Nigeria has disclosed that a total of 81,413 suspected cases of cholera have so far been recorded in the country with 2,791 deaths.

An epidiomology report issued by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) stated that Cholera disease was reported in 28 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 2021.

The states are Abia, Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Enugu, FCT, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, Rivers and Zamfara.

According to the NCDC, 15 states reported 1,825 suspected cases in the last one week.

The states included: Zamfara (524), Bauchi (347), Yobe (302), Katsina (282), Borno (139), Adamawa (76), Kano (46), Jigawa (22), Kebbi (22), Gombe (22), Sokoto (13), Kaduna (12), Abia (12), Kwara (5) and Taraba (1).

It said there was a 38 percent decrease in the number of new suspected cases in week 37 (1,825) compared with week 36 (2,955).

The report said: “Zamfara (524), Bauchi (347), Yobe (302), Katsina (282) and Borno (139) account for 87.3 percent of 1825 suspected cases reported in week 37

“During the reporting week, 36 Cholera Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) were conducted. RDT conducted were from Adamawa (18), Kaduna (11), Zamfara (2), Yobe (2), Abia (2) and Kwara (1).”

Of this, a total of 21 (58%) were positive by RDT

“A total of 10 Culture tests were conducted in Katsina (6), Adamawa (3) and Kaduna (1). Of this, two (20 percent) were positive

“Of the cases reported, there were 55 deaths from Zamfara (19), Adamawa (7), Yobe (7), Jigawa (6) Katsina (5), Borno (5), Kebbi (2), Bauchi (2), and Kwara (2) states with a weekly case fatality ratio (CFR) of 3.0 percent,” it said.

The NCDC stated that cumulatively, as at September 19, 2021, a total of 81,413 suspected cases including 2,791 deaths

(CFR 3.4 percent) have been reported from 28 states and FCT in 2021.

The report stated that among the suspected cases since the beginning of the year, age group 5 – 14 years was the most affected age group for male and female.

Also, of all suspected cases, 50 percent are males and 50 percent are females.

In addition, the report said that three states of Bauchi (19,309 cases), Kano (11,783 cases) and Jigawa (10,758 cases), accounted for 51 per cent of all cumulative cases.

NCDC further said that 10 Local Government Areas across five states (Bauchi (4), Jigawa (2), Zamfara (2), Kano (1) and Katsina (1) have reported more than 1,000 cases.

(THISDAY: Excluding headline)

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