Nigeria reports 453 deaths from 7,202 confirmed cases of diphtheria

According to the Federal Government, since the current diphtheria outbreak began in December 2022, Nigeria has reported 453 deaths out of 7,202 confirmed cases of the disease.

As of September 24, 2023, there had been 11,587 reported suspected cases, out of which 7,202 were confirmed, from 105 Local Government Areas in 18 States, including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, according to a statement released on Monday by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in partnership with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

The majority (6,185) of the confirmed cases, according to the statement, were noted in Kano.

Yobe (640 cases), Katsina (213 cases), Borno (95), Kaduna (16 cases), Jigawa (14 cases), Bauchi (8), Lagos (8), FCT (5), Gombe (5), Osun (3), Sokoto (3), Niger (2), Cross River (1), Enugu (1), Imo (1), Nasarawa (1), and Zamfara (1) are the other states with cases.

According to the statement, children between the ages of 1 and 14 made up the majority (73.6%) of confirmed cases, with those between the ages of 5 and 14 bearing the brunt of the disease.

The case fatality rate (CFR) for confirmed cases, which is 453 deaths, is 6.3 percent, according to the statement.

According to the statement, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, established a National Emergency Task Team for higher level coordination of outbreak response efforts after discovering that 80% of confirmed cases in the ongoing outbreak are unvaccinated. The task team is co-chaired by the Executive Director of the NPHCDA and the Director General of the NCDC.

The Federal Ministry of Information, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, USCDC, USAID, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, some non-governmental organisations, and development partners are among the task force’s additional members.

According to the statement, the ministry has been working with its agencies to coordinate surveillance and response activities across the nation ever since the outbreak was confirmed. These activities include case management, vaccination, response coordination, surveillance, laboratory investigation, and risk communication.

One of the vaccines typically delivered through Nigeria’s children immunisation schedule protects against the vaccine-preventable disease known as diphtheria, which is brought on by a toxin produced by the bacteria Corynebacterium Diphtheriae.