ailment.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Cyril Oshiomhole, stated this shortly after donating the vaccines to the hospital where he said the state government has also got some doses from neighboring Delta State; but it expressed worry that the disease is going beyond expected scope as people that have been fully vaccinated have been found to be infected, including people beyond age five who are not expected to be infected.

He said: “We are working in collaboration with UBTH and NCDC (National Centre for Disease Control), we have spoken with the DG of NCDC and he graciously released 70 doses of anti-diphtheria, and we also reached out to Delta State Ministry of Health and they have been able to give us another 20 doses.

“We are still studying the situation because some of those who are down with diphtheria have a history of full immunisation, we also try to see why someone who is 14 years old have the disease.