Only two of the 13 states with cholera outbreaks – Bayelsa and Kogi – are top-ranked in Nigeria’s Health Preparedness Index. 11 of the bottom 18 states are also hotspots for the outbreak that killed 441 Nigerians in the month of July.
This was disclosed in a report on Monday by SBM Intelligence, contributors to Nigeria’s Health Preparedness Index.
What the report said:
- Nigeria’s 2021 cholera outbreak picked up steam in July with 441 fatalities in 13 states recorded by the NCDC. The list of states with fatalities shows a strong correlation with the SBM Health Preparedness Index published in May 2021.
- Only two of the 13 states with cholera outbreaks, (Bayelsa and Kogi) were in the top half of SBM’s HPI, while 11 of the bottom 18 states have seen fatalities during the outbreak. Only one of the affected states (Bayelsa) is in the Southern part of the country. Zamfara is the only state in the North-West not affected by the outbreak.
The report added that cholera is primarily a disease of hygiene, citing that the HPI Chart outlines the serious amount of work that state health authorities still need to do to ensure their citizens do not die of preventable causes.
What you should know
- Recall Nairametrics reported in June that Lagos, Ondo, Cross River, Ogun and Kwara states emerge as the top five most prepared states in Nigeria in the 2021 SBM Health Preparedness Index.
- According to the report, the share of healthcare spending as a percentage of the overall budget grew due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 36 states spent an average of 8.26% of their budgets on healthcare in 2019, compared with over 11% in 2020.
- The World Health Organisation, WHO donated 1.5 million doses of Cholera vaccines last month to Bauchi State to enable them fight the rising cholera outbreak in Nigeria.
