Rabi Musa, 38, from Yelwa village in Bauchi is a housewife whose three children were infected with cholera in the recent epidemic that broke out in the state.
She lost one of the children immediately on arrival to the hospital after rushing to go and get him treated because his condition was critical.
On arriving home to bury the dead child, his younger brother began to also show critical signs of the disease and had to be rushed to the hospital too. He survived after spending three days on admission.
Now, Rabi is back again in the hospital on admission with her daughter who is also infected with the disease. “She is responding to treatment now,” she said of her daughter’s condition with some hope and relief.
The cholera symptoms are well known, usually preceded by vomiting and diarrhea, as happened to Bala Balogun’s two children who showed symptoms of the disease but died later. Balogun, father of four, said: “when I came back from work last week, I met my wife trying to console one of the children and when I asked, I was told she had been stooling and vomitting. I immediately rushed her to the hospital and before we came back the next one started to vomit and stooling.
We rushed her too to the hospital and just before morning, the two of them died at the hospital.”
So far, the death toll from the cholera epidemic in Bauchi has risen to about 67, claiming the lives of many children. About 1,742 persons have so far been infected and are lying critically
ill at the various health centers across the state, a development that has now
sent shivers down the spine of many people who are doing everything humanly
possible to ward off the outbreak.
The local government areas affected in the state are Ganjuwa, Bauchi, Toro, Shira, Kirfi and Tafawa Balewa.
Health officials say the increase in the number of those who lost their lives as a result of the disease was due to lack of access to intensive heathcare facilities in the affected local government areas.
Weekly Trust’s investigation at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi revealed that in the month of March this year when the outbreak was first reported, 38 children died and in the month of April, twenty were reported dead. In the month of May, 34 died while in the month of June, fourty seven died, excluding those who were said to have died in other health centers across the state as well as those who lost their lives at home.
In the months of July, more cases were reported at the paediatric ward of the ATBUTH hospital while the epidemic kept getting worse even as the hospital wards received between 40 and 50 cases of cholera patients daily, something which led the hospital to cry out to the state ministry of health that there is an outbreak of epidemic needing urgent medical action before it got out of hand.
Weekly trust learnt that one of the factors that added to the high fatalityrecorded is that majority of those infected with the disease stayed for a long time at home before they were brought to the hospital, by which time they were already very weak, making it difficult for them to respond to treatment.
Majority of the victims of the epidemic are children, followed by women and men in all the hospitals and treatment centers opened by health personnel in the state.
Bauchi State Commissioner of Health, Yahaya Mohammed Jalam, said: “all the relevant agencies concerned with water, environment and hygiene have been mobilized to ensure that all refuse heaps are immediately cleared, while efforts are on to ensure that all bad water are directed to the appropriate waste areas just as the state’s water board has been directed to go round the state to take care of all broken water pipes… The state government is collaborating with the World Bank in the construction of drainages in all the major towns in the state.”
This statement, coming from the commissioner of health is a confirmation of the belief that the epidemic, even though instigated by the rains, was as a result of unclean environment and lack of access to water and sanitation by majority of the rural dwellers. The rains make their already bad situation worse by washing away dirt from abandoned refuse heaps into wells, ponds and other sources of drinking water.
The Chairman of the State’s Primary Health Care Developmental Agency, Dr Musa Dambam Mohammed, whose agency is responsible for the control of the disease, blamed the people for their negligence in refusing to go to the nearest health facility for medical attention but will rather treat the victims at home until it gets worse which will eventually lead to death. He stated that the outbreak which has entered its 8th week, has a staggering death percentage of 3.8% which has not happened in the state before, adding that records available show that Bauchi LG which has the largest population in the state and is the capital city of the state recorded the highest case in the outbreak. “In Bauchi LG, 1,368 persons were infected, while 31 people lost their lives,” he said.
“In Ganjuwa LG, we recorded 284 cases, while 20 people died and the other affected local governments are Shira, Tafawa Balewa and Toro.”
It is a similar casualty figure that has been recorded in Borno State which also has a history of high fatalities from cholera outbreaks.
So far, the epidemic has claimed over 45 lives with 165 cases recorded in the affected local governments. Health workers in the affected local government areas attributed the cause of the outbreak to improper hygiene by residents. Unlike the previous outbreak where cholera camps where established to treat victims of the disease, this time around, victims were taken to health centres in the local council areas. While some received treatment at home with the assistance of voluntary health workers. Health workers said the worst hit victims are women and children which is always the case anytime the deadly disease strikes. Local government health workers in some of the affected areas who spoke to Weekly Trust lamented that the local governments do not have the capacity to contain the epidemic because of the high cost of establishing cholera camps, saying only the state government can afford such and warned that if camps are not established, the epidemic cannot be curtailed.
Week Trust learnt that at Budum and Adam Kolo areas within Maiduguri metropolis, majority of the patients had resorted to receiving treatments at home with the help of voluntary health workers because when they report incidences at any of the healthcare centres, the hospital personnel refuse to admit them, saying they do not have the capacity to treat cholera cases.
The outbreak in the state in October last year was traced to a spread from neighboring Adamawa state in September, 2009, during which the disease reportedly killed many in that state. By the end of that month (September), Madube village in Gwoza local government area of Borno state was immediately affected apparently since the place shares border with some parts of Adamawa.
This year too, Adamawa is one of the states with records of casualties from cholera outbreaks. So far, no fewer than 23 people have been confirmed dead and at least, 300 infected following the outbreak in some parts of the state. The disease was said to have spread from neighbouring Cameroun, with Sukur as the closest village in Adamawa State to the neighboring Cameroun communities.
About 139 persons have been affected in Madagali local government area by the disease that has swept through seven of the 21 local councils in Adamawa State in the last few days, especially in the northern part of the state, health officials say. The villages worst affected are, Sukur,Palam, Humla, Duhu and Gulak, while others are Shuwa and Madagali towns.
“Our concern is to save those affected and to curtail the spread of the disease to other parts of the council,” said Dr. Zainab Baba Kwonchi, the Adamawa State Commissioner of health. Cholera, a water-borne disease, is caused by an intestinal bacterium and its symptoms are diarrhoea and vomiting, leading to dehydration. It can, however, be fatal if not treated early. The northern parts of the country have a history of yearly outbreaks of cholera, but what is worrisome is how each year emergency response only begins when so many lives have been lost.
