Yobe Records 906 Fresh Cholera Cases

Cholera Outbreak Hits Yobe State

906 new cases of cholera with 61 deaths and 50 others on admission in hospitals have been confirmed by the Yobe state government.

Dr Muhammad Kawuwa, Commissioner for Health, stated this in a statement in Damaturu today.

He said Acute Water Diarrhea (AWD) cases were reported in some parts of the state and later confirmed to be cholera after laboratory tests.

“Some of the AWD cases were caused by Vibrio bacterae, the bacteria that cause cholera,” the commissioner said.

According to him, 906 cases are recorded in six local government areas of the state: Gujba, Gulani, Damaturu, Fune, Potiskum and Nangere in two months.

“Over 795 patients were successfully treated and discharged, 50 are still on admission in various health facilities across the state.

“Unfortunately, we lost 61 patients mainly due to delays in timely reporting to the healthcare facilities for life saving treatment.”

Kawuwa said the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organisation (WHO), University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Abuja were authenticating the causes of the outbreak.

“In the light of this and due to our continued concern for the health of our people, the state government is therefore declaring outbreak of cholera in the state.”

He said this was needed to scale up response with international partners support.

The commissioner identified personal hygiene, absence of sanitation facilities in the communities and flooding of water sources by the rains as possible causes of the outbreak.

He called on water, sanitation and health sector partners, religious and traditional leaders and the people to cooperate and support government efforts in containing the outbreak and check its spread.

Yobe government had, three months ago, declared an earlier cholera outbreak in five local government areas of the state.

The local government areas are: Bade, Karasuwa, Jakusko, Yusufari and Bursari. The cholera was declared over after 21 days without a report of any new case.

The commissioner said the initial outbreak recorded 16 deaths in 404 cases with Bade Local Government having 379 cases, Karasuwa 16, Jakusko, four, Yusufari three and Bursari, two.