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Diphtheria

Diphtheria is spreading among unvaccinated Nigerians, toxic alcohol has killed 48 people in Ondo, polio teams are still searching for missed children, while government is strengthening patient-safety systems exposing a health system increasingly forced to respond after lives are already at risk

Nigeria’s health sector is confronting a troubling paradox.

The country is expanding vaccination surveillance, strengthening patient-safety systems and investing in digital health, yet preventable illnesses and avoidable health emergencies continue to claim lives across communities.

In September alone, a suspected methanol-poisoning outbreak in Ondo State has killed 48 people and affected 182 others; health authorities say about 68 per cent of confirmed diphtheria cases were among people who were unvaccinated; and the World Health Organisation is supporting Nigeria to improve data systems for finding children who have been missed during polio vaccination campaigns.

At the same time, the Federal Government has renewed its focus on patient safety, warning that people living with chronic diseases face multiple points at which unsafe diagnosis, medication errors, poor communication and fragmented care can cause avoidable harm.

Taken together, the developments raise a broader question for Nigeria’s healthcare system:

Why are so many health emergencies reaching the point of crisis before prevention succeeds?

The answer is not a single failure.

It is a combination of immunisation gaps, weak surveillance, unsafe products, limited public awareness, difficulties reaching vulnerable populations and the continuing challenge of ensuring that healthcare institutions consistently deliver safe and coordinated care.

The consequences are measured not merely in statistics but in deaths, blindness, hospital admissions and families forced to confront illnesses that in many cases could have been prevented or detected earlier.

THE ONDO WARNING

The latest and most immediate warning is coming from Ondo State.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has linked a deadly outbreak in parts of the state to high concentrations of methanol found in locally prepared alcoholic and herbal concoctions.

As of September 17, NAFDAC said 182 cases had been recorded and 48 people had died.

The affected communities include New Town, Odole, Okele, Orita Odigbo, Araromi-Obu and Oniparaga in Odigbo Local Government Area, as well as communities in Irele Local Government Area.

NAFDAC said five victims had been rendered totally blind and two others partially blind. Ninety affected people had been admitted and discharged, while 31 were treated as outpatients and six remained hospitalised.

The laboratory findings have made the incident even more disturbing.

NAFDAC said 15 unlabelled samples of the suspected drinks were subjected to laboratory analysis, with gas chromatography confirming high concentrations of methanol.

Eleven of the 15 samples also tested positive for Cannabis indica.

Methanol is highly toxic when ingested. Severe poisoning can cause visual impairment, organ damage and death.

The Ondo tragedy therefore exposes a public-health vulnerability that extends beyond the individual consumers.

It raises questions about the production, distribution and consumption of unregistered alcoholic and herbal preparations and the ability of regulators to identify dangerous products before they reach large numbers of people.

Fifteen people have been arrested as investigations continue.

But arrests after dozens of deaths cannot reverse the damage suffered by victims.

For the five people who lost their sight completely, regulatory action came after permanent harm had already occurred.

That is the central lesson of the Ondo outbreak.

Public-health protection is most effective before the first victim enters a hospital.

THE DANGEROUS GAP BETWEEN REGULATION AND REALITY

The popularity of locally prepared alcoholic and herbal products also illustrates the complexity of regulation in Nigeria.

For many consumers, particularly in poorer communities, locally produced beverages can be cheaper and more accessible than commercially manufactured alternatives.

That accessibility can make dangerous products difficult to control once they enter informal distribution networks.

The Ondo incident demonstrates why product regulation cannot depend solely on laboratory testing after an outbreak has begun.

It requires surveillance, enforcement, public education and cooperation between regulators, local authorities and communities.

The question is how many potentially dangerous products remain outside effective monitoring before somebody becomes ill.

That is a question the Ondo deaths have made impossible to ignore.

DIPHTHERIA: WHEN VACCINE GAPS BECOME DEATHS

The same prevention problem is visible in Nigeria’s continuing battle against diphtheria.

Diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease.

Yet Nigeria continues to record outbreaks, with children particularly vulnerable.

Data presented by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 68 per cent of confirmed diphtheria cases were among people who were unvaccinated.

Another 28 per cent did not know their vaccination status.

The NCDC also reported that eight states accounted for 98 per cent of confirmed cases.

Those figures reveal an important distinction.

The existence of a vaccine does not automatically mean a population is protected.

Vaccines have to reach people.

Parents and caregivers have to accept them.

Children have to complete the recommended schedules.

Health workers must have reliable records.

And governments have to identify communities where vaccination coverage remains dangerously low.

Where any of those links break down, a vaccine-preventable disease can return.

For families who lose children to diphtheria, the issue is no longer an abstract question of immunisation coverage.

It becomes a question of whether an intervention that could have prevented severe disease actually reached the child.

THE CHILDREN WHO ARE INVISIBLE IN THE DATA

Nigeria’s polio programme provides another illustration of the same challenge.

The WHO recently supported training for 62 data and information-management officers drawn from Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The objective is to strengthen the use of data to identify children who have been missed during vaccination campaigns.

