Cholera Surface In Edo As Edo Govt Urges Citizen To Be Calm

By Simeon OSAJIE

Edo State government yesterday said eight suspected cases of cholera have been recorded in the state out of the 16 references but assured the people of the state not to panic.

Addressing journalists during a press conference in Benin City, Edo State capital, the Director, of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Edo State, Dr. Ojeifo Stephenson B. flanked by officials of the WHO led by its State Coordinator Dr. Eyo Nora, said government was on top of the situation with support from the Word Health Organisation (WHO) staff in the state.

According to him, “All those affected were under close monitoring, including all those they have come in contact with.

“Besides, it said 226 cases of Lassa fever out of over 2,300 suspected ones have been recorded and that out of the 226, 36 deaths were recorded so far in the year.

“Nobody should be panic, the state is doing everything to address the situation of any disease outbreak in the state because if you want to talk of any state that is prepared to respond to emergency, Edo State is one, Edo is ready for any outbreak and it is ready to address them as they come. The state government was prepared for any emergency.”

Going further, Dr. Ojeifo added: “Last Thursday, we got an alert that there are some suspected cases of cholera seen and on admission at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, (UBTH), we quickly mobilized our men in collaboration with the WHO team to go and investigate and see the condition of the patients and know what exactly to do as quickly as possible.

“Sixteen patients were admitted at the UBTH. We ran an RDT (Rapid Diagnostic Test) for all of them. RDT is not a confirmatory test positive while eight were not reactive the other eight were positive to it. Then the next line is for us to collect sample from those eight that reactive to the rapid diagnosis test, and that sample was sent to the National Reference Lab in Abuja for confirmatory test, until that result comes out from them and say it is positive, we won’t say that we have any positive cholera case in Edo State.

“The good news is that from Thursday last week till now, all the patients have been discharged in UBTH except one still in the ward.”