Three killed in fresh cholera outbreak in Borno

At least three persons have been killed in a fresh outbreak of cholera in Kukawa local government area of Borno state, Haruna Mshelia, commissioner for health, has said.

Mshelia made the disclosure when Tedros Ghebrayesus, director-general, World Health Organisation (WHO), visited the WHO’s emergency and response centre on Friday in Maiduguri.

He said about 700 cases of cholera were recorded in Baga, Doron Baga and Kukawa in the past weeks.

Mshelia said the state government in collaboration with WHO and other partner agencies had scaled up activities to combat the outbreak in the affected communities.

He said the state government in the past six months conducted vaccination to control the disease.

The commissioner added that the state government, with the support from WHO and other organisations, had also executed various programmes to control, hepatitis E, malaria, polio, measles, meningitis and other diseases.

Mshelia called for closer collaboration with WHO to enhance healthcare delivery in the state.

Ghebrayesus said WHO is committed to containing the spread of cholera, polio and other diseases in the state.

He said: “The current cholera outbreak was recorded in areas where vaccination was not conducted. The outbreak would be analysed to avert future occurrence.”