news desk Laugh
in Follow-up of diphtheria outbreaks In Nigeria, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has reported a total of 377 suspected cases from seven (7) states across the country. The majority of the 355 cases (96.8%) were from Kano in the month of February.
102 (27.1%) cases were confirmed (9 laboratory confirmed, 93 clinically compatible). Six (6) deaths have been recorded from the confirmed cases.
Cumulatively, between week 19 (mid-May) of 2022 and week 9 (end of February) of 2023, a total of 1,064 suspected cases were reported from 21 states. Kano (843), Yobe (86), Katsina (46), Lagos (22),
Sokoto (14) and Zamfara (13) accounted for 96.2% of the suspected cases.
Of the 1064 reported suspected cases, 389 (36.6%) were confirmed (45 were laboratory confirmed, 343 were clinically compatible and 1 were epidemiologically related).
A total of 62 deaths were recorded among all confirmed cases (mortality rate of 15.9%).
majority (305 [78.4%]) of the confirmed cases occurred among children between the ages of 2 and 14 years. Only 60 (15.4%) of the 389 confirmed cases were fully vaccinated with diphtheria toxoid-containing vaccine.
