Cholera Death Toll Rises to 67 in Nigerian State

The death toll from a cholera outbreak in Nigeria's northern state of Bauchi has risen from 47 to 67 in the past week, a senior state health official said on Wednesday.

"We have recorded 20 more deaths in the last week from cholera outbreak. The death toll now stands at 67 in the last eight weeks," Musa Dambam, director of Bauchi Primary Health Care Development Agency told AFP by phone from Bauchi.

"Infection has risen from 1,200 patients to 1,742. The increase in the death and infection figures was as a result of drinking of contaminated water," he said.

Dambam said that heavy rains had washed contaminants into ponds and wells.

"We have intensified health campaigns on the radio, urging people to boil their water before drinking," he added.

These figures bring cholera death toll in Bauchi and Borno states to 107 while a total of 1,857 people have been infected by the water-borne disease also in the two states.

More than 260 people died of cholera in four northern states in the last quarter of 2009.

Cholera 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.

Health experts say a surge in cholera outbreaks is noticeable in Nigerian villages in the rainy season when rainwater washes dirt into open wells and ponds which most villages rely on for drinking.

CHOLERA DEATH TOLL RISES TO 67 IN BAUCHI

Mr Dambam told journalists on Wednesday in Bauchi that the agency had recorded 1,742 cases in five of the 20 local government areas of the state since the outbreak of the disease in June. He listed Bauchi, Shira, Tafawa Balewa, Toro and Katagum Local Government Areas as those affected by the epidemic, which started in Bauchi Metropolitan Council.


According to him, Bauchi Local Government has recorded 1,368 cases with 31 deaths; Ganjuwa 284 cases with 20 deaths, while Tafawa Balewa, Shira and Toro recorded about 30 cases but with no deaths recorded in those areas.

Dambam claimed the source of the epidemic was from the neighbouring states of Adamawa, Gombe and Borno, stating that “there were earlier outbreaks of the disease in these states before Bauchi.”