Cholera Kills 103 in Nigeria; 3,623 Cases Reported

Despite the staggering morbid statistics recording the ongoing cholera outbreak ravaging parts of the country, the situation is grossly under-reported and may represent the true depth of the problem.

This was disclosed at a press briefing, on Tuesday, by the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, who announced that a staggering 3,623 suspected cases of cholera and 103 deaths have been recorded in Nigeria.

Dr. Idris was giving an update on the prevalence of the deadly and highly infectious disease.

He said that the cases and deaths were recorded across 187 local government areas across 34 states, as well as the federal capital territory (FCT) as of Tuesday, July 15, 2024.

The NCDC boss added that there had been a cumulative case fatality rate of 2.8 percent since the beginning of the year.

“The predominant age affected is five years old, while males account for 52 percent of cases and females account for the rest,” said Idris.

“Furthermore, there was a 5.6 percent decline in the number of cases in this reporting week (8th–14th July) as compared to the preceding week. We also recorded a drop in the case fatality rate from 2.9 percent to 2.8 percent.

“There is a decline in the case fatality rate from week 24, when the spike started, to the present week.

“Whereas ongoing current efforts at the national and some state levels might have been yielding some results and largely responsible for the decline being reported, however, given the trend from previous years, we know it is not uhuru yet.

“The trend analysis from previous outbreaks shows the peak of the outbreak usually coincides with the peak of the rainy season, which is still some weeks ahead.

“Also, some of the northern traditional hot-spot states have been reporting fewer number of cases, which may be connected with the delayed onset of the rainy season in this part of the country.”

The NCDC DG said there was an under-reporting of the situation because required data from the states was not coming in real-time.

“This is largely due to inadequate resources to support surveillance and disease detection activities at the sub-national level,” he said.