CHOLERA DEATH TOLL HITS 67 IN BAUCHI

A man and daughter in Bauchi State have been killed by cholera within two days as the disease continues to ravage parts of the state. The Commissioner for Health, Mohammed Jalam said 67 people have died of cholera in the state, while over 1,700 were infected.

However, investigation showed the situation is escalating as people are dying in their houses.

Adamu Mohammed, 47, father of six residing at Soho Company near Wunti Dada in the state capital died on Monday night, two days after his daughter, Hauwau , 12 died.

Adamu, a farmer rushed his daughter, Hauwau who was affected by the disease last Saturday to a dispensary in their area only to be affected the next day. 'Now his wife, Aminat, has been rushed to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital because she started vomiting and passing stool on Monday night,' Usman Mohammed Ladan, elder brother of the deceased, told newsmen. Ladan who was receiving sympathisers at his residence at Soho Company was worried that two of his younger brother's children had been infected and were lying sick at home.

'We are afraid. We don't know who the next person will be,' he said. The village head of Soho Company, Abdullahi Wambai who was at the deceased's residence on condolence visit blamed the outbreak on lack of safe drinking water in the area. Wambai said: 'I will say that this disease is caused by water problem. In this whole area, we don't have a single borehole, no presence of government at all,' he said.

He appealed to the state government to assist the community with a borehole. 'We are more than 5,000 and yet we don't have a single borehole. We rely on wells and if you look, there are very few of them which normally dry up during the dry season.'

When contacted in his office on Tuesday, Jalam said a task force had been established to check the disease.

'The task force has brainstormed and come out with a team. The Bauchi Local Government has given us 100 staff and we are moving around the affected areas to disinfect the areas. His Excellency, Isa Yuguda was part of the team that went round some parts of the state.'