Diphtheria cases in Nigeria growing alarmingly

Situation

Nigeria formally declared a diphtheria outbreak in January 2023 after suspected cases had been reported from May 2022. The independently published Health Science Reports article that cited this WorldsAid node recorded 2,006 suspected cases, 672 confirmed cases and 73 deaths between May 2022 and May 2023. It identified low immunisation coverage, delayed access to diphtheria antitoxin, weak cold-chain capacity and gaps in surveillance as major response challenges. This restored record preserves the cited crisis page while directing readers to the dated evidence and the World Health Organization's outbreak notice.

Verified figures

Suspected cases

2,006 · May 2022 to May 2023 retained at 2026-09-13

Confirmed cases

672 retained at 2026-09-13

Reported deaths

73 retained at 2026-09-13

Case fatality ratio

10.9% among confirmed cases retained at 2026-09-13

What we knew when

1. 2023-03-14WorldsAid record entered the retained historical dataset.
2. 2026-09-13Last verification represented by this immutable snapshot.

Earlier figures are never replaced by later values; additional observations are retained as new ledger entries.

Provenance

This page renders the last verified WorldsAid cache directly in HTML. It does not treat generated summaries as primary evidence.

Cached dataset: worldsai_drup771.sql.gz
Record SHA-256: 6146fb5d1b7145a84bb08d2de12ebca5007761218a5d1df102c73ee7df76407e

Legacy cited address: worldsaid.com/node/1826. This permanent address is connected to the current record.

Independent citation trail: View the publication or record that cites this WorldsAid node.

• WHO · Diphtheria – Nigeria · 27 April 2023
• Health Science Reports · independent citation of WorldsAid node 1826
• NIH PubMed Central · preserved open-access article and citation

Open the provenance ledger →