Cholera outbreak: 15 persons confirmed dead

FIFTEEN persons have been confirmed killed in Adamawa State, in a cholera outbreak.

The figure might be much much higher as no fewer than 300 other affected persons are in hospitals.

The epidemic has so far ravaged four local government areas of the state.

Confirming the outbreak in Yola, the state Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Felix Tangwami, noted that seven of the casualties were recorded at government facility while the eight others were recorded in the communities.

He disclosed that the four affected local government areas include Yola South, Yola North, Fufore and Girei.

Tangwami added that government in partnership with development partners was on top of the situation, noting that so far the state government has secured 200,000 cholera vaccines from UNICEF, isolating patients, administering treatment on the patients and conducting the required laboratory tests to ascertain the organism causing the acute watery diarrhea as part of the containment measures.

He noted that so far the proactive measures taken by the government has substantially help in curbing the spread of the epidemic in the state, urging families to invest heavily in personal hygiene and sanitation as their contributions in tackling the epidemic.

The commissioner added  that the delay in announcing the epidemic stems from the fact that best practices had to be employed in isolating the organism causing the acute watery diarrhea before announcing it, noting that announcing the epidemic without confirmation was a gross ethical malpractice which portends severe consequences on the state.

He said: “We have received results of samples sent to NCDC for confirmation as to what we are dealing with is Acute Watery Diarrhea or Cholera Unfortunately out of the 38 samples sent to the National Reference Laboratory, NRL, in Abuja, 30 samples returned positive for Cholera, six  came back negative, two still on going isolation and 12 still pending.

“With these results therefore, I want to confirm to the public that there’s an outbreak of CHOLERA in Adamawa state, and people should be cautious of their movements, interactions, personal hygiene, and the source of water they drink.

“So far, about 308 people were admitted, 244 treated successfully and discharged, 15 deaths were recorded, six at the facility and six at home.

“However, the public are assured that the government through it’s health workers is doing everything possible by the grace of God to contain the situation as done in the past with other similar outbreaks in the state.

“We enjoin the people to  continue to pray for us as we face this monster, should remain calm and not panic, cooperate with health workers as they go around to sensitise and give professional advice on how we should conduct ourselves.

“The government has given all the necessary support to ensure this is prevented from spreading to other areas. We shall continue,” Tangwami noted.