Cholera Outbreak: How vendor, four others died mysteriously

Cholera Outbreak: How vendor, four
others died mysteriously
on october 26, 2013 at 3:00 am in just human
By FLORENCE AMAGIYA
Shock, pandemonium, and fear gripped Lagosians
as another five persons from Ago area of Lagos
reportedly died of cholera recently. Before now,
three persons were confirmed dead out of the 13
cases reported to the Ministry of Health.
Sunday, 25, a newspaper vendor in Ago Palace
Way, Okota, Lagos state was found dead on the
staircase of a residential building in the area
recently. It was also discovered that another young
man who tried helping the deceased in his helpless
state to the hospital died few hours after Sunday’s
death. Comments from neighbours suggested that
he stooled and vomited profusely the previous day.
Chika Eze, a resident in a wing of the complex
located by Marcity bus-stop, Ago, Lagos told
Saturday Vanguard how Sunday, from Abia State
who made the corridor of the complex his home had
shown no sign of illness until the day before  his
death eating African Salad popularly known as
Abacha.
Eze disclosed that the deceased was stooling and
vomiting consistently from Friday evening till
Saturday when he was taken to the hospital. “We
rushed him to a nearby hospital but he wasn’t
attended to because we couldn’t pay the mandatory
deposit.’’
We brought him back to the complex and tried ‘self
– treatment’ and there was no improvement. It was
about 8pm that fateful evening that someone
upstairs screamed that Sunday had died on the
staircase.
The founder of Balm of Life Ministry (BLM) at the
wing of the complex where Sunday died, Pastor
Ralph James, said:  Sunday could have survived if
he had gotten financial help to pay the required
deposit at the hospital. So, it was a great shock that
Sunday morning to see his corpse lying on the
staircase. It is indeed so sad.”
*File photo: Some of the victims had eaten Abacha
Awa Idika, a, fashion designer who seldom sleeps
in the complex  exhibited the same symptoms but
was lucky because he had some money to pay for
treatment. He approached Treasure Gold Hospital
in the area where he promptly received treatment.
According him, he had taken about 59 drips within
72 hours.
Narrating his ordeal, Idika said: “I shared a plate of
pepper soup and a bottle of stout with my wife last
week Monday. But I later woke up in the middle of
the night stooling which lasted for more than four
times before dawn. I didn’t see it as anything and
went about my work. Again, since I didn’t eat
anything, I thought the stooling would stop but it
continued with intermittent vomiting. So, I spent four
days in the hospital and paid the sum of N100,000
before I was discharged.
That same day, Saturday Vanguard gathered a
woman and her son who were said to have eaten
the popular African Salad called ‘abacha’ were both
hospitalised after showing similar symptoms.  The
15-year old boy died after a few hours while the
mother as at press time, is still receiving treatment
in another hospital.
When Saturday Vanguard visited Treasure Gold
Hospital, the doctor in charge, Dr. Tosan Hamsa
disclosed that the hospital had eight chronic cases
of cholera patients in the past few weeks.
He advised Nigerians to imbibe the culture of
visiting the hospital regularly to ascertain their state
of health.
“Nigerians are known to indulge in ‘self–treatment’
and it is when they cannot help themselves that
they take themselves to the hospitals. In one of the
cases, we had treated a patient who had stooled up
to 40 times before he was brought to the hospital,”
he said.
He advised the public to watch out for consistent
running stomach and vomiting and that first aid can
be applied on the sick person before being taken to
the hospital for immediate attention. He said: “It is
worthy of note that cholera cannot be treated at
home but the victim can be given (ORL) Oral re-
hydration before the professional attention.
“What the hospital basically does is to send back
fluid into the patient’s body through drips and stop
the infection causing cholera. Hands washing
cannot be over emphasized; it saves life. A word,
they say it’s enough for the wise,” he said.
Another young girl who was said to have gone to
GKS hospital to see her sister being treated for
cholera also died mysteriously last Monday. She
was said to be retuning from the hospital when she
also slumped and died.
Again, at Cele Bus-stop, Lagos, another young
woman in her 30s while returning from work was
said to have eaten Africa Salad (abacha) which she
bought at the same bus-stop. We gathered that on
reaching home, she began to stool and rather than
visit the hospital, embarked on self-treatment. The
situation grew out of control and she died the
following day.
Sources from her residence hinted that she was
stooling and vomiting heavily before she passed on.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris,
had in a statement a few days ago said: “The
suspected cases that were recorded have been
contracted from food sources such as the African
salad popularly called abacha, well-water sources,
especially in areas like Ikare community, Amuwo-
Odofin local government area and Badia area of
Apapa local government area, as well as other
infected foods from food sellers and other
unhygienic habits.
Cholera is an acute contagious bacterial disease
characterized by severe form of sudden onset of
profuse painless watery stools, nausea and profuse
vomiting. The disease is acquired through the
ingestion of an infective dose of contaminated food
or water, and could be transmitted through many
mechanisms like direct or indirect contamination of
water or food by faeces of infected individuals.