Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, stated in its latest situation report that between April 2022 and March 9, diphtheria has killed 1,319 people across the country.
The report, which covered Week 19 of 2022 through Week 10 of 2025, showed that out of the 42,642 suspected cases recorded in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, comprising 350 local government areas, 25,812 cases were confirmed through laboratory testing, epidemiological linkage or clinical compatibility to have been infected with the disease.
But in Epidemiological Week 10 of 2025, a total of 23 suspected cases were reported across two states, with Lagos accounting for 20 cases and Katsina recording three cases, identified in two local government areas.
Among the 23 suspected cases, none was confirmed through laboratory test, epidemiological linkage or clinical compatibility.
Additionally, no case was officially discarded, while out of the total suspected cases, 10 has pending classification, while the status of 13 cases is currently unknown.
No confirmed cases were reported during the week under review and there were no recorded deaths, maintaining a case fatality rate of zero percent. But in the cumulative period under review, most suspected cases were concentrated in Kano State which reported 24,239 suspected cases, followed by Yobe with 5,330, Katsina with 4,237, Bauchi with 3,066, Borno with 3,058, Kaduna with 777 and Jigawa with 364.
The seven states accounted for 96.3 percent of the total suspected cases, while confirmed cases span 184 local government areas in 26 states with Kano leading with 18,108 cases.
Other states with notable figures include Bauchi (2,334), Yobe (2,408), Katsina (1,501) and Borno (1,161).
Additional confirmed cases were reported in Plateau (119), Jigawa (53), Kaduna (44), Sokoto (31), Zamfara (21) and the FCT (15).
Smaller numbers were recorded in Lagos, Gombe, Edo, Adamawa, Nasarawa, Osun, Abia, Kebbi, Niger, Taraba, Cross-River, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo and Ogun States.
The report also stated that children between one and 14 years of age make up 16,234 of the confirmed cases, or 62.9 percent of the total number, while only 4,981 confirmed cases, 19.3 percent, had received the diphtheria toxoid-containing vaccine.
The fatality distribution shows that Kano accounted for 850 deaths, with Katsina, 114, Yobe, 109, Bauchi, 104 and Borno, 68 also reporting significant numbers.
Additional fatalities occurred in Plateau, 29, Kaduna, 11, Jigawa, 7, the Federal Capital Territory 7, Lagos 6, Sokoto 5, Adamawa 4, Edo 2, Gombe 1, Nasarawa 1, Osun 1 and Ekiti 1.
The NCDC report highlighted several challenges during the outbreak response, notably, test positivity rates that have been very low, with all cases in 2024 confirmed solely through clinical compatibility due to shortage of reagents and consumables necessary for direct polymerase chain reaction testing on clinical samples.
