Confusion has surrounded the reported outbreak of diphtheria in Taraba as the state’s Epidemiologist and the Commissioner for Health gave conflicting figures on the number of confirmed cases and deaths recorded from the disease.
While the State Epidemiologist and Coordinator of Health Security, Dr Udi Aketemo, said 15 cases had been confirmed with one death recorded, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Bordiya Buma, said the state had recorded only one case, adding that the patient was stable.
Aketemo, who disclosed the figures while speaking with journalists, said the first confirmed case was recorded in Bali Local Government Area of the state.
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He said, “Yes, we have recorded 15 cases of diphtheria with one dead.”
However, contradicting the Epidemiologist’s account, Buma said he was aware of only one confirmed case and that the patient was responding well to treatment.
The commissioner said, “It’s only one case, I don’t know of other cases, and the patient is in stable condition. The patient is not dead, and we have not recorded a fatality case of the disease.”
The conflicting statements from the two senior health officials have raised questions over the actual scale of the diphtheria outbreak in the state and the number of fatalities, with no single figure provided in the statements to reconcile the discrepancy.
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