NAN – No fewer than eight of 25 cases of cholera recorded in Anambra in January 2015 have died, the state Commissioner for Health, Joe Akabuike, has said.
Mr. Akabuike said this in Awka on Tuesday while receiving drugs and hospital equipment donated by a pharmaceutical company based in Lagos.
He said that the outbreak recorded in Innoma Community in Anambra West Local Government Area of the state was already under control.
The commissioner said that a team of doctors and nurses were immediately deployed to the area as soon as the outbreak was reported.
“We discovered that it was not a full blown cholera but gastroenteritis common in children under five years,” he said.
“Gastroenteritis is an infection of the intestines which causes diarrhoea. In most cases the infection clears within a few days, but sometimes it takes longer.”
Mr. Akabuike said the government had also received drugs and hospital equipment worth about N2 billion from many donor agencies and indigenes of the state since the inception of the present administration.
He commended the donors for the gesture and pledged to use the items judiciously for the wellbeing of the people.
Mr. Akabuike said the security measures put in place by Governor Willie Obiano had attracted a lot of investments to the state.
The commissioner said that the government had recently donated N428 million to mission hospitals in the state to boost healthcare delivery.
In her remarks, the Human Resources Manager and Operations of the pharmaceutical company, Ruth Harrison, pledged to partner with the government toward the development of the state.
Mr. Harrison said the drugs were for malaria and cholera patients, adding that the donation was part of efforts to be part of the success stories in the state.
