Cholera kills 30 in Jigawa

No fewer than 30 people have been confirmed dead due to the outbreak of cholera in nine local government areas in Jigawa State.

This was disclosed by the Acting Commissioner for Health who is Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr Salisu Mu’azu in a chat with reporters. He revealed that over 2,000 cases had been recorded.

The Permanent Secretary further explained that the cases were first recorded in the last one month in Hadejia in Dutse Local Government Area and later spread to other seven local government areas in the state.”

He said: “The outbreak was more pronounced in Dutse and Hadejia local government areas as a result of contamination of water that flowed from open spaces into wells and water outlets which the people consumed.

Mu’azu said the water flow resulted from rainfall that washed human faeces into open wells as well as burst water pipelines in Dutse which were also taken back into the water tank that supplies water to the area.

He said the state government has directed for the release of drugs at three health centres in Hadejia, Dutse and Ringim local government areas to enable the victims have immediate free medical treatment.

He said other agencies such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Doctors without Borders have indicated their readiness to partner with the state in curbing the spread of the disease to other areas.

The COVID-19 task force in the state has informed reporters in the state that the state will not allow any durbar celebration during the Salah festivity.

The Permanent Secretary said the decision followed the directives from the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 against the dreaded Delta variant of the COVID infection that is spreading across the world.

He said the government has directed that the continued usage of all former COVID-19 protocol guidelines with the hope that the Delta variant may not have a devastating effect on the people.