The outbreak of cholera, which occured in some parts of Ibadan weekend, has so far claimed over eight lives while some other victims are responding to treatment at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, and other private hospitals
LEADERSHIP findings revealed that the victims were from the interior parts of Ibadan, like Eleta, Gege, Oritamerin, Foko, Oniyanrin and others where hygene was low.
Sources hinted that the outbreak was caused by lack of potable water and the negligent acts of the people who source water from unhygienic sources.
Meanwhile, the Oyo State government has risen to curtail the alleged cases of cholera that was reported in the media yesterday.
This disclosure was made in a release signed yesterday by Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication to the state governor, Festus Adedayo.
He said that the governor had directed the new Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abdulateef Olopoenia, to immediately visit the affected areas, ascertain the claims and, if positive, curtail its spread.
According to the statement, the commissioner, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health and the Disease Surveillance Officers in all the 33 LGA in the state, immediately set out to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the newspaper reports and to quickly rein in the outbreak.
The statement said that though the causes of the deaths earlier reported in the press could not be ascertained as the dead had already been buried by the time the team arrived the spots, the health team immediately did a rapid diagnostic test which was conducted on stool samples, the results of which were still being expected.
Cautioning politicians not to play politics with the lives of the people, the statement said that the state governor, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, inherited woeful health institutions in the state and the cases, if confirmed, must have been a product of the years of criminal neglect of the health institutions in the state which the government was trying very hard to revamp.
The statement further said that the epidemic response team visited the affected communities and various measures, including case management, containment, health education and community mobilisation were immediately instituted.
According to the statement, the state ministry of heath was partnering the World Health Organisation (WHO) to raise the level of surveillance of the disease throughout the 33 LGAs in the state in order to detect early any subsequent cases and administer immediate treatment on them.