Borno state government has confirmed the death of three persons as a result of cholera outbreak in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Haruna Mshelia, disclosed this during an interview with newsmen in Maiduguri yesterday.
He said so far 693 persons had been diagnosed with the disease in various villages around the Lake Chad axis of the state.
The commissioner further said the outbreak first occurred six weeks ago in Baga, Doro Baga, Bundiram and Kukawa villages, where 77 samples were collected, out of which 69 were confirmed to have been infected with cholera.
Mshelia added that the state government had set up two treatment centres in Baga and Kukawa to attend to all reported cases.
He said those who died were brought to the treatment centres either in critical condition or dead on arrival.
Msheli,a however, said the cases were common in areas recovered from Boko Haram terrorists, including Baga and Kukawa which consist of people living in their homes and those at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
On the issue of the causes of the outbreak, Haruna said: “In areas around the shores, the challenge they have has to do with open defecation because it’s very difficult to build toilets there.
“Unless you have the means to use blocks, the soil is very loose and if you did a hole and just cover it, it will collapse. So, out of frustration, they practice open defecation which is a recipe for cholera outbreak.”
He further disclosed that all water sources in the area had since been chlorinated, while locals were constantly being educated on the need for “proper hygiene, cleanliness and other practices that would prevent them from contracting the disease in the future.”
The commissioner expressed the hope that with only three new cases reported in Baga on Wednesday, and with none in Doro and Kukawa, “the outbreak will be checked with the measures put in place.”
