A report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has revealed that at least 389 persons have been infected with diphtheria, killing 62 of them in 2023.

The Week nine Diphtheria situation report obtained by our correspondent from the NCDC on Thursday revealed that Kano leads with 377 cases; followed by Lagos with seven; Yobe two; while Katsina, Osun, and Kaduna reported one case each.

Diphtheria is a bacterial infection caused by Corynebacterium species that affects the nose, throat and, sometimes, the skin.

Also, a total of 1,064 suspected cases were reported from 21 states with Kano taking the lead with 843, Yobe, 86, Katsina, 46, Lagos, 22, Sokoto 14, and Zamfara 13

The six states accounted for 96.2 per cent of suspected cases.

The report stated, “Of the 1,064 suspected cases reported, 389 (36.6 per cent) were confirmed (45 were lab-confirmed, 343 clinically-compatible, and one was epidemiologically-linked), 322 (30.3 per cent) were discarded, 201 (18.9 per cent) are pending classification and 152 (14.3 per cent) are unknown.

“The confirmed cases were distributed across 24 local government areas in six states. The majority, 305, representing 78.4 per cent of the confirmed cases, occurred among children aged two to 14 years.

“A total of 62 deaths were recorded among all confirmed cases (CFR: 15.9 per cent). Only 60 (15.4 per cent) out of 389 confirmed cases were fully vaccinated with a Diphtheria toxin-containing vaccine.”