Cholera Claims 37 As Bauchi Records Highest Number Of Cases

No fewer than 2,000 cholera cases have been reported in nine states, with Bauchi having the highest number of outbreaks with 932 reported cases in 2018.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by Dr Adesola Ogunleye, Cholera Technical Working Group of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), during the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Emergency Working Group meeting in Abuja.

Advertisement

According to reports, other states that are victims of this acute diarrheal disease are Borno, Ebonyi, Kano, Yobe and Zamfara.

Ogunleye said 37 deaths have been recorded so far while attributing the causes of the increasing cases to the continuous practice of open defecation, poor personal hygiene, poor environmental sanitation, poor access to water supply and poor responses.

She further stated that the organisation has deployed a prompt Rapid Response Team to provide a rapid diagnostic kit for early detection and has also kicked started an Oral Cholera Vaccine campaign.

Equally the Deputy Director, WASH Response and Collaboration under the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, Mr Baba Galadima, said the Federal Government was already intervening in the provision of water schemes in parts of the country, as he stated the need for state governments to include WASH in emergency working group and response plan, in order to help Nigeria meet the sustainable development goals (SDG) target.

Leave a comment

Advertisement