Determinants of diphtheria outbreaks and predictors of outcomes; lessons learnt from 2025 outbreak in Imo State, Nigeria

Diphtheria is a potentially fatal infectious that presents mostly with respiratory symptoms in which an exotoxin produced by the causative pathogen causes tissue destruction and death if untreated. This quantitative, descriptive, longitudinal study aims to determine the determinants of diphtheria outbreak and the predictors of outcomes in Imo State, in southeast Nigeria.

Data was collected during the outbreak response using standardized Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, data tools deployed for the response, entered into an Excel ® 2016 line-list, visualized and exported into SPSS® version 20 software for analysis. Additional immunization and surveillance data were extracted from the DHIS2 and SORMAS respectively. Analysis was done using descriptive statistics and associations between categorical variables were tested using Fisher’s exact method at 0.05 level of significance. A total of 205 suspected and 160 confirmed cases of diphtheria were reported across 73 wards in 17 LGAs of Imo State. Among these, 160 were confirmed cases; 67 laboratory-confirmed cases, 11 epidemiological linkages, and 82 were clinically compatible. A total of 15 deaths were recorded with a case fatality rate (CFR) of 9.4%.

There were more females (110, 53.7%) than males (95, 46.3%), 73% (n=11) of deaths were among the males while 27% (n=4) were females. The study found a significant association between gender and death from the infection (p < 0.05). The infection affected predominantly children with 74.6% (n = 153) affecting ages 0 – 14 years and 93.4% (n = 192) occurring below the age of 40. All deaths (100%, n = 15), occurred among children between 4-9 years, late presenters (78%), children with bullneck (100%) and children with no DAT administered at the point of admission (93.3%).