Panic in Nasarawa community as disease kills five

Residents of Ayele community in the Loko Development Area of Nasarawa State have been thrown into panic after five persons allegedly died of a “strange disease”, while about 20 others are hospitalised.

It was gathered the news of the strange illness broke out on Wednesday, March 23, 2016.
A member of the Rapid Response team from the Nasarawa State Ministry of Health, led by Dr Ibrahim Adamu, told our correspondent that the death of the five persons left residents of the community perplexed.

It was learnt that the team had got samples from the 20 persons that were hospitalised and had taken the samples for tests.
He said the result showed that the disease was salmonellosis.

Speaking further, the team leader of the Rapid Response team, Adamu, said, “Based on the report and observation that I have made so far, what is affecting this community is a water-borne disease known as salmonellosis.”
He said the residents should avoid drinking water from the source that caused the disease.

He said, “Measures must be taken to stop this disease and prevent it from affecting other people in the community. The preventive measure is to stop people from using the water body that is contaminated?”
Reacting on the outbreak of the disease in separate interviews, two community leaders in the area, Mr. Ebele Olobo and Mr. Adrew Ejeh, expressed dismay, saying the disease was strange.

Olobo said, “We don’t know the kind of illness that befell us in this community. We don’t know whether it’s from water or air; we don’t know the cause.”
Ejeh said the residents might not be able to avoid drinking from the water that caused the disease because there was no other source. He urged the government to come to the aid of the community.
He said, “We have four boreholes, but none of them has been put into use. We are calling on Governor Tanko Al-Makura to come to our aid in order to avert more deaths in our community.”

However, some residents, who did want their names to be mentioned, told our correspondent that the disease could be Zika virus.
Our correspondent, who visited the area, gathered that in the community the only source of water for drinking and other domestic use was a lake from one of the tributes of the River Benue which passed through the community.
Our correspondent reports that Ayele community is a rural and agrarian area with a population of over 900 people, located 520 kilometres away from Loko, the headquarters of the Loko Development Area of Nasarawa State.

It was gathered that the lake, which had a large volume of water, which residents of Ayele community use for fishing and irrigation, did not flow well.
Efforts by our correspondent to reach out to the state Commissioner for Health, Mr. Daniel Iya, proved abortive as his phone rang out, while a text message sent to his mobile phone was not replied to as of the time of filing in this report.

PUNCH.