The Kaduna State Government has revealed that 1,665 cholera cases were recorded in the last five months.
The State Commissioner for Health, Amina Mohammed-Baloni, disclosed this during a press conference on Thursday.
According to Mrs Mohammed-Baloni, the cases were recorded in 19 local government areas of the state from April to August.
The commissioner also attributed the outbreak to poor hygiene and sanitation.
She identified the affected council areas as; Soba, Makarfi, Giwa, Chikun, Sabo gari, Zaria, Kaduna North, Kachia, Jaba.
Others included; Kubau, Lere, Sanga, Birin -Gwari, Kaduna South, Kadan, Igabi and Kajuru.
She explained that the government has been monitoring the situation and is currently recording less active cases.
“In April this year we were informed of cases of vomiting and diarrhea in some local government areas where we sent our response teams and took samples for testing and it returned positive for cholera.
“Since then, we have been monitoring them. We treated 842 and discharged them while we still have 14 active cases now on treatment,” she said.
The commissioner said the state identified a secondary health facility in each of these LGAs for management of the disease while all patients had been evacuated to these facilities and were being managed.
She added that the ministry distributed drugs for management and chlorine for the purification of water.
She added that ongoing sensitization was being carried out on preventive measures in communities with contact tracing of all the affected people.
She also said ongoing active case search in communities and other health facilities and surveillance were also ongoing in other LGAs to identify more cases.
She urged residents to observe good hygienic practices and sanitation so as to avoid more outbreaks.
“We know that cholera is seasonal and occurs mostly during rainy seasons, I urged residents to avoid building latrines close to their Wells and observed good hygiene and sanitation, “she said.
NAN
