How Strange Disease Killed 50 In Jigawa

A strange and deadly disease has claimed the lives of 50 children between the age of one and five in Gidan Dugus , Dutse LGA of Jigawa state in the last two months of this year.

The village Head Malam Bashari Galadima Gidan Gudu, said: “the problem started about two months ago, but the situation got worse in the last few weeks”

“The children will start with serious fever, than develop stomach swelling and within a little time they will give up.”

He also narrated that “there are families that lost seven, four and three children to the disease and at a time, we buried between four and two kids daily during the worse period.”

But, a reaction from the Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ali Dandidi revealed that the community sought medical attention outside their locality.

The minster stated that the ministry “learnt the problem started sometime in July. The community members refused to go to the public health centre. They relied on and patronised chemists and
other medical vendors all the while

“Nobody reported to the ministry (of health) until on October 27. The ministry sent a medical team there. The team took samples of the patients to the laboratory and we controlled the situation within a few days.”

According to him, “after laboratory tests of the samples, it was confirmed as malaria and typhoid. We supplied the drugs for treatment and the situation was brought under control.”