The Delta State Government has said that it has successfully managed the recent cholera outbreak in the state which recorded 7 deaths out of the 138 cases.
The State Commissioner for health, Dr. Joseph Onojoame, who disclosed this at a press conference in Asaba on Tuesday, said majority of the cases were children.
The Commissioner revealed that the seven deaths occurred during the initial wave of the outbreak but no fatality has been recorded in subsequent outbreaks.
He added that the initial outbreak was centered in Warri South-West, with subsequent cases in Bomadi and Oshimili South, as efforts to control the outbreak included extensive public education campaigns on hygiene practices and water purification.
Onojoame noted that the situation in Warri South-West has stabilized, with only 20 suspected cases in the last six weeks.
He emphasized the importance of maintaining good hygiene to prevent the spread of the disease, which according to him, thrives in poor sanitary conditions and can be transmitted by asymptomatic carriers.
He said: "The signs and symptoms are basically passage of watery low stool, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance among others.
"The State has recorded 138 cases in Warri South-West which is the local government it started and in the second and third outbreak we had seven cases in Bomadi and one in Oshimili South.
"We have been able to curtail the disease in Delta State and the disease surveillance and notification officers across the state have been able to carry out a lot of advocacies to our people to educate them about the cause of the disease.
"Cholera is mainly a disease of poor sanitary environment and we have educated them about simple hand washing and not taking unclean water. We have also provided tablets to purify some of these unclean waters.
"So far so good, since about six weeks now in Warri South-West where it started from, we had only 20 suspected cases and majority of the cases we noticed we have treated and its basically under control.
"We are doing a lot of advocacies and the risk factors are basically poor sanitary condition and reduced stomach acid. Cholera has an incubation period of 12 days and within this period somebody not showing these symptoms can spread it through phaeces and urine to other persons.
"Staying with somebody with the bacteria is a big risk factor to contact the bacteria from that person so maintaining hygiene is very key to eliminating Cholera from our environment and it is common among villages along the water bank.
"So far, the Ministry has curtailed the disease within the high risk local government areas and the Epidemiology unit of the Ministry is doing a lot of surveillance on these patients and its fully under control.
"In Delta State we have eight local governments that are of high risk viz; Warri South, Warri South-West, Warri North, Ughelli North, Ughelli South, Patani, Bomadi and Burutu. The Ministry of Health’s epidemiology unit continues to monitor these regions closely."
