Nigeria has disputed UN claims that 1,553 deaths have been recorded from 38,173 cholera cases in the country since January, instead putting the figures at 1,434 deaths from 37,289 cases. ‘We base our figures on reports we get from the states and our partners who are working at the states,’ the private Guardian newspaper Thursday quoted the Chief Epidemiologist in the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Henry Akpan, as saying.
The UN had said its figures were based on the latest reports from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Red Cross and government agencies.
The water-borne disease has ravaged several countries in West Africa this year due to persistent rainfall that has caused massive flooding, which has in turn contaminated sources of drinking water.