The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has said that 23 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have reported suspected cholera cases since January 2021.

The affected states are Benue, Delta, Zamfara, Gombe, Bayelsa, Kogi, Sokoto, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Kebbi, Cross River, Nasarawa, Niger, Jigawa, Yobe, Kwara, Adamawa, Enugu, Katsina, Borno, Taraba and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

An epidemic report issued on Monday by NCDC showed that there were 30 deaths from Niger (10), Katsina (8), Jigawa (6), Kebbi (2), Kogi (2), Sokoto (1) and Zamfara (1) States with CFR of 3.9 per cent.

It said that in the reporting week, 10 states reported 774 suspected cases – Zamfara (218), Jigawa (136), Kebbi (100), Niger (99), Katsina (97), Yobe (60), Sokoto (43), Kano (15), Kogi (4) and
Adamawa (2).

Of this, there were 16 confirmed cases from Yobe (14), Niger (1) and Kebbi
(1).

The NCDC also said that a total of 770 suspected cases were reported this week representing a 34 per cent decrease compared to 1,162 suspected cases recorded in week 30.

In summary, the NCDC said that

as at August 8, 2021, a total of 37,819 suspected cases including 1,178 deaths
(CFR3.1 per cent) have been reported from 23 states and FCT, Benue, Delta, Zamfara, Gombe, Bayelsa, Kogi, Sokoto, Bauchi, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Kebbi,Cross River, Niger, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Yobe, Kwara, Enugu, Adamawa, Katsina, Borno, Taraba and FCT since the beginning of 2021.

The centre said that of the reported cases since the beginning of the year, 26 per cent are aged 5-14 years.

It further said that of all suspected cases, 51 per cent are males and 49 per cent are females.

NCDC explained that there has been a decrease in the number of new cases in the last two weeks.

Bauchi (773), Niger (284), Zamfara (253) and Katsina (217) account for 78.1 per cent of 1,956 cases reported in the last two weeks (30 and 31).

According to NCDC, since the beginning of the year, a total of 1,938 samples have been collected with positive cases as follows: 277 RDT positive only; 82 culture positive; 359 RDT and culture positive.

It said the test positivity rate (TPR) for laboratory confirmation by culture is 23 per cent.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.