Abuja, Oct 18 (IANS): The death toll from an outbreak of cholera in Nigeria has risen from 359 earlier this month to 378, with suspected cases since the onset in January exceeding 14,000 across the most populous African country, a senior public health official said.

At least 14,237 suspected cases had been reported in 35 out of 36 states as of October 13, with a case fatality rate of 2.7 per cent, Jide Idris, head of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), told reporters at a news conference in Abuja, the capital., Xinhua news agency reported.

"Cholera has remained a significant public health challenge, especially in states affected by flooding and poor water and sanitation infrastructure," Idris said, adding the five northern states of Borno, Adamawa, Jigawa, Yobe, and Kano had been identified as the epicentres of the outbreak.

He said that the NCDC deployed rapid response teams to affected areas and conducted reactive cholera vaccinations in internally displaced persons camps to combat the outbreak.

Cholera, a highly virulent disease characterised in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhoea, can lead to death by dehydration.