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Friday October 26 1:19 PM ET
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LAGOS (Reuters) - An outbreak of cholera has killed at least 40 people in Nigeria's west-central state of Kwara in less than one week, regional officials said on Friday.
News of the outbreak of the water-borne disease was first broken on the floor of the Kwara state assembly on Wednesday, prompting lawmakers to suspend the day's session abruptly.
Officials said many more afflicted people were in critical condition in the worst hit towns and villages of Jebba, Warafa, Eleja-Sulu, Ile-Pupa, Ekejo, Lasaki and Ajidongari.
A health ministry official in the state capital Ilorin said the ministry was bringing the situation under control.
"Primary schools in the area which have been closed will reopen on Monday. We had closed them to prevent the further spread of the disease,'' he told Reuters by telephone.
Source: Anonymous. Reuters News Service, October 26, 2001.