… Records 62 deaths

By Chioma Obinna

Nigeria has recorded another 377 new suspected cases of Diphtheria, bringing the total number of cases to 1,064 from 21 states.

Disclosing this in the latest Epi situation report for Week 19 2022 to Week 09 2023, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, also stated that 62 deaths have been recorded from the outbreak.

The new 377 suspected cases were reported from seven states across the country. The majority 355 (96.8 per cent) were from Kano.

The situation report which is the Epi situation report of Week 6-9 2023 showed that of the 377 suspected cases reported, 102 (27.1 per cent) were confirmed (9 lab-confirmed, 93 clinically compatible), 113 (30.0 per cent) were discarded, 148 (39.3 per cent) are pending classification & 14 (3.7 per cent) were unknown.  

“Six deaths were also recorded from confirmed cases (CFR: 5.8 per cent) within the period.

With the latest Epi-week 19 2022 to Epi-week 09 2023, Nigeria has recorded a total of 1,064 suspected cases. Kano has the highest number of cases -843, Yobe 86, Katsina 46, Lagos 22, Sokoto 14, and Zamfara 13. The cases from these states accounted for 96.2 per cent of suspected cases,” the report disclosed.

NCDC further explained that of the 1,064 suspected cases reported, 389 (36.6%) were confirmed (45 were lab confirmed, 343 were clinically compatible and 1 was epidemiologically linked), 322 (30.3%) were discarded, 201 (18.9%) are pending classification and 152 (14.3 per cent) are unknown.

The confirmed cases were distributed across 24 LGAs in six States.  

Also, the majority (305 [78.4%]) of the confirmed cases occurred among children aged 2 – 14 years. A total of 62 deaths were recorded among all confirmed. Only 60 (15.4 per cent) out of 389 confirmed cases were fully vaccinated with a Diphtheria toxin-containing vaccine