Nigeria cholera cases top 10,000 in 2024
Through the first nine months of 2024, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has reported 10,837 suspected cholera cases, including 359 deaths (3.3% CFR) in all 36 states.
This is a 220 percent increase in cases and a 239 percent increase in deaths compared to the same period in 2023, 3,387 cases and 106 deaths, respectively.
In June 2024, the NCDC issued a public health advisory concerning an increasing trend of cholera in the country. From June to September this year, more than 9,000 suspected cholera cases and 334 deaths were reported.
Of the suspected cases since the beginning of the year, age groups <5 years are mostly affected, followed by the age groups 5 - 14 years.
Lagos (4,667 cases) accounts for 43% of all suspected cases in the country of the 36 States that have reported cases of cholera.
Other states reporting at least 100 cases include Jigawa (870 cases), Kano (809 cases), Borno (588 cases), Katsina (559 cases), Adamawa (553 cases), Bayelsa (513 cases), Bauchi (307 cases), Ebonyi (244 cases), Zamfara (212 cases), Rivers (166 cases), Abia (159 cases), Yobe (146 cases), Ogun (133 cases), Oyo (128 cases).
In the communities affected by the outbreak of the infectious disease, open defecation has been a common practice, the NCDC noted. While also highlighting the poor access to potable water and sanitation, it said this practice has posed a challenge to the country's effort to curb the spread of cholera.
Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration. The cholera outbreak is frequently reported in Nigeria due to the lack of potable water supply, especially in densely populated areas.
In Africa, a total of 156,376 cases (24,335 confirmed; 15 probable; 132,026 suspected) and 2,628 deaths (CFR: 1.68%) of cholera have been reported from 19 African Union Member States.