The recent outbreak of cholera and gastroenteritis and the attendant deaths in the northern Nigerian state of Bauchi and subsequent spread to other states once again brought to the fore the vulnerability of children and mothers in Nigeria to common ailments.

The initial death toll and incidence attributed to the cholera outbreak by most media reports showed that 67 had died with 1,700 cases of infection as at August 17. This however, contradicts the 79 deaths at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), which the Chief Medical Director (CMD) says occurred mostly among nursing mothers, pregnant women and infants.

As at 24 August, the number of reported deaths from the outbreak had increased to 129, with 5,329 cases of infections.

This outbreak is coming at a time the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) in Geneva, Switzerland says no child should die of diarrhea, another preventable childhood killer disease.

President and CEO of PATH, Chris Elias, said diarrhea is the second biggest killer of young children, taking the lives of 1.3 million children each year.

"The saddest part is that we know what it takes to save so many of these lives: Clean water, good sanitation, breastfeeding, access to rehydration and vaccines," Elias said.

Negligence of these factors was brought to bear with the Bauchi incidence. The CMD of ATBU Teaching Hospital disclosed in a statement sequel to the outbreak that, "The high rate of deaths among nursing mothers, pregnant women and children especially during the Ramadan period is a consequence of the fact that they are groups of people that are excused from fasting," meaning the death would have been higher.

The statement pointed out that "It is common to see wells from which water for drinking and cooking is fetched being located very close to pit toilets and that contaminated water from these wells easily sip into the wells of other households" causing infections.

Northern Nigeria has some of the highest rates of maternal, newborn and child mortality in the world, according to Health partners.

A similar incidence with diarrhea could be avoided as recent data published in The Lancet show that vaccines against rotavirus, the main cause of severe diarrhoea in children under five, could save hundreds of thousands of lives, if children living in poor countries could get them.

Elias, however lamented poor responses from the GAVI alliance countries, saying, "Yet so far, just four GAVI Alliance countries vaccinate against rotavirus. One of those countries, Bolivia, considers the vaccines such a vital investment it is already co-financing nearly half the total price.

Experts in the field of rotavirus from around the world recently called on donors to increase funding for GAVI.