Kaduna’s deadly cholera ‘secret’
In Kaduna State, the outbreak of cholera started around January and by March, the disease became an epidemic like in most parts of the country. Within Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Igabi and Zaria, as well as Chikun and Kajuru local government areas, from week one to eight, 358 cases of cholera were recorded in those […]
In Kaduna State, the outbreak of cholera started around January and by March, the disease became an epidemic like in most parts of the country. Within Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Igabi and Zaria, as well as Chikun and Kajuru local government areas, from week one to eight, 358 cases of cholera were recorded in those councils, according to Alhaji Lawal Abubakar, the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in Kaduna state Ministry of Health . Specifically, 80% of the cases, he told Weekly Trust, were in Kaduna North, Kaduna South and Chikun area councils, with 158, 86 and 56 patients respectively. Five people, as at March 10, had lost their lives and the figures kept mounting.
Significantly, the patients at Kinkino and Barnawa health centres, as well as Gwamna Awan and Barau Dikko hospitals, are still counting. Patients, in their numbers, are over stretching the hospitals and health centres. Children and women are the most affected but health officials are keeping pace with the stream, especially at Barau Dikko and Gwamna Awan Hospitals. Malama Fatima, a middle aged woman, narrated her ordeal at the former. “I was rushed down here,“ she whispered with difficulty, “about three days ago and I had almost given up but for the intervention of the health officials.” Similarly, Hajiya Hadiza Ali rushed her seven year old son a few days ago, to the hospital and the young man is showing signs of recovery. In both hospitals, no doctor, nurse or competent health official agreed to speak on record but generally, they confirmed that the disease is receding. At Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital, Dr Musa Dutse Gimba agreed that the cases have greatly reduced, advising sanitation, proper care of what people eat and drink , including good waste disposal habit since the disease is spread by ingestion.
Similarly, the death toll is dropping according to Lawal Abubakar, owing to government’s intervention. Particularly, adequate case management, disinfection of open wells and sensitisation sessions are helping to contain the fatalities. Last Tuesday, Lawal Abubakar said that by week 12, there were only 937 reported cases, from the onset of the disease, and fewer deaths. However, Barnawa in Kaduna North is the hardest-hit, and on March 10, the ministry of health mobilised for a house-to-house inspection of the area, a senior official told Weekly Trust.
In addition, there is a Rapid Response Team, Lawal Abubakar said, that is complementing the efforts of the ministry. Located in all the 23 councils, Disease Surveillance Officers are all over Kaduna State and at the onset of any epidemic, they usually alert the Rapid Response team, which verifies and investigates the cases as well as gives medication. Also, the government has supplied free case management drugs, especially for diarrhoea and vomiting, to the hospitals and clinics that are managing the cases. In addition, the government has identified, according to Lawal Abubakar, the source of infection and is disinfecting open wells. Similarly, sensitisation on personal hygiene, especially washing of the hand, is being embarked upon. These measures, he pointed out, have greatly reduced the death toll and the spread of cholera to other parts of the state.
However, medical opinion is divided over whether or not the epidemic was cholera. Dr Abiola Usman, the Medical Director of Yusuf Dantsoho hospital, said that it is difficult to categorise the ailment. Laboratory scientists, according to her, have examined many samples but vibro-cholera, from their findings, was not detected in the microscopy. Clinically, the ailment has the same symptoms like cholera, especially diarrhoea and vomiting but categorically, it is not conclusive that the epidemic is cholera. Similarly, Dr Pwanidi Luwa of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Shika, Zaria said that it is not always correct to conclude that excessive diarrhea and vomiting is cholera. Both Cholera and diarrhea, according to him, are caused by consumption of contaminated water and food as well as other factors like deplorable environments. Like Dr Usman, Luwa said “medically, we can’t say a person is suffering from cholera until a laboratory test is conducted. Therefore most of the excessive vomiting and diarrhea we are experiencing now are diarrhea diseases.“
Despite all these medical explanations, the belief among residents of Kaduna and Zaria is that Cholera is ravaging the old city and the state capital as well as other local governments. In Zaria, the most affected areas are Chikaji, Muchia, Dogon Bauchi, Dogarawa, and Hanwa all in Sabon Gari area of the city. Other places include Tudun Jukun, Gyellesu, Tudun Wada and many areas inside the ancient city.
In Chikaji alone for instance, not less than two people lost their lives while over 100 have been afflicted by the disease in the last two weeks, as our investigation reveals. Significantly, this is in contrast with official statistics, where the figures are more conservative. Most people, according to a health official, embark on self medication but the ministry deals with only reported cases. Even the official figures are staggering: “There was a day when the local government-owned clinic at Bakin Dogo Chikaji couldn’t accommodate the victims who were taken there for treatment. People were kept on bare floors while the nurses who were visibly overwhelmed helplessly looked at the victims. In Chikaji and other areas of Sabon Gari, the epidemic was nick-named Abasco, after the erstwhile chairman of the Sabon Gari local government area,” Fatsima Sa’idu, a mother of a victim told Weekly Trust at the Chikaji clinic.
Because of the high influx of people to the Layin Sarki Tudun Wada Zaria Clinic, the hospital, though government-owned, has stopped attending to patients affected by the disease. A nurse at the hospital told our reporter that they now refer all such cases to the Dandutse hospital. “The people who come here affected by that disease have of late overwhelmed our hospital. This is why we were instructed to refer all patients affected by that disease to the Dandutse hospital. I think the wisdom behind that was to avoid a situation where the diarrhea patients would affect other patients since it is a communicable disease,” a nurse, who prefers anonymity, told Weekly Trust at the Layin Sarki clinic.
All the ten hospitals visited by our correspondent around Zaria have each recorded between 50 and 300 cases who visited those hospitals with complain of excessive vomiting and diarrhea in the last two weeks. The high number of people affected by the disease made residents to initiate many aliases to the epidemic. While in the Sabon Gari area residents nick named it Abasco in other areas like Tudun Wada, Kwarbe, Anguwan Juma and Kwangila they call the disease Jonathan/Sambo.
Residents and medical experts interviewed by Weekly Trust linked the cause of the outbreak to the deplorable environmental condition of Zaria. Others however said the water scarcity being experienced by residents, which has made many residents to resort to unhygienic sources of water, is another cause.
“Just take, for example, what is happening along the Zaria city–P.Z. Road, where human faeces and refuse dumps are scattered all over the place. These wastes would be washed into the Kubanni River when the rains begin. This river runs to Galma, which is the city’s main source of water. From here you can appreciate the dilemma of those of us who are Zaria residents,” Dahiru Sha’aibu, a resident told Weekly Trust.
The outbreak of cholera or diarrhea has become an annual epidemic in Zaria largely due to deplorable environment, polluted sources of water and eating habit of some residents. The diseases, being communicable in nature, even residents who are not vulnerable to polluted sources of water sometimes become victims.