Diphtheria Outbreak Kills Over 50 Children In Kano

More than 50 children have reportedly died from diphtheria in communities in Rano Local Government Area of Kano State, prompting the Kano State House of Assembly to demand urgent intervention from the state government.

The deaths were disclosed on Monday during plenary by the member representing Rano Constituency, Ibrahim Muhammad, who said the outbreak had become particularly severe in Ridin and Sabuwar Kaura communities.

Muhammad told the House that although emergency measures had been introduced, including the provision of medicines and deployment of health workers, the scale of the outbreak required further intervention.

He urged Governor Abba Yusuf and the Commissioner for Health to urgently provide additional medical support to the affected communities.

The lawmaker expressed concern that the outbreak had returned after a similar incident claimed several lives in the area last year.

“We want to inform the Governor and the Commissioner for Health to send further emergency aid to the region because the disease has spread heavily in that area,” he said.

The outbreak is also reportedly spreading beyond Rano.

The member representing Kiru Constituency, Usman Abubakar Tasiu, said communities including Kwarin Dangora, Dangora town and Yelwa had recorded cases.

Tasiu disclosed that an APC youth leader in Kiru town reportedly lost two children to the disease within a day.

He called for an emergency committee to coordinate the response across Rano, Tudun Wada, Kibiya, Bunkure, Bebeji and Kiru local government areas.

Another lawmaker, Saleh Ahmad, representing Dawakin Tofa, urged the government to intensify vaccination and other preventive measures, warning that diphtheria can spread rapidly, particularly among unvaccinated populations.

The Majority Leader of the House, Lawan Husseini, called for the activation of the state’s Health Protection Law to enable authorities to provide emergency healthcare, isolate affected areas and take other measures necessary to contain the disease.

The House subsequently approved the motion and directed its Committee on Health to engage the Ministry of Health on the implementation of the law and provision of emergency assistance.

Kano’s long-running diphtheria crisis

The latest deaths come against the backdrop of one of Nigeria’s largest diphtheria outbreaks in recent years, with Kano at the centre of the crisis.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and other health authorities began responding to a resurgence of diphtheria in Kano in late 2022.

By early 2023, the state had already become the country’s worst-affected area. In January 2023, Kano authorities reported more than 70 suspected cases and 25 deaths, mostly children.

The World Health Organisation later reported that Nigeria had recorded 557 confirmed diphtheria cases and 73 deaths between May 2022 and April 9, 2023. Kano and Lagos were among the states where outbreaks were initially detected.

The outbreak accelerated significantly in 2023. WHO reported 5,898 suspected cases across 59 local government areas in 11 states between June 30 and August 31, 2023.

Research published on the Kano outbreak found that 18,320 cases were analysed, with the main peak occurring in August 2023 and another smaller peak in early 2024.

The study recorded an overall case-fatality rate of 4.5 per cent and found that unvaccinated patients had more than twice the odds of dying compared with fully vaccinated patients.

More recent figures underline the scale of the crisis. Médecins Sans Frontières said Kano had recorded more than 31,900 suspected cases and over 1,260 deaths between March 2022 and March 22, 2026, according to Kano State Ministry of Health data.

Nigeria’s wider outbreak has also remained substantial. WHO reported more than 20,000 suspected cases and 1,252 deaths nationally between January 1 and November 2, 2025.

The recurrence of deaths in Rano therefore raises fresh concerns about vaccination coverage, early diagnosis and access to treatment in rural communities.

Diphtheria is vaccine-preventable, but gaps in routine immunisation have been identified as one of the factors contributing to its resurgence in Nigeria.

In Kano, health authorities and partners have continued vaccination efforts. MSF said it administered more than 835,000 diphtheria vaccine doses during two rounds of a mass vaccination campaign conducted in the state in 2026.

The House’s latest intervention comes as health authorities face the challenge of preventing another wave of infections and deaths in communities already affected by previous outbreaks.