Outbreak of ‘strange illness’ claims many in Katsina

An outbreak of an unknown illness suspected to be Yellow fever in Matazu local government area of Katsina State has claimed the lives of many people in the area.

The locals put the death at 115 people while government said only 18 have died in three weeks since it began.

A former Councillor of Kogware Ward in the council, Malam Sule Ibrahim, said the disease was first witnessed at Kogware ward before moving to Unguwar- Sarka community.

He said, “in the past three weeks, we have counted over 112 death with 3 people dying at the weekend.”

However, when contacted, the Executive Secretary of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Shamsu Ahmad, said “it is a suspected case of yellow fever, and based on our line list and documentation, 45 people fell ill, and 18 death was recorded.”

“As at today (Monday), there are 45 cases on ground and from our disease surveillance officer, and of those ill, 11 blood samples were taken, 5 results have turn out negative on yellow fever and we are awaiting the result of 6 others and we normally take the samples to Abuja and logos for confirmation because we don’t have the facility here,” he said.