Cholera outbreak fear grips Edo: Eight test positive at UBTH

By Jethro Ibileke

No fewer than eight persons have tested positive to suspected cholera disease in Edo State.

The patients were admitted at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).

The State Director of Public Health, Ministry of Health, Dr Stephenson Ojeifo disclosed this to journalists on Wednesday.

He said the eight suspected cases were among the 16 patients admitted at UBTH.

He said: “Last Thursday, we received alert that there are some patients with suspected cases of cholera on admission at the hospital.

“In collaboration with WHO team, we quickly mobilized our men to the hospital to investigate and see the condition of the patients and know what exactly to do as quickly as possible.

“Sixteen patients were admitted at the UBTH. We ran an RDT (Rapid Diagnostic Test) for all of them. RDT is not a confirmatory test positive while eight were not reactive the other eight were positive to it.

“The next line is for us to collect samples from those eight that were reactive to the rapid diagnosis test. That samples have been sent to the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja for confirmatory test.

“Until that result comes out and say it is positive, we won’t say that we have any positive cholera case in Edo state.

“The good news is that from Thursday till now, all the patients have been discharged in UBTH except one still in the ward.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Ojeifo has appealed to Edo residents not to panic.

He assured that the state government was on top of the situation with the support from the staff of World Health Organisation (WHO) in the state.

He added that all those affected are being monitored closely, including all those they had contact with.

The Director of Public Health also disclosed that surveillance system has been activated for contact tracing and line listing.

He added that community enlightenment have been carried out to know what they took before the incidents.

Stephenson, who urged members of the public to continue to maintain hygiene and clean environment, however, advised them to report any suspected case to the nearest hospital or health facility close to them.

Dr Ojeifo also disclosed that 36 people had died of Lassa fever in the state since the beginning of the year.

He said 226 cases of the diseases had been confirmed out of the 2,300 suspected cases recorded in the state.

He posited that the State Government was mobilizing to eradicate the causative rats to ensure that the state is Lassa fever free.