50 dead in wake of unidentified disease in Kogi

Outbreak of strange disease kill 50 in Kogi   From Itodo Daniel Sule, Lokoja   The Kogi government has raised concerns over the outbreak of a strange disease which is said to have claimed the lives of about 50 people across three communities in Yagba West Local government area of the state. State Commissioner for […]

Outbreak of strange disease kill 50 in Kogi

 

From Itodo Daniel Sule, Lokoja

 

The Kogi government has raised concerns over the outbreak of a strange disease which is said to have claimed the lives of about 50 people across three communities in Yagba West Local government area of the state.

State Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Audu, who confirmed the outbreak of the strange illness, mentioned the affected communities to include Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa all in Yagba West LGA.

The commissioner, who spoke on Thursday during a visit to the affected communities to assess the health situation, said government was working hard to curtail the spread of the disease.

He said that the information about the outbreak of the strange disease was received last week and they immediately sent technical team to take the samples which was sent to General Hospital Irua, Edo State, for definitive investigation.

"We are here to assess the situation about the incidence that had claimed the lives of so many people in this community and surrounding villages.

"We are here to make sure we determine the cause of this mysterious deaths and then quickly profer a solution to it.

"From this stage now, the government has taken full responsibility to take care of those who are already ill and to make sure that we arrest the spread of this disease.

"For now, it is clear and has been confirmed that it is not Lassa fever, but whatever it is, we will carry out further investigation with information we have with us now and come up with definitive diagnosis.

"We are going further to find out what the real cause may be; we don’t know what it is currently, but all hands are on deck to make sure that we find out the definitive cause of the mysterious deaths among the kids,” he said.

Also speaking, a Consultant at Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) Hospital Egbe, Dr Jannette Hathorn said a child of two and half years was brought to the hospital and died after 12 hours.

"We had definitely had misleading news about patients bleeding around, so we tried to make diagnosis for viral hemorrhagic fever (Lassa fever), but the lab results came out negative.

"We are sure it is not Lassa fever but on the other hand, our concerns is that we do not know exactly the cause of what was happening. We had a differential but we never came to a definitive diagnosis.

"Two other adult patients were also brought, one presented with ulcer-viral illness but there was no bleeding component of any hemorrhagic symptom.

"We isolated them and both of them were treated for malaria. So, when they started improving, we let them go.

"But our concern was another parent who brought their child to the hospital and pleaded with us for help that about 40 to 50 people had died in their villages with a similar symptoms as their child in the last three weeks.

"So, we called the World Health Organisation  (WHO) and our local state person, who came after the child had died yesterday to take the samples of everything; we must know exactly what we are dealing with," she said.

The traditional ruler of the Community, Oba J.D Ogunyanda, the Obalohun of Okoloke, appreciated the commissioner for coming to see them in spite the difficulty in getting to their communities and the neighboring fulani settlements.

According to him, the settlements are the major hit including some of his people of the host community.

He said that the outbreak started over three weeks ago, and they immediately alerted the local government Administrator to come to their aid.

The leader of the Fulani Settlement, Damina Ibrahim, said that the outbreak started about three weeks ago and mostly affected children and adults.

Ibrahim said that they were stooling and vomiting with stain of blood, and hot temperature, saying they were using herbs to treat the ailment at first. 

He explained further that when death tolls increased, they rushed to the hospital, where the doctors could not ascertain the cause of their illness, saying some of them died in the hospital while some were discharged without any cure.

He said that over 50 people have died since the outbreak of the strange ailment and appealed for urgent efforts to address the epidemic.