Health
NO fewer than five persons have been killed by cholera while over 200 persons are either hospitalised or under surveillance in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna states.
At least three persons were confirmed dead while three others tested positive out of 93 suspected cases during a fresh outbreak of cholera in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.
The Plateau State Commissioner of Health, Dr Kamshak Kuden, said the situation was compounded by the industrial action by the Joint Health Sector Unions, which suspended its strike a few days ago.
Kuden said because of the strike, doctors were only able to get five samples out of the 93 suspected cases from which three tested positive.
The commissioner confirmed to The PUNCH in Jos on Monday that the three persons who tested positive to cholera had been on admission in the hospital and were responding to treatment.
He said, “Cholera is a communicable disease, so if there is one, it becomes an outbreak. We have 93 suspected cases and because of the strike by JOHESU, we could not get all the samples. However, we were able to get five samples out of the 93; three of them were confirmed positive for cholera.
“They are on admission in the hospital and doing very well on admission in the hospital. Virtually all of them were in Jos North LGA and most of them were admitted at the Primary Healthcare Centre in Jos North LGA. We have reported three deaths.”
Meanwhile, one person has been feared dead while over 20 persons including scores of students were said to have been hospitalised following a fresh cholera outbreak in Angwan Lambu area of Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa state.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that those affected by the disease were mostly students, who are living in Angwan Lambu, a student settlement close to the state university.
Confirming the unfortunate incident to our correspondent, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr Abraham Ekpo, said, “There was an outbreak of cholera. Some of our students were reported to have been affected by the outbreak. I don’t have the exact number for now, but no death of any student so far.”
The community leader in Angwan Lambu, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, who also confirmed the ugly incident to our correspondent in Keffi on Sunday, said, “I was the first victim of the cholera outbreak here. After me, my younger and elder brothers’ wives were also infected, but we thank God, that they got cured when they were taken to the hospital.
“Unfortunately, Ramatu, one of my subjects couldn’t make it. She was rushed to the hospital, while vomiting and purging, the following day, she died.”
In a related development, there was panic in Kaduna on Monday when one female student of the Government Girls Secondary School, Kawo in Kaduna North Local Government Area of the state, reportedly died following an outbreak of cholera in the area.
It was gathered that no fewer than 40 students from the same school were hospitalised over the outbreak of the disease.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, said one person died.
Though the officials of the Kaduna State Ministry of Health and the principal of the school declined to comment on the incident, Deputy Director, Disease Control Centre, Kaduna North Local Government, Ibrahim Suleiman, confirmed that at least 39 students were evacuated from the hostel to the hospital.
He said they are also investigating another 89 cases apart from diarrhoea and vomiting
“We have 39 cases on admission due to diarrhoea and vomiting. We have yet to confirm the real cause but there are a lot of contaminations around the water source the students are using which may be a serious contributory factor.” – Punch
– Jun 5, 2018 @ 08:20 GMT |
Tags: 200 under surveillance in Plateau Cholera kills five Kaduna Nasarawa
