Bauchi community, govt differ over ”strange disease” claim
Communities in Warji local government of Bauchi state have faulted the chairman of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency ( BSPHCDA) ,Pharmacist Adamu Ibrahim Gamawa over his claim that there is no strange disease in their communities. Pharmacist Gamawa was quoted by the communities as allegedly debunking media reports about a strange disease that […]
Communities in Warji local government of Bauchi state have faulted the chairman of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency ( BSPHCDA) ,Pharmacist Adamu Ibrahim Gamawa over his claim that there is no strange disease in their communities.
Pharmacist Gamawa was quoted by the communities as allegedly debunking media reports about a strange disease that has already claimed the lives of 80 children in Tiyin and Shikato communities in Warji local government area.
The Chairman was said to have debunked the claim at a press conference in his office saying that there no case of an epidemic in the affected communities that was killing children.
He disclosed at the press briefing that the agency had after receiving the news constituted a committee to investigate the nature of the disease at the affected communities and has reported it’s findings.
"Going by the reports we received from the committee after the investigations carried out, it was discovered that there was no trace of a strange disease in Tiyin and Shitako communities of Warji local government.What the committee found out was some few cases of malaria fever which is a normal disease that is treatable"
"When the committee visited the communities, parents were made to bring their children for examination and it was discovered that some of the children had malaria while others had cough which was mild and treatable," he said.
According to him, the committee found out from a hospital called Gwaram in Tiyin community that out of the three children, two died at the hospital as a result of malaria fever not as a result of a strange disease.
However, it was reproted that residents of Tiyin and Shitako communities had staged a protest over the comments made by Chairman of the BSPHCDA denying that there was no strange disease in the affected communities.
A farmer residing in Kankare village in Tiyin community, Abdullahi Rinkichikin was quoted to have told journalists who visited the area that they were angered by the comments made by the Chairman of BSPHCDA that there was no strange disease.
"We are telling the world that cares to know what happened in this communities to come and verify things. Today is the third week of this epidemic and we still don’t understand the nature of this disease and the hospitals at the communities do not have the right treatment for this strange disease.
"22 children died in Tiyin community and have been buried. In Shitake vilage, 30 children died, in Biza village ,5 children died, in Allah ya yi village, another 5 children died, in Cuba Gaji village, 3 children died, in Bujala village, 10 died, in Kashafa village, 3 children died and Aru village, many more children died there,"he said.
He therefore called on the state government to send a high-powered committee to make a proper investigation into the case in order to arrest the situation as he said that many more children are facing the risk of loosing their lives to the strange disease.