The Director General of Kano State Primary Healthcare Management Board, Dr. Muhammad Mahmud, has revealed that approximately 520 children are believed to have succumbed to the diphtheria outbreak in the state in 2023.
He made this announcement during a one-day media briefing regarding the diphtheria outbreak, with support from the United Nations Children’s Fund, held in Kano on Tuesday
“There is data we generated through our digital surveillance and reporting system. This year Kano reported about 8,700 suspected cases of diphtheria and 6,300 confirmed, with about 520 children suspected to have died of this illness.
“We tracked this on a daily and weekly, we believe the cases are much more than what we are getting, as we witness the increase of the cases from July,” he said.
The DG said that out of the 44 local governments in the state, 39 reported instances, and that the cases deteriorated inside the eight urban local governments.
According to him, UNICEF continued to support the government of Kano State this week by delivering 1.2 million immunisations as part of the government’s response to the diphtheria outbreaks.
