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The Commissioner for Health, in Ebonyi State Dr Daniel Umezurike, has debunked reports of an outbreak or death from cholera in the State.
Umezurike made this disclosure on Friday in Abakaliki after an assessment visit to Ndiegu Amagu, in Ikwo Local Government Area of the state where the outbreak was said to have occurred.
The commissioner said that when the outbreak was first reported in early November 2021, officials of the ministry, World Health Organisation among other relevant agencies visited the area.
‘We carried out rapid diagnostic tests and all tested samples turned negative.
‘We also forwarded collected samples to the reference laboratory in Abuja and the microscopies all showed negative,’ he said.
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He said that when the current, ‘rumour’ of the outbreak broke, relevant officials were dispatched to the area and they interacted intensively with members of the community.
‘We visited the area with the objectives of confirming the rumour, attending to the sick people among them, collecting and testing samples and sensitising the people on the disease.
‘We saw the four persons suspected to be suffering from the disease and after thorough medical analysis, did not discover any trace of the disease.
‘One said that she defecated in the morning of Nov.26, has not defeacated again since then and that it was not watery.
‘The other persons were admitted in a nearby health facility with one of them showing pregnancy symptoms.
‘Another one said that he had been on admission in the facility since Nov. 24 while the other had been discharged,’ he said.
Umezurike said that relevant health partners would be consistently monitoring development from the area and were also ready to contain any emergency.
‘When there is panic over reports of an outbreak, people can attribute the cause of any death to cholera or any of such diseases,’ he said.
The Eastern Updates gathered that speculations over the outbreak were rife on Nov.25 when the Chairman of the council, Chief Steve Orogwu confirmed fatalities from the outbreak.
The council boss in a statement signed by his media aide disclosed that nine deaths had been recorded from outbreak as against 65 being reported on social media.
THE EASTERN UPDATES
