In 2025, several African countries faced a resurgence of diphtheria, a serious bacterial infection.
In its latest update, with data until 2 November 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported more than 20,000 cases and 1,252 deaths across eight countries, namely Algeria, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria and South Africa.
The WHO warned that although outbreaks had been ongoing in most of these countries, the renewed surge was a “serious public concern”.
In October 2025, Algeria reported an outbreak in Skikda province in the northeast, with 13 suspected cases and two deaths. The province lies about 480 kilometres east of the capital, Algiers. In 2024, an outbreak in the south led to over 900 suspected cases and 119 deaths.
Diphtheria resurgence is often linked to low immunisation, yet Algeria's national vaccine coverage is high. But the WHO said that geopolitical instability in neighbouring states had driven large numbers of displaced people into southern Algeria, communities where vaccination rates are much lower.
It is in this context that, after decades in which diphtheria had nearly disappeared in Algeria, its return fuelled false claims about the disease.
The Facebook page Doctors, which has 1.4 million followers, drew attention to one such claim, saying it began as a comment on the page, though it did not link to the original post. (Note: We were unable to locate the comment; it may have been deleted.)
The post reads:
"#تعليقات علماء الصفحة
مكانش...
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