LAGOS, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- An outbreak of gastroenteritis has claimed some 160 lives in Nigeria's northwestern Sokoto State in five months, a senior state official has said.
State Commissioner for Health, Jabbi Kilgori, told
local media on Saturday in the state capital Sokoto that the deaths were
recorded from the 200 reported cases between June and October.
He said the outbreak had affected 17 of the 23 local
government areas of the state. About 53 percent of the dead were people above15
years old, 28 percent were between five and 14 while 19 percent were below five.
The commissioner said the disease was caused by the
contaminated water drunk by people in the affected areas.
"The affected people were mostly using water from
ponds and other stagnant water sources," he was quoted as saying by the News
Agency of Nigeria.
Kilgori said that a joint state and local government
medical team was working around the clock in the area to bring the situation
under total control. The state government had purchased drugs and medicaments
worth 2.6 million naira (about 22,500 U.S. dollars) and distributed them to the
affected areas.
Kilgori said that the local governments' councils had
also purchased drug to complement the efforts of the state government to control
the epidemic.
He said that Nigerian federal government had also
donated drugs worth about 1 million naira (about 8,700 U.S. dollars) and
dispatched a medical team to the state to help control the disease.
The commissioner said the government was doing all it
could to provide boreholes and wells across the state, adding that it was also
creating public health awareness.
Kilgori advised the people to use latrines, avoid
drinking from stagnant waters, boil water from all suspected sources as well as
wash their hands after visiting toilets.
Gastroenteritis is a disease that disturbs the
intestines, causing vomiting, diarrhea and cramp. It is often caused by eating
contaminated foods or drinking such water.
