1,655 cases of cholera recorded in Kaduna in 5 months

The Government of Kaduna State Report that it recorded 1,665 cases of cholera in the state in the last five months. The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Mohammed-Baloni, said this during a press conference on Thursday in Kaduna. Mohammed-Baloni said the cases were recorded in 19 local government areas of the state from the month of April to the month of August.

The commissioner attributed the outbreak to poor hygiene and sanitation. She also mentioned the affected council areas as Soba, Makarfi, Giwa, Chikun, Sabo Gari, Zaria, Kaduna North, Kachia, Jaba. Other states, as stated by her are: Kubau, Lere, Sanga, Birin-Gwari, Kaduna South, Kadan, Igabi and Kajuru .

She said the state had been monitoring the situation and currently recording less active cases. “In April this year we were informed of cases of vomiting and diarrhea in some local government areas where we sent our response teams and took samples for testing and it returned positive for cholera.

“Since then, we have been monitoring them. We treated 842 and discharged them while we still have 14 active cases now on treatment,” she said.

She said the state identified a secondary health facility in each of these LGAs for management of the disease while all patients had been evacuated to these facilities and were being managed by medical professionals. She also mentioned that the ministry distributed drugs for management and chlorine for the purification of water.

She added that ongoing sensitization was being carried out on preventive measures in communities with contact tracing of all the affected people. She also said ongoing active case search in communities and other health facilities and surveillance were also ongoing in other LGAs to identify more cases.

She urged residents to observe good hygienic practices and sanitation so as to avoid more outbreaks. “We know that cholera is seasonal and occurs mostly during rainy seasons, I urged residents to avoid building latrines close to their Wells and observed good hygiene and sanitation.”