As the cholera outbreak continues to hit Nigeria hard, a total of 3,208 deaths have been recorded out of a total of 88,704 suspected cholera cases reported in 366 local government areas of 31 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, since the beginning of 2021.
Disclosing this in its latest weekly epidemiological situation report for Week 39, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, listed the affected states as Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, FCT, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Rivers and Zamfara.
From the report, three states – Bauchi (19,451 cases), Kano (12,116 cases), and Jigawa (10,763 cases) account for 48 percent of all cumulative cases even as 11 LGAs across five states – Bauchi (4), Zamfara (3), Jigawa (2), Kano (1), and Katsina (1), have reported more than 1,000 cases each since January 2021.
According to the NCDC, in the reporting week, 35 LGAs in 13 states accounted for 737 suspected cases recorded with a case fatality ratio of 1.5 percent. The states are Yobe (230), Zamfara (136), Bauchi (113), Sokoto (84), Adamawa (42), Katsina (35), Oyo (32), Ebonyi (26), Kebbi (26), Gombe (5), Nasarawa (4), Kano (3) and Abia (1).
There were deaths recorded in five states – Sokoto (3), Yobe (3), Bauchi (3), Ebonyi (1) and Kebbi (1), with a weekly case fatality ratio of 1.5 percent. Two new states (Ebonyi and Oyo) reported cases in week 39, the NCDC noted.
The agency confirmed that there was a 37 percent decrease in the number of new suspected cases in week 39 (737) compared with week 38 (1,163), even as it noted that Yobe (230), Zamfara (136) and Bauchi (113) account for 65 percent of the suspected cases reported in week 39.
Further, the NCDC revealed that during the reporting week, 159 Cholera Rapid Diagnostic Tests, RDT, were conducted from Zamfara (136), and Adamawa (23), out of which a total of 12 (8 percent) were positive.
In addition, a total of 137 culture tests were conducted, 136 in Zamfara and Adamawa (1), out of which 3 (2 percent) were positive.
From the report, of the suspected cases since the beginning of the year, the 5 – 14 years age group is the most affected age group for male and female even as the suspected cases are equally distributed among males and females.
Cholera is endemic in Northern Nigeria and over the last two decades, the country has faced three major cholera epidemics.
The agency said the National multi-sectoral EOC activated at level 2 continues to coordinate the national response to the intermittent and recurrent outbreaks.
