Strange disease kills 50 in Kogi

By Oyibo Salihu
Lokoja
No fewer than 50 persons have died
in Yagba West local government
area of Kogi state as a result of the
outbreak of a strange disease.
Th e villages hit by the disease are
Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa
all in Yagba West, local government
area of the state.
Confi rming the incident, the
Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka
Audu, who visited the aff ected
villages on Wednesday, disclosed
that the strange disease had claimed
the lives of many people in the
community and its surrounding
villages.
He said: “For now, it is cleared
and confi rmed that it is not Lassa
fever, but whatever it is, we will
carry out further investigation with
information we have now and come
up with defi nitive diagnosis. We are
here to determine the cause of these
mysterious deaths and then quickly
proff er a solution to it.
“As part of the policies of this
government, irrespective of the
remote location of the community,
we must make sure that we take
health care to the door steps of the
rural dwellers.”
Giving the assurance that
“government will not handle the
outbreak with levity,” he said the
information about the outbreak
of the strange disease reached the
Ministry of Health last week.
According to him, they have
sent technical team to take the
samples which were sent to General
Hospital, Irua, Edo state, for
defi nitive investigation.
“We are going further to fi nd
out what the real cause may be, we
don’t know what it is currently, but
all hands are on deck to make sure
that we fi nd out the defi nitive cause
of the mysterious deaths among the
kids.”
Also speaking, a Consultant
at Evangelical Church of West
Africa (ECWA) Hospital, Egbe, Dr
Jannette Hathorn, said a child of
two and half years was brought to
the hospital that died after 12 hours.
“We had defi nitely had
misleading news about patients
bleeding around, so we tried to make
diagnosis for viral hemorrhagic fever
(Lassa fever), but the laboratory
results came out negative.
“We are sure it is not Lassa fever,
but on the other hand, our concern
is that we do not know exactly the
cause of what was happening. We
had a diff erential, but we never
came to a defi nitive diagnosis,” he
said.
Th e traditional ruler of
the community, Oba Joshua
Ogunyanda, the Obalohun of
Okoloke, appreciated the eff ort of
the commissioner for the prompt
action despite the diffi culty in
getting to their communities
and the neighbouring Fulani
settlements.
Leader of the Fulani settlement,
Malam Damina Ibrahim, disclosed
that the outbreak started about
three weeks ago and that children
and adults were the most aff ected.
“We have lost over 50 people
and we are still having some of our
sick ones at home,” he said.