Nigeria has recorded more than 10,000 confirmed cases of diphtheria in 2026, although the proportion of confirmed cases resulting in death has significantly decreased compared to the same period last year, the Director-General of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr Jide Idris, has revealed.
Idris revealed this on Friday during a press conference on the current cholera and diphtheria outbreaks in the country, saying that the continuing burden of diphtheria remains a major public health problem despite the improvement in the case fatality rate.
He said the majority of confirmed diphtheria cases were concentrated in Kano, Borno and Bauchi states, and inadequate vaccination coverage remained a major factor driving transmission.
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“The central problem is that too many children remain unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. Vaccine hesitancy, insecurity, hard-to-reach communities, displacement and population movements make it more difficult to reach all the children who need protection,” Idris said.
The NCDC chief emphasized that diphtheria was preventable with vaccines and said controlling transmission would require intensified vaccination and efforts to identify children who had missed their routine vaccination doses.
He said the national response focused on strengthening vaccination coverage, rapidly identifying and managing cases, carrying out reactive vaccination in affected communities and providing essential treatment and laboratory products.
Idris said the NCDC was coordinating the response with state governments and partners, while strengthening surveillance and laboratory capacity, supporting health workers in case management and infection prevention and control, and engaging affected communities.
He added that national rapid response teams had also been deployed to the affected states as the need arose to support investigation and response activities.
The NCDC Director General said better surveillance had contributed to the detection of more cases of diphtheria in states where they might not have been identified earlier.
“Diphtheria used to affect three or four northern states. Now it has spread to one or two in this way. And the new spread is just a reflection of the increase in surveillance systems. More cases are being detected than before,” he said.
According to him, the detection of more cases is a positive development because it allows health authorities to respond, but this detection must be accompanied by effective control measures.
“It is an advantage, but when we detect more cases, we must be able to control them and respond appropriately,” Idris said.
He urged state and local governments to ramp up vaccination efforts, particularly in affected, underserved and hard-to-reach communities, while identifying areas with low immunization coverage and reaching children who have missed routine doses.
Idris also called on healthcare workers to maintain a high index of suspicion for diphtheria, quickly identify suspected cases using the standard case definition, report them and ensure proper management.
He said health facilities must have functional triage and isolation systems, adequate personal protective equipment, hand hygiene facilities and systems for prompt notification and referral of suspected cases.
The NCDC chief also urged parents and caregivers to ensure that children are fully vaccinated against diphtheria.
“If a child has missed any recommended dose, take him or her to the nearest health center to complete it. Diphtheria vaccines are safe, effective and available free of charge through routine immunization services and vaccination campaigns,” he said.
He said early presentation for treatment remained vital because immediate action could save lives.
While diphtheria continues to represent a significant burden, Idris said the decline in its case fatality rate was encouraging, but warned that the country could not afford to relax its response.
He called for sustained collaboration between the federal government, states, local governments, health workers, traditional and religious leaders, partners, communities and families to control transmission..
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