CHOLERA, a deadly and transmittable disease has killed 5 persons in Lagos.
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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.”
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.
Credits: Vanguard
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