WHO links Ondo deaths with herbicide poisoning

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the strange disease that broke out in Ode Irele, Ondo state, on Thursday, may have been caused by pesticide poisoning.

Speaking on Sunday, Gregory Hartyl, a WHO spokesman said the tests carried out thus far could not be linked to any viral or bacterial infection.

“#OndoX: current hypothesis is cause of the event is #herbicides. Tests done so far are negative for viral and bacterial infection,” he tweeted.

According to BBC, the world health body carried out tests at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), and all turned out negative.

Kayode Akinmade, the state commissioner for Information and strategy, who spoke to TheCable after the outbreak, had earlier said the strange deaths were all connected to an exhumed corpse in Ode Irele.

“Available data do not indicate that 34 people have died – only 14,”he said. “And from what we got, the 14 had personal contacts with those people who came to exhume the corpse that led to this epidemic,” he said.

Those who died in Ondo state suffered from blurred vision and headaches, and then lost consciousness before dying within 24 hours.

The specific cause of the strange disease has not been identified.

On Saturday, though, a chief in the town said the victims died of sacrilege.

“The youths entered the shrine and made away with traditional items in a bid to acquire extraordinary powers and engage in money ritual,” Moses Enimade, the Oyewoga of Ode Irele, said.

“Molokun is a deity of the land, only the Chief Priest and High Chief Gboguron are qualified to enter the shrine. They were not qualified to enter the room (shrine). They had to face death penalty.

“There is no community or town without its own culture and tradition; what happened in Irele is the judgement of the gods on stubborn youths.”