The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said the country has recorded a total of 4,915 suspected cases of cerebrospinal meningitis from 24 states in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.

The Director General of the NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, who disclosed this at a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, stated that it has also recorded 361 deaths with a case fatality rate of 7.3 per cent from the disease.

He said, “A total of 859 samples were collected from the reported suspected cases since the beginning of the
outbreak, and 378 were confirmed (44 per cent positivity rate). Neisseria meningitides serogroup C account for 90 per cent, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) six per cent, Spn -three per cent, NmX, and NmW one per cent each.

“Age group five to 15 years were reported the most affected. 60 per cent of the total suspected cases are male. The five most affected states are Yobe (3014), Bauchi (517), Jigawa (389), Katsina (352), and Gombe (316), which account for 93 per cent of all cases reported.

“There has been an increase in several cases (4915) by 157 per cent in the 2023/2024 season compared with (1914) cases in the 2022/2023 season.”

He added that there is a high increase in the trend of cases in 2024 compared to the last four years ( 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively).