Delta Government Declares Cholera Outbreak Under Control Despite 138 Cases and 7 Deaths

Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joseph Onojaeme, said since the outbreak of cholera in the country February this year, 138 cases had been recorded in the state, with seven deaths. While stating that majority of the cases recorded were young children, he however assured that the situation was now fully under control as the government had been able to curtail it.
Onojaeme, who disclosed this in Asaba on Tuesday when he briefed journalists on how the state government was managing the outbreak of the disease, said cholera was a disease of national outbreak and so far, three outbreaks had occurred in the country this year.
Flanked by the state Commissioner for Information, Dr. Ifeanyi Osuoza, and the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Festus Ahon, Dr. Onojaeme, said the seven casualties were recorded during the first epidemic, adding that no casualty had been recorded in the second and third epidemics.
According to him, “The signs and symptoms are basically passage of watery low stool, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance among others. The state has recorded 138 cases in Warri South-West which is the local government it started from, and in the second and third outbreaks, we had seven cases in Bomadi and one in Oshimili South.
“We have been able to curtail the disease in Delta State and the disease surveillance and notification officers across the state have been able to carry out a lot of advocacies to our people to educate them about the cause of the disease.
“Cholera is mainly a disease of poor sanitary environment, and we have educated them about simple handwashing and not taking unclean water. We have also provided tablets to purify some of these unclean waters.
“So far so good; since about six weeks now in Warri South-West where it started from, we had only 20 suspected cases and majority of the cases we noticed we have treated and its basically under control. We are doing a lot of advocacies, and the risk factors are basically poor sanitary condition and reduced stomach acid. Cholera has an incubation period of 12 days, and within this period, somebody not showing these symptoms can spread it through faeces and urine to other persons.
“Staying with somebody with the bacteria is a big risk factor to contract the bacteria from that person, so, maintaining hygiene is very key to eliminating cholera from our environment, and it is common among villages along the water bank.
“In Delta State, we have eight local governments that are of high risk, viz: Warri South, Warri South-West, Warri North, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Patani, Bomadi and Burutu. So far, the Ministry has curtailed the disease within the high-risk local government areas, and the Epidemiology unit of the Ministry is doing a lot of surveillance on these patients, and it is fully under control.”