No fewer than 173 people have died in Kano as a result of a cholera outbreak that is ravaging the 44 local governments of the State.
This was revealed by the state’s Epidemiologist and Deputy Director of Public Health and Disease Control, Dr. Bashir Lawan Muhammad, when he spoke to newsmen on Monday.
He explained that from March to July 2021 the state treated 4,932 out of the 5,316 active cases of the disease and have all been discharged.
‘The outbreak started in March this year, when we started recording cases in only one local government.
‘But, as I speak to you now, the problem has escalated to 41 local government areas.
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‘We have been doing the needful through our emergency and response units as well as chlorination of hundreds of houses and wells across the affected local government areas,‘ he explained.
The rainy season has contributed to the rise in the number of cases of cholera cases in both the private and government-owned hospitals because of poor personal as well as environmental hygiene, he explained further.
The state epidemiologist also added that cholera outbreak is seasonal in the state and is easily transmitted by flies open dedication and other stool which some farmers use as manure in their farms.
‘It serves as an avenue of contracting the disease after eating the farm produce from those farms,’ he added.
However, he said, apart from providing drugs and health personnel to the affected areas, the state government has launched a widespread campaign through the ministry of health on the need to observe personal and environmental hygiene to avoid contracting the disease.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
