At least 11 persons have lost their lives from a strange sickness in Lagelu local government area of Oyo State.
According to Newspeakonline, Five persons are also currently on admission in the hospital battling for their lives. While some people attributed the symptoms from the victims to cholera, the government says the sickness has not been established as results of samples taken from the victims are still being awaited.
A source who reside in the community explained that the strange sickness suspected to be cholera outbreak was first recorded at Ariku village, killing five people.
He said the sickness later spread to Lagun village where six persons also gave up the ghost as a result of complications from the strange illness.
Another unconfirmed source said the outbreak first occurred about four weeks ago in Ward 4 at Ariku village, which later spread to Ward 6 in Lagun village two weeks after.
Speaking on the development, the Caretaker Chairman, Lagelu local government, Mr Kelani Abdullahi said that part of the immediate action taken by the government was to investigate the cause of the sickness, adding that investigation revealed that it was due to lack of access to clean and potable water by the affected persons.
He confirmed that 11 persons have lost their lives to the epidemic, with five persons currently hospitalised while four persons have been discharged.
Also speaking, the Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashiru Bello said the tests carried out on the affected persons are still premature and the samples collected have not confirmed the sickness to be cholera.
He, however, added that the surveillance and health officers sent to the local government to take samples and assess the situation reported the poor unhygienic and dirty environment where the victims reside, saying that could have exposed them to all sorts of sickness and infection.
Bello, said all the persons suffering from the sickness have been hospitalised and are all responding to treatment.
The commissioner called for calm among residents of the state, assuring that the state government is on top of the situation.
It was also gathered that the lawmaker representing Lagelu state constituency, Mr Akintunde Olajide had in company of the local government and LCDA chairmen visited the villages where the outbreak occurred.
Olajide confirmed that a preliminary investigation into the cause of the sickness revealed that it was largely due to lack of access to clean and potable water.
He maintained that all the boreholes that could provide clean water to the villages are not working, making residents of the communities to fetch water from a nearby stream and few available wells.
The lawmaker said he had ordered the immediate repair of three boreholes out of the four in the communities, in order to make potable water readily available for the residents.
Olajide added that although five people were hospitalised, one has already been discharged while the remaining four are responding well to treatments.
