Eight out of the 25 people who suffered cholera in Anambra state in January 2015 have died, Joe Akabuike, the Anambra state commissioner for health, confirmed on Tuesday.
Speaking while receiving drugs and hospital equipment donated by a Lagos-based pharmaceutical company, Akabuike said the outbreak, which was recorded in Innoma community in Anambra west local government area of the state, was already under control.
The commissioner said that a team of doctors and nurses were immediately deployed to the area as soon as the outbreak was reported.
“We discovered that it was not a full blown cholera but gastroenteritis common in children under five years,” he said.
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“Gastroenteritis is an infection of the intestines which causes diarrhoea. In most cases, the infection clears within a few days, but sometimes it takes longer.”
Akabuike said the government had also received drugs and hospital equipment worth about $2billion from donor agencies and indigenes of the state since the inception of the present administration.
He commended the donors for the gesture and pledged that they would be used judiciously for the wellbeing of the people.
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Akabuike said the security measures put in place by Willie Obiano, governor of the state, had attracted a lot of investments to the state.
The commissioner said that the government had recently donated N428 million to mission hospitals in the state to boost healthcare delivery.
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