Nigeria has recorded over 1,640 suspected cases of yellow fever with 41 of them confirmed. This is even as several states in the country including Kogi, Anambra, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Edo and Benue have reported the outbreak of the epidemic.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuaib disclosed this in Abuja on Monday, assuring however that the Federal Government has a stockpile of vaccines to contain the outbreak of the disease.

“There is a global stockpile of vaccines meant for such outbreaks. The vaccines are supposed to be for prevention. Nigeria is one the high risk countries in Africa for yellow fever.

“So there is stockpile of vaccine and as at the last time, it was about 6m doses with additional vaccine doses that are added to that,” Dr. Shuaib said.

While expressing government’s readiness to ensure local production of the vaccines, Shuaib said the government was planning to establish a reference laboratory in the country within the next six months to reduce logistics challenges.

He observed that the country has been experiencing sporadic outbreaks of yellow fever since September 12, 2017 when the first case was confirmed in a 7-year-old child from Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.

He further revealed that recent reports from the World Health Organization’s Regional Reference Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal indicate that there are over 1,640 suspected cases line-listed with 41 already confirmed.