How severe, recurrent fever floods hospitals with patients in Kano, Kaduna, others
For some months now, fever has been ravaging some states across the country, with some patients experiencing it several times within a few weeks. Daily Trust on Sunday spoke to some of the victims.
From Yusha’u A. Ibrahim, Ibrahim Musa Giginyu & Jiddah Abubakar Muhammad, (Kano), Romoke W. Ahmad, (Ilorin), Balarabe Alkassim, Bauchi & Christiana T. Alabi (Kaduna)
Nobody at the home of Alhaji Ibrahim Sani Ibrahim of Badawa quarters in Nasarawa Local Government of Kano State, was spared when the fever attacked. Some of the members even suffered from it twice. When Daily Trust on Sunday visited, the head of the family, Alhaji Ibrahim, said he had never experienced anything like that.
“I was the first person attacked by the fever, after which my wife took over. Three weeks after I recovered, I suffered another attack. Then my first daughter, Zainab, came down with the fever as well. After which the fever attacked my other children, Maryam, Ummi,Yusha’u and Abdullahi. After my second attack, I came down with it again, for the third time.
“With the exception of Abdullahi, the rest of us were admitted at the Nassarawa Hospital. Zainab had to be given Drip twice. Her mother and I were given injections and Drip before we recovered.
“To be honest with you, I have never seen this kind of thing in my life. I spent a lot of money. Even on Thursday, I had to take my wife