Four die, 28 hospitalised in Kano

Twenty-eight people have been hospitalised while four others have died following a fresh outbreak of diphtheria in Kano State.

The outbreak according to a statement on Thursday happened in villages in the Mingibir Local Government Area of the state.

The Information Officer of the local government, Tasiu Dadin-Duniya, in a statement on Thursday, said, “Four children have died of diphtheria and 28 children have contracted the disease in Kwarkiya, Kuru, Kunya and Minjibir villages in the Minjibir Local Government Area of the state.

“The Interim Management Officer of the local government, Muhammad Yakubu Kunya, has called on the authorities and stakeholders to immediately reach out to Minjibir Local Government to protect the health of the communities.”

The statement said the District Head of the local government had also urged traditional rulers and Islamic scholars in the communities to stand up to enlighten the community and to pray for relief.

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the State Ministry of Health, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the report had been forwarded to the state Director of  Public Health and had yet to confirm or deny the outbreak.

Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection that affects the nose, throat, and sometimes, the skin of an individual. It is caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium species, mainly by toxin-producing Corynebacterium diphtheriae and rarely by toxin-producing strains of C. ulcerans and C. pseudotuberculosis. It manifests as laryngitis, pharyngitis or tonsillitis and is associated with the presence of an adherent membrane covering the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nose. Beyond the respiratory symptoms, approximately a quarter of cases may develop heart problems (myocarditis).

Data obtained from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention showed that from week nine of 2022 (May 2022) to week 11 of 2022 (mid-March 2024), 16,518 confirmed cases of diphtheria have been reported out of 28,975 suspected cases from 35 states across 317 Local Government Areas.

The data also showed that Kano, Yobe, Katsina, Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, and Jigawa states bear 96.4 per cent burden of the disease.

It added that the disease has killed 839 persons with a case fatality rate of 5.0 per cent.