Cholera kills 63 in Nigeria in one week

By Ibrahim Garba Shuaibu

KANO, Nigeria (AA) - Cholera claimed 63 lives in the past week in 10 states across Nigeria, the country’s national public health institute said Monday.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) published a situation report on its website which said that of the 63 fatalities, President Muhammadu Buhari's home state of Katsina took the lead with 19 deaths, followed by Bauchi with 16 fatalities.

During the same period, 3,098 suspected cases were recorded in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The period covers Aug. 16-22.

According to the report, 58,698 suspected cases have also been recorded in the country since the beginning of the year, with 2,035 deaths.

“In the reporting week, 12 states reported 3,098 suspected cases – Bauchi (1,145), Katsina (691), Zamfara (454), Yobe (216), Sokoto (196), Jigawa (187), Kano (80), Niger (79), Borno (30), FCT (11), Adamawa (6) and Kebbi (3).

“Of this, there were 35 RDT confirmed cases from Katsina (14), Yobe (7), Adamawa (6), Zamfara (4), Borno (2), Jigawa (1) and FCT (1),” the report said.

“In addition, there were 63 deaths, from Katsina (19), Bauchi (16), Niger (7), Zamfara (6), Jigawa (4), Sokoto (4), Borno (4), Yobe (1), Kano (1) and Adamawa (1) states.”

As part of its plans to curtail the rise of infections, the NCDC said it would “continue monitoring epidemiological trends to guide ICG requests for planned vaccination campaigns, plan training of state laboratory scientists on sample collection and analysis” along with a “continued follow-up with states for updates on risk communication.”