BREAKING: HEALTH: Cholera Outbreak Kills 25 In Ogun

BREAKING: HEALTH: Cholera Outbreak Kills 25 In Ogun

September 7, 2021

Palpable tension has enveloped Ogun State following the outbreak of cholera epidemic which claimed the lives of 25 people in six communities of Obafemi-Owode local government area of the state.

Save Our Nation (SON) gathered that an eight-year old girl (name withheld) was on Tuesday afternoon rushed to the community clinic for contracting cholera which is currently ravaging six Ogun communities of Magboro, Arepo, Akeran, Akintonde, Sofolarin and Abule-Oko.

The latest casualty figure is, however, coming barely 72 hours after the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, on Sunday, confirmed the outbreak, which she said “is predominant among Okada riders and scavengers in the area.”

Speaking with SON, chairman of the Community Development Committee (CDC) in Magboro, Oluwasegun Oladosu, said only 15 deaths have been recorded from the outbreak.

Oladosu explained that 10 cart pushers, who relocated from the community to Kara cattle market along the Lagos – Ibadan expressway, have equally died from the epidemic.

He stated further that commercial motorcyclists popularly referred to as “Okada” riders, who had allegedly just returned to the community from a trip were most hard hit by the outbreak.

“Hausas don’t release dead bodies, they have rushed to bury them. A number of them are already fleeing the community. But the information we have now is that 15 people are already dead.

“Forget about tribe, we have been living here with Hausas for a long time, peacefully. But, some of them had travelled recently and they just returned, especially the Okada riders. They will always tell you the truth. Some of them came with the disease. Some of them who ran to Kara (Hausa settlement), we learnt 10 of them are dead,” he said.

The CDC chairman said a government team had visited the community and provided drugs for Cholera treatment and prevention even as he called on government to ensure they always enforce sanitation in the settlement because of its alleged “unkempt” state.

Meanwhile, all efforts to speak with the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, were unsuccessful as she neither pick her calls nor respond to SMS sent to her line.