Over 71 people have lost their lives in a cholera outbreak in Kano, the Project Director of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the Federal Ministry of Health, Professor AbdulSalam Nasidi has said.
According to him, the most affected persons were from the state capital, adding that the federal government has made a donation to support the state government to address the scourge.
ThisDay reports:
According to him, the outbreak which was first noticed in the State on November 6th, 2013 in Kano state recorded 2165 cases from 22 local government areas of the state, adding that Fagge local government area recorded highest number of death with 12 lives lost.
Speaking at WHO office in Kano before handing over drugs worth over N34 million from the Federal government to assist the state, Nasidi put the total cases reported at 276.
According to him, “The first cases reported on 6th November 6, 2013 with 22 local government affected,344 wards were affected while 713 settlement ravaged by the diseases and a total number of 71 deaths recorded from 17 local government area which represented 3.3 percent case fatality rate”.
He assured that teams of professional health experts have been deployed to the state by the federal ministry of health to ensure the alleviation of the bacteria.
In his address also, the State commissioner of Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran Yusuf, said that the state government has spent over N76 million to provide necessary drugs to combat the disease in the local government areas of the state, while beds were also provided to various hospitals where the cholera were affected.
The commissioner said “we were happy to receive the delegation today, this shows government concern to the outbreak of the Cholera in the state.
“Cholera epidemic has been in the country since September last year , though at the initial stage Kano was not affected , this can best be attributed to the effort of the government in informing the general public on the need to take adequate care of their health as well as necessary logistic provided by the government”.
Dr. Yusuf said the Governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, did not waste time, the moment the outbreak of the cholera was noticed, adding, “this government has spent over N76 million to provide drugs to various hospitals and centres where the diseases were affected”.
He also disclosed that more medical experts were given necessary training needed to educate various communities towards guiding the occurrence of the diseases, while numerous beds were provided in the hospitals.
The Commissioner stated that the government of Kwankwaso has spent a lot in making available potable water to every nook and cranny of the state, “but when the outbreak started we were recording about 97 cases, but as I am talking to you in all the eight centres, we have less than 40 cases.
