The Lagos State Government has acted quickly to stop the spread of the disease by vaccination college employees and students in response to the recent diphtheria epidemic at King’s College Annex on Victoria Island.
In an effort to strengthen the immune systems of the school’s employees and pupils, the state government and the World Health Organisation visited the school on Tuesday to begin a vaccination campaign.
Prof. Akin Abayomi, the state commissioner for health, told reporters immediately after the immunisation campaign started that the vaccine, which combines tetanus and diphtheria, was intended to stop the virus from spreading further.
Diphtheria, according to WHO, is a contagious disease caused by toxin-producing bacteria, which can spread through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 41,336 suspected cases of diphtheria in 37 states between Epidemiological Week 19, 2022, and Epidemiological Week 4, 2025.
According to reports, the outbreak of diphtheria at King’s College, Lagos left one student dead and four others hospitalised at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
It was gathered that the diphtheria outbreak in the school led to concerns among parents and the call for improved hygiene and healthcare measures at the schools by health experts.
Giving an update about the outbreak, the health commissioner said 14 of King’s College students had shown symptoms of diphtheria, with 12 already receiving treatment.
He added,
“We have been sent here by His Excellency Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the entire Executive Council. We discussed this in detail yesterday at the cabinet meeting. We were very concerned about what is going on in this King’s College annex, following an outbreak of diphtheria fever, which has been going on now for a little over 10 days, and we have had a number of children falling sick.
“Unfortunately, the very first child that developed the fever passed away at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital from the severe complications of diphtheria. That happens when we don’t intervene fast enough when the child is not diagnosed and the disease progresses and starts to produce complications.
“Subsequently, once we identified that this was diphtheria, we were able to screen other children, and we took the children to various hospitals where they were screened, assessed, and given appropriate antibiotics, the appropriate antiserum.
“Twelve of those 14 received antibiotics and the antiserum, and they are all being observed, both in the hospital and some of them back here, and all of them are doing well.
“To further interrupt the transmission of the bacteria from child to child, we’ve come to inspect the school to look at the sanitary conditions, to look at the ablution facilities, to look at the dormitories, to look at the classrooms, because this is a disease that spreads airborne by droplet, so it’s more likely to spread when living environments are crowded.
“So we’ve come to speak to the authorities to improve the spacing between children, to improve the ventilation in the classrooms, to make sure that the children have access to good enough water, and that in the sleeping environment, that there’s ventilation, the fans are working, and that we reduce crowdedness.
The health commissioner assured that the government would extend the vaccination exercise to the main campus of King’s College in Igboshere, as well as other schools in the state.
He added, “We are going to learn a lesson from what has happened here. And we extend those lessons to other schools. And we extend those lessons to our policies as a government.
“What is this event going to do to change the policy of vaccination, of boarding schools, of crowdedness, of number of children per class, number of children inside the boarding houses, access to water, toilet, ablution facility ratio to students? It is all a learning experience for us as a government. And so we are not here to play.
“We are here to take things very seriously to make sure that our kids are safe and well. The fact that you are in a school should not mean that you are exposed to sickness and ill health.”
