|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
On 9 June 2024, the Lagos State government declared a cholera outbreak. Three days later, it announced that 324 suspected cases had been reported in the state at that time, including 15 people who died and 40 who were discharged after treatment.
As reported by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), said the country has recorded 1,528 suspected cases of cholera and 53 deaths in 31 states across 107 Local Government Areas.
The Director General of the NCDC, Dr Jide Idris, gave a report at a press briefing on the update on cholera situation in the country.
ROUNDCHECK noted that this is not the first time Nigeria will be having an outbreak.
The first outbreak of epidemic cholera in Nigeria was in 1972. This outbreak happens especially during the rainy season when the disease tends to spread more easily due to poor drainage systems, hygiene practices and limited access to clean drinkable water in rural areas.
More Read
The most recent cholera outbreak in Nigeria occurred in September 2022 in Bauchi where it lasted for over four months. The state recorded 12,496 confirmed cases with 394 deaths (confirmed 288, suspected 106) from (17 September 2022 to 23 December 2022) in 17 out of 27 Local Government Areas (LGAs) according to World Health Organization (WHO) data.
However, Cholera is a bacterial disease usually spread through contaminated water. Cholera causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration. If left untreated, cholera can be fatal within hours, even in previously healthy people.
What Is Cholera
Cholera is a disease caused by eating food and drinking water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.
How Does Cholera Spread
- Cholera can spread when people do not wash their hands with soap and water after defecating and then cook or serve food with unwashed hands.
- Cholera also spreads when people eat food without washing their hands before and after eating.
- If cooked food is not covered, it may get contaminated from flies that carry the bacteria.
- Cholera also spreads when raw fruits and vegetables are not thoroughly washed in clean running water before being eaten.
- Eating raw seafood contaminated with cholera bacterium is another way people get infected.
With the current outbreak, ROUNDCHECK highlights the symptoms of this cholera and how to spot it.
Symptoms of cholera infection can include:
- Diarrhoea: Cholera-related diarrhoea comes on suddenly and can quickly cause dangerous fluid loss. Diarrhoea due to cholera often has a pale, milky appearance that resembles water in which rice has been rinsed.
- Nausea and Vomiting: Vomiting occurs especially in the early stages of cholera and can last for hours.
- Low blood pressure- There will be a drop in the level of blood pressure.
- Weakness: There is a sudden weakness that comes with cholera infection.
- Dehydration/Thirst: Dehydration can develop within hours after cholera symptoms start and range from mild to severe. A loss of 10% or more of body weight indicates severe dehydration.
Signs and symptoms of cholera dehydration include irritability, fatigue, sunken eyes, a dry mouth, extreme thirst, dry and shriveled skin that’s slow to bounce back when pinched into a fold, little or no urinating, low blood pressure, and an irregular heartbeat.
Dehydration can lead to a rapid loss of minerals in your blood that maintain the balance of fluids in your body. This is called an electrolyte imbalance.
What is Electrolyte Imbalance:
An electrolyte imbalance can lead to serious signs and symptoms such as:
- Muscle cramps. These result from the rapid loss of salts such as sodium, chloride and potassium.
- Shock. This is one of the most serious complications of dehydration. It occurs when low blood volume causes a drop in blood pressure and a drop in the amount of oxygen in your body. If untreated, severe hypovolemic shock can cause death in minutes.
