By Hamilton Nwosa(Head, The New Diplomat’s Polling, Research & Data desk)
The Kano State government, on Tuesday, confirmed three persons dead and 284 others infected in the outbreak of a strange disease.
The Commissioner for Health, Aminu Ibrahim-Tsanyawa, who disclosed this at a press conference said the infected persons had been admitted into 25 health facilities.
Ibrahim-Tsanyawa noted that the disease, first recorded on March 10, was suspected to be caused by consumption of contaminated flavour and a brand of expired instant drink.
He said affected persons were identified in 13 local government ; 101 of them had been discharged, with 183 currently on admission.
The affected councils are Dala Gwale, Kano Municipal, Fage, Ungogo, Kumbotso, Tarauni, Bunkure, Rano, Dawakinjudu, Dawakin Tofa, Gwarzo and Danbatta.
Ibrahim-Tsanyawa disclosed that the index case, a six-year-old girl developed abdominal pain, vomiting, jaundice and urinating blood (hematuria) after drinking water bought from a vendor.
The vendor, according to him, sourced the water from a borehole at a cemetery in the metropolis.
“Water, blood and different instant drink flavour powder samples have been taken for tests to pin down a diagnosis, ranging from food-borne disease, food poisoning, Lassa Fever, Yellow Fever, Dengue Fever, Chemical poisoning to Toxic Hepatitis,” he said.
The health ministry, he said, was still awaiting the results of samples analyses to establish the cause(s) of the infection and identify the disease.
