Cholera massacre 20 persons in Ebonyi state, Nigeria on HWN CHOLERA UPDATE

At least 20 people have been confirmed dead as a result of a Cholera outbreak in Ebonyi state.

The state Director, Public Health and Disease Control, in the Ministry of Health, Dr Chris Achi, made this known to journalists in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state South East Nigeria.

He said seven local government areas namely Ohaukwu, Izzi, Ezza North, Ishielu, Ebonyi, Abakaliki and Ohaozara have recorded the highest number of the epidemic.

Ashi said one student of the Ebonyi State University has died from the epidemic while 9 of them are in the hospital after contracting the disease.

About 15 students of the Girls High School, Azuinyiokwu were also affected by the disease and were rushed to the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, where they were treated and discharged.

Ashi said the outbreak of the disease was largely due to the villagers in the communities fetching and using water from a dirty pond after their community boreholes stopped working…

He said, “Some of the community members have boreholes and when some of the boreholes breakdown, the people, rather than repair it, resort to pond water. Hawkers will display Suya along the road and flies perch on them and people patronize them without considering the health implication.’’

”In Abakaliki, most houses do not have toilet facilities and people defecate around the houses. This leads to disease outbreak because the same flies that perch on the faeces also perch on food”.

Meanwhile, the cholera disease otherwise known as “blue death” because a person’s skin may turn blue, is an infection of the intestine by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.

Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe.The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days

Cholera is caused by a number of types of Vibrio cholerae, with some types producing more severe disease than others. It is spread mostly by water and food that has been contaminated with human feces containing the bacteria

It has been estimated that in reality between 42, 000 and 142, 000 people die of cholera each year, which occurs mainly in the developing world.