Friday November 23, 2001
DUTSE, Nigeria (Reuters) - Cholera has killed more than 100 people in northern Nigeria in the worst week since the outbreak began, health workers said on Friday.
Hospitals have admitted scores more since the water-borne disease broke out in early November in the Kazaure and Wudil districts of Nigeria's northern Jigawa state, hospital sources said.
"At least 10 people, most of them children, have died within the one hour or so that you have been here,'' a senior medical officer at Kazaure hospital, who asked not to be named, told a Reuters reporter.
"More than 100 people have died since Wednesday last week when the epidemic worsened.''
A similar outbreak of cholera in neighboring Kano state west of Jigawa killed at least 200 people two weeks ago, officials said.
The Jigawa government has confirmed only six dead. Local people in the worst-hit district of Kazaure blamed regional authorities for the rapid spread of the disease.
"The government's nonchalant attitude is responsible for the spread of the cholera epidemic in this area,'' Usman Bello, who lost a child to the disease, said.
"The Jigawa state government should have acted as fast as the government of Kano did to curb the spread of cholera there.''
Jigawa health commissioner Babanna Rabo Aujara said the government had bought drugs worth 150,000 naira to give to hospitals and health centers. Local people say that is not enough.
"Kano bought drugs worth more than a million naira when cholera broke out in the state, why is Jigawa spending only 150,000 on drugs?'' asked one doctor.
Jigawa is in the extreme north of Nigeria where outbreaks of cholera and meningitis are common in the dry season. Health officials blame the spread of the disease on poor sanitation and overcrowding in poorly ventilated buildings.
Cholera is an acute intestinal infection that causes severe vomiting and diarrhea, leading to acute dehydration. It can be fatal if not treated properly.
Source: Anonymous. Reuters News Service, November 23, 2001.