Nigeria is currently experiencing a serious outbreak of the bacterial infection diphtheria. This is a consequence of low vaccination rates and global shortage of diphtheria treatment. These twin issues are exacerbating the outbreak in Nigeria as well as regionally. Consequently thousands of people have been infected and hundreds have died.
This is the stark assessment of the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The medical organisation is urging the international community to immediately scale up support to improve treatment, implement preventive measures, and carry out contact tracing to control the outbreak’s spread.
Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control declared an outbreak of the disease on January 20, 2023. Between May and early September, more than 6,000 confirmed cases were recorded. Approximately 4,000 suspected cases were recorded in the country in August 2023 alone, with over three-quarters coming from Kano State.
This bacterial outbreak has surpassed Nigeria’s worst diphtheria outbreak in decades, which occurred in 1989 and infected 5,039 people. Women and children aged under five are the most vulnerable groups.
Diphtheria is a highly contagious bacterial disease that can present in respiratory or cutaneous forms (caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheriae). It is vaccine-preventable, but Nigeria has low vaccination coverage. Vaccination is important since the disease can kill half of people who are infected if they do not receive proper treatment.
MSF teams are responding to the outbreak in the states of Kano, Borno, and Bauchi. However, their efforts are hindered by the worldwide shortage of diphtheria antitoxin. In the country, only 70 percent of children have received their first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine. There has been a decline in immunization leading to some 25 million un- or under-vaccinated children.
In addition to international organizations must scale up improved surveillance and contact tracing to help curb the disease’s spread, according to MSF. This needs to be supported by measures to strengthen the local health system so people who fall ill can receive care more quickly and before their conditions become dire.
In nearby Guinea there is also an increase in cases. Here, more than 100 people have been admitted there since the start of activities.
