Cholera kills over 10 in Biu, Borno State

The Borno State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Salma Anas-Kolo, on Sunday said over 10 persons had lost their lives to cholera at one of the internally displaced persons camp in Biu.

The commissioner made this known in a phone chat with journalists in Maiduguri, revealed that over 1,000 persons were treated by health personnel at the camp for cholera disease.

Anas-Kolo explained that 1,000 inmates had started having diarrohea but they had stabilised.

She narrated that they contacted the disease as a result of poor hygienic condition at the camp.

'The state government in conjunction with UNICEF and Red Cross had moved in to improve the condition on the camp and had equally provided medical services. The state government had so far provided drugs worth N10m to combat the epidemic,' she stated.

In addition to the Borno State health team, she said doctors from Medicine Sans Frontiers (doctors without borders) had also been dispatched to assist the Red Cross officials and other Stakeholders at camps' clinics.

'We have already swung into action. All necessary measures have been taken including the deployment of the Borno State technical team, our development partners of UNICEF and the Nigerian Red Cross,' the commissioner said.

She said in treating the cholera patients at camp's clinic and Biu General Hospital, drugs and other supplies had been made available.

To prevent further spread of water borne diseases, Anas-Kolo said, 'Antiseptics for disinfecting all sources of infection, had also been supplied for distribution to the resettlement camps that resettled over 10, 000 displaced persons from Damboa and environs. So far, over 1, 000 cases had been treated by the medical teams of Borno State government, UNICEF, MSF, and the Red Cross.'

The commissioner said in order to stop the further spread of the disease, additional pit latrines and a clinic had been constructed at the IDPs camps in Biu.'

She said leaders among the IDPS were also trained on 'hygiene and sanitation skills' to maintain a clean environment with the supply of potable water by National Emergency Management Agency.