By Haruna Gimba with agency report
Unknown disease suspected to be typhoid fever or shigella dysentery has killed 13 people in Saburi community of Abuja Municipal Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Executive Secretary, FCT Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr. Rilwanu Muhammad told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the disease broke out on February 18.
He said 13 out of 14 affected people died while a five-year-old child survived the outbreak as at February 22, adding that the victims of the disease are not from the same household.
According to him, the victims experienced fever, abdominal pain and diarrhoea, and sometimes bloody diarrhoea before they subsequently died.
“There is no good sanitation in the community and we suspect salmonella typhi and shigella dysentery in that community because it is not food poisoning, cholera or gastroenteritis; that is why we are suspecting typhoid,” he said.
Dr. Muhammad explained that shigella dysentery is a bacterial species causing dysentery in humans and in monkeys, found only in faeces of symptomatic individuals.
He said the board had taken the sample of the water from the well and three different boreholes in the community to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control laboratory for analysis and confirmation the diagnosis.
The scribe added that the community had about 20 boreholes and all of them are not in good condition, therefore he urged the community to embrace hand washing, good personal hygiene and good environmental management.
He assured residents of the area that the board is working hard to control the situation and take care of the infected persons.
