Nine people died and several others were hospitalised this week following a cholera outbreak in Nigeria’s northern Taraba State, bringing the death toll in the region to 97, an official said on Thursday.
“We have recorded cases of cholera here in Jalingo (the capital) in the past two days in which nine people have died and several others hospitalised at the State Specialist Hospital,” the state health commissioner, Muhammad Bose, said.
“I can’t give exact figures of those hospitalised because we are still collating the number of cases but we have sent health personnel and drugs to the three affected neighbourhoods in the metropolis,” Bose said by telephone from Jalingo.
On Wednesday health officials in Jigawa State – also in the region -announced the death of 11 people following an outbreak of cholera in Bashuri village where 400 cases emerged in under a fortnight.
Health officials were still investigating the cause of the outbreak, Bose said.
934 cases recorded
Cholera has claimed 77 lives in recent weeks in Adamawa State, leaving nearly 1 000 people hospitalised.
“At the moment we have recorded 77 deaths and 934 cases in the cholera outbreak,” said Adamawa information commissioner Musa Bubakari by telephone from Yola, the state capital, which shares border with Taraba state.
In September last year, a spate of cholera outbreaks in northern Nigeria claimed almost 100 lives in Katsina, Zamfara and Bauchi States.
Cholera is a water-borne disease and can also be transmitted by food that has been in contact with sewage.
It causes serious diarrhoea and vomiting leading to dehydration. With a short incubation period, it can be fatal if not treated in time.