That sounds technical.

It is not.

Behind every incomplete vaccination record is potentially a child who remains vulnerable.

An outdated settlement map can mean vaccinators do not know where a community has moved.

A delayed report can mean health workers arrive after a campaign has ended.

An incomplete record can make it difficult to determine whether a child has received a vaccine.

The WHO has stressed that stronger data can help teams identify these gaps and follow up more quickly.

This is one of the less visible battles in public health.

Nigeria does not only need vaccines.

It needs accurate information about who has received them and who has not.

The global polio emergency committee has also identified insecurity, inaccessibility, population displacement and concentrations of zero-dose and under-immunised children among factors driving outbreaks.

The implication is clear: immunisation is also a logistics problem.

A vaccine sitting in a refrigerator does not protect a child who cannot be reached.

THE PATIENT CAN ALSO BE AT RISK INSIDE THE HOSPITAL

Nigeria’s health challenge does not end when a patient reaches a hospital.

The Federal Government is now placing renewed emphasis on patient safety, particularly for Nigerians living with noncommunicable diseases.

At the commemoration of World Patient Safety Day 2026, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said patients with conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases can face multiple safety risks because their treatment often involves prolonged interaction with the healthcare system.

The risks can occur during diagnosis, medication, referral, follow-up and long-term management.

The ministry specifically identified medication errors, unsafe diagnosis, poor communication and fragmented care among potential sources of avoidable harm.

The government said it established a National Task Force on Clinical Governance and Patient Safety in January 2026 and is developing a National Framework on Clinical Governance and Patient Safety.

It is also advocating a “Just Culture” that allows healthcare workers to report incidents and near misses without inappropriate punishment.

That approach recognises an important reality.

Patient safety is not simply about whether an individual doctor or nurse makes a mistake.

It is also about whether the system makes mistakes more likely.

A poorly communicated referral, missing medical record, unavailable medicine or failure to follow up a patient can create risks even when individual healthcare workers are trying to do their jobs properly.

DIGITAL HEALTH CAN DATA FIX WHAT DATA MISSES?

The Federal Government is simultaneously accelerating digital transformation in the health sector.

The Ministry of Health announced the inauguration of a steering committee for the National Health Technology and Data Analytics Office, aimed at strengthening coordination, standardisation and integration of health technology and data systems.

That initiative could become important because Nigeria’s health system generates enormous amounts of information.

But information is useful only when it is complete, accurate, connected and acted upon.

The polio experience demonstrates this clearly.

Better data can identify missed children.

Patient-safety systems can use incident reports to identify recurring problems.

Digital health platforms can improve coordination.

But technology cannot compensate for a health worker who never reaches a remote settlement or a patient who cannot afford transport to a hospital.

The real test will therefore be whether digital transformation improves outcomes on the ground.

PREVENTION IS CHEAPER THAN CRISIS RESPONSE

The common thread linking these emergencies is prevention.

Diphtheria demands vaccination.

Polio demands complete immunisation coverage.

Methanol poisoning demands effective regulation and public awareness.

Patient safety demands systems that identify errors before they cause harm.

Each intervention requires resources.

But the cost of failing to prevent disease can be considerably greater.

An outbreak creates emergency treatment costs.

A severely poisoned patient may require intensive medical care.

A child disabled by a preventable disease may require long-term support.

A patient harmed by a medication error may need additional treatment.

The financial cost is accompanied by something that cannot be calculated easily: the effect on families.

That is why prevention cannot be treated as a secondary component of healthcare.

It is the foundation.

THE WARNING FOR NIGERIA

The current health emergencies do not suggest that Nigeria’s healthcare system is standing still.

There are clear efforts to improve immunisation data, strengthen patient safety, expand digital health and improve regulatory enforcement.

But the simultaneous emergence of multiple preventable health threats demonstrates how fragile progress can become when prevention does not reach every community.

The Ondo poisoning crisis is a reminder that unsafe products can move through communities until tragedy exposes them.

The diphtheria figures show that vaccine availability means little if large numbers of people remain unprotected.

READ ALSO: Shettima: Tinubu’s Intervention Made 2026 Hajj Seamless

The polio programme demonstrates that health authorities can still struggle to identify every child who needs protection.

And the government’s patient-safety reforms acknowledge that even people who successfully reach healthcare facilities can face avoidable risks.

These are different problems.

But they point towards the same requirement: a health system that detects risks before they become emergencies.

Nigeria’s next major health challenge may not come with a warning that makes national headlines.

It could begin with an unvaccinated child, an unregistered product, an incomplete patient record or a community missing from a health database.

By the time the first death is reported, prevention may already have failed.

That is why the most important measure of Nigeria’s health system cannot simply be how quickly hospitals respond after a crisis.

It must also be how effectively the system prevents the crisis from happening in the first place.

For Nigeria, the challenge is no longer just treating the sick.

It is finding the people who are about to become sick and reaching them before it is too late.

The Traffic NG
Diphtheria
Animasaun Esther
The Traffic NG

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