Cholera: Death toll rises to 86, says FG

The Federal Government has said 86 persons
out of the 1,623 persons reportedly infected
by the cholera outbreak in some parts of the
country have died.
The government also directed the Nigeria
Centre for Disease Control to immediately
coordinate all its response activities and
report to the Ministry of Health daily on both
the patterns of occurrence.
It said the efforts were to achieve total
control of the outbreak.
The cholera outbreak has affected a number
of states including Ogun, Oyo, Plateau,
Zamfara, Nasarawa and Lagos.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi
Chukwu, in a statement by his Special
Assistant (Media and Communication), Mr. Dan
Nwomeh, on Monday, also directed all
federal health facilities in the country to
provide free services to cholera patients.
Giving a breakdown of the pattern of
distribution of the outbreak, Chukwu said,
1,623 cases were reported.
He said, "In Zamfara State, there were 1,110
cases, 51 deaths; Nasarawa State, 105 cases
and nine deaths; Lagos State, 134 cases, four
deaths; Plateau State, 130 cases, 11 deaths;
Oyo State, 29 cases, six deaths; and Ogun
State, 115 cases and five deaths, totalling
1,623 cases and 86 deaths.
"These are estimates, because trickles of
incidences and mortalities may still be
coming. However, in Sokoto and Katsina
states, the gastro-enteritis outbreaks have not
been proven to be cholera. While further
investigations continue, only confirmed cases
are included in the current statistics.
"The outbreak in the states mentioned earlier
has been confirmed by our laboratories to be
caused by vibiro cholerae serotypes 01 and
0139. The affected states are being supported
to respond to the outbreak by supplying them
with emergency drugs, diagnostic kits and
other commodities."
According to him, the Federal Ministry of
Health realises that the affected states will
require further assistance adding that efforts
are being made to upscale technical and
material assistance to those states
immediately.
The minister also directed immediate release
of adequate quantities of emergency drugs
and cholera kits to all the affected states for
prompt and adequate treatment of cases and
additional deployment of rapid response
teams from the ministry to all the affected
states to assist in investigating and verifying
the cases and tracing of contacts.