Diphtheria has left 80 dead in Nigeria and more than 830 cases between May and June of this year

July 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –

At least 80 people have died and 836 have been identified as confirmed cases of diphtheria throughout the Nigerian territory between May and June 2023, according to the latest balance from the Nigerian Centers for Disease Control (NCDC) published this Sunday.

The state of Kano, in the north of the country, is the most affected by far, registering 819 of the cases, followed by Lagos, with eight cases, Yobe and Katsina, with three and two cases respectively.

The NCDC warns, however, that they have evidence of a total of 2,455 suspected cases in 24 states of the country, and that seven out of ten of them have affected children between the ages of 2 and 14 who, for the most part, were not vaccinated against this disease.

In fact, the NCDC indicates that 665 of the 836 total cases, that is, approximately 77 percent, were identified in uninoculated patients.

Diphtheria is a serious bacterial infection that affects an individual’s nose, throat, and sometimes the skin. The people most at risk of getting diphtheria are children and adults who have not received any or only one dose of the vaccine.