The Cross River State Government and the World Health Organisation (WHO), have jointly commenced the treatment process of the only source of drinking water for the people of Ekureku community in Abi local government area of central district.
The Director General of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong disclosed this during an exclusive interview with Voice of Nigeria in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, southern Nigeria.
Water treatment/fumigation.
Dr. Ekpenyong lamented on the demise of 26 persons as a result of the outbreak, which she noted was caused by the people drinking from contaminated water source without adherence to simple hygiene protocols.
“Right from Thursday when we got the information, the Ministry of Health and the Primary Healthcare Development Agency, deployed our response team to the communities. We also had our partners like the World Health Organisation (WHO), Red Cross, the United Nation’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Programme and others.
“We discovered that within the villages in Ekureku, people died due to the sudden cholera outbreak. The 30 people that were hospitalized were being treated with antibiotics, Oral Rehydration Therapy and other relevant medicines. Cumulatively, 26 persons died.
“The team from the World Health Organisation are purifying the sources of drinking water in Ekureku. The borehole water filled with particles, would be the first to be treated and then the stream, which looks more like a pond. Then another team are on fumigation. Everywhere would be fumigated and the stream would also be treated.
“The outbreak is linked to the contaminated source of drinking water. We took samples of the waters to the laboratory to enable us determine the exact organism. The Ekureku people are mostly dependent on fishing, one would not know the type of chemical they may have used in the stream and the people drink from the same water source.”
Intense health education
On steps to curb further outbreak, the Director General said that health workers were in the different villages of Ekureku intensely sensitizing the people on the need to boil water before drinking and adopting other healthy lifestyle options.
“We are not isolating anyone, we are intensely sensitizing the people on hygiene and emphasizing that hand washing is key. Our people are in the villages monitoring, contact tracing and educating the people to ensure we curb the spread of cholera.
“A lot of people have been discharged, they are eating and many have stopped stooling. We have the medicine needed for them and they are very stable. So we have no need to quarantine them. Right now, they are no more deaths and those who were hospitalized are stable and being discharged.
“The State Government finds this incident quite unfortunate and sympathizes with the families who have been affected. We are applying every possible means to halt transmission. However, we are urging every community leader to support us by lending their voices to ensure the people adhere to simple hygiene protocols to end cholera and other related illnesses.”
