3 Dead, 131 Cases Recorded As Cholera Outbreak Hits Nasarawa

No fewer than three people have been confirmed dead following an outbreak of cholera in Awe and Obi local government areas of Nasarawa State.

Confirming the incident in Lafia, the state capital, Dr Liman Mohammed, revealed that in Awe Local Government Area, 89 cases have been recorded with one person dead.

He further disclosed that, in the Obi Local Government Area of the state, no fewer than two people have also lost their lives to disease with 32 cases confirmed.

He said: “We have recorded a death in Awe LGA that affected a six-year-old child that died within some few hours on reaching the health facility.

“And in Obi Local Government Area of the state, we just recorded two deaths arising from vomiting and diarrhoea which we have confirmed that is cholera.”

Daily Trust reports that after the team visited the health facilities in Awe and Obi LGAs where victims were currently receiving treatment, Dr Mohammed stated that the state government had taken drastic steps by providing drugs and others, aiming at tackling the situation.

Mohammed stated that the major causes of the menace were indiscriminate dumping of refuse, open defecation and inadequate personal and environmental hygiene. He added that the issues could also be linked to inadequate portable community water supply.

While attributing the situation to bad sanitary habits, Dr Mohammed encouraged people of the affected areas to avert open defecation and maintain household best practices to curtail the problem.

As part of preventing measures taken by the state government to avert the further occurrence of the cholera outbreak and other preventable diseases, Dr Mohammed and his team paid an advocacy visit to the emir of Awe Alhaji Isa Abubakar-Umar II and Osuko of Obi, Alhaji Aliyu Dangiwa Ogiri-Orume, where they urged community and environmental health workers to be proactive in the discharge of their assignment at the grassroots.