Delta State Government on Friday said it has unraveled the cause of deaths of youths in three communities in Ika North-East Local Government Area of the state.
About 30 youths between the ages of 18 and 25 had succumbed to a strange disease ravaging Ute-Okpu, Ute-Erumu and Idumesa communities in the locality within the last three weeks.
The development jolted the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, who quickly ordered the state Ministry of Health to step in and unearth the strange disease.
Addressing newsmen in Asaba, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, attributed the cause of the mystery deaths to yellow fever disease. Ononye who was flanked by the Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu and the state Director General of Orientation Bureau, Eugene Uzum, said the laboratory result of the samples collected pointed to the age long disease. He quickly added however that the result would further be authenticated at the Reference Region Laboratory in Dakar, Senegal where the samples have also be sent to.
“Samples were collected from patients and sent to the laboratory. We have received results and the results point to yellow fever as cause of deaths we heard of in those areas. ‘The result we have received is helping to move us to a more definitive action, while we still wait a final authentication from the Reference Regional Laboratory in Dakar,’ Ononye said.
Ononye claimed that about 22 deaths have been recorded as a result of the disease, with seven additional cases being managed at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba.
The commissioner assured residents that there was no cause for alarm, noting that the state government was collaborating health related agencies to step up measures to contain the spread of the disease.
“We have began immediate outbreak response activities. As we speak, we have informed Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), National Primary Healthcare Development Agency which usually collaborate with us, and that is why they have sent teams to support us.
“Before now, there was a planned yellow fever preventive campaign to begin November 20, we are moving it closer to enable us tackle what is before us,” he added. On the symptoms of the disease, Dr. Ononye said yellow fever usually manifest much more bizzare symptoms than malaria.
“Some patients are with fever, body pains, headache, vomiting with or without blood. Some begin to bleed from the nose or mouth. Some of those we have just convulse and some recover very well even without coming to the hospital,” he explained.
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