Cholera Outbreak in Ogun kills 12.
Written by AIGBOKHAEBHO OKHUELEIGBE on October 19, 2023
Fresh cholera outbreak has killed at least 12 persons in the last one month in Ogun State.
The Commissioner for Health , Dr Tomi Coker, who confirmed the fatalities out of about 246 cases recorded so far disclosed this while giving an update on the cholera outbreak shortly after a stakeholders ‘ engagement held at the ministry in Abeokuta, capital of the state.
On September 17 , Ogun state government alerted residents of the outbreak of Cholera, locally referred to as Aarun òní gbáméjì ‘, in Ijebu North Local Government Area of the State.
The epidemic later spread to Abeokuta North and Abeokuta South Local Government Areas ( LGAS ) in the state capital.
The Commissioner explained that the cholera outbreak is being fuelled by “high level of open defecation, poor waste management and poor water source.” She said:
Unfortunately, we have a report of 246 cases and there has been at least about 12 deaths, which brings us to fatality rate of 44.6 percent.
This is slightly high for a state like ours because we are educated. And from what we found out that’s actually promoting the cholera outbreak is the fact that there’s high level of open defecation in Ogun State.
It started in Ijebu North Local Government where we have 217 cases, but now we have more reports. We have some from Abeokuta North last week. We have two reports from Abeokuta South.
