Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

News

Cholera Outbreak Kills 12 in Adamawa

On 13 June 2017, children play in a flooded street caused by recent rains in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state in north-east Nigeria. Each year, the countries around Lake Chad (Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon) suffer from severe flooding as part of the seasonal rains in the region in June 2017. Many children are at increased risk of waterborne disease as the rainy season begins in crisis-affected areas around Lake Chad. The flooding and muddy roads are expected to severely limit humanitarian access to remote areas for several weeks. This reduced access comes at a time when the needs of the population are sharply increasing with ongoing displacement and overcrowding in IDP camps. To exacerbate the risk brought by unstable weather, security concerns are significantly heightened during the month of Ramadan. There has been a sharp escalation in violence in recent weeks, including a deadly attack on Borno state capital. Security concerns are further complicating plans to preposition humanitarian supplies before the rains as the supplies could become a valuable target. UNICEF warns that there is an increased risk for children of cholera, diarrhoea and malaria. UNICEF is particularly concerned for children living in cholera “hotspots” for both returnees as well as new arrivals in flood prone areas, as they are the most vulnerable and their needs must be immediately addressed.

ABUJA (Reuters) – A cholera outbreak has killed 12 people and may have infected at least 134 others in the northeast Nigerian state of Adamawa, a medical official said on Wednesday.

“So far 12 people have died from the disease and there are many more cases”, said Ezra Sakawa, medical director of the general hospital for Mubi, the town where the disease has struck.

“We have little manpower to deal with an outbreak of such magnitude,” Sakawa said, adding that nurses were on strike.

Northeast Nigeria is ground zero for Nigeria’s nine-year war against Islamist insurgency Boko Haram and its offshoot, now Islamic State’s West Africa ally.

The conflict has spawned one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with millions of people displaced and in need of aid to survive.

Those conditions are ripe for any outbreak of disease, such as cholera, to be deadly on a wide scale, humanitarian workers say.

Mubi, although less affected by the humanitarian crisis, has been attacked repeatedly by suspected Boko Haram militants, killing scores of people.

 

 

___

Follow us on Twitter at @thesignalng

Copyright 2018 SIGNAL. Permission to use portions of this article is granted provided appropriate credits are given to www.signalng.com and other relevant sources.

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement

Related

News

Suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner(REC) for Adamawa State, Hudu Yunusa-Ari has said that he declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress(APC) wnner of the...

News

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the immediate suspension from office of Barr. Hudu Yunusa Ari, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Adamawa State, pending the...

News

The Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, has ordered that the Commissioner of Police on election duty in Adamawa State, Mohammed Barde, withdraw from...

News

Two policemen were reportedly injured on Saturday when a truck crashed into two vehicles in the convoy of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State....

Copyright ©