Thirty four children have so far died in the current outbreak of measles that has been ravaging the northern states in the past two months.
State health officials who confirmed the deaths to our correspondents also said over 2,708 children aged between nine months and three years are on admission in hospitals.
Zamfara State recorded the highest number of casualties with 14 deaths. Nine died in Katsina, six in Niger, four in Yobe while a young child died in Kano few hours after he was brought to the hospital.
In Katsina about 1,260 children are infected while the outbreak in Kano doubled to 800 from 400 we reported in Daily Trust yesterday.
Other states with sizable number of infections are Yobe with 361, Zamfara 136, Benue 53, Nasarawa 30, Taraba 5, while Kaduna and Bauchi recorded 18 cases each.
Doctors confirmed there is outbreak in Sokoto but gave no figures while in Kogi unnamed officials told our correspondent the disease is yet to be reported in any hospital.
Even though parents attributed the outbreak of the viral disease to inadequate supply of vaccines which leads to poor routine immunization for children, federal and state officials on the other hand said many parents respond poorly to the immunization drive.
'Kids not immunized'
In Katsina, Health Commissioner Hussani Yammama confirmed the death of nine children, saying the outbreak affected all the 34 local government areas with 1,260 children so far infected. READ MORE
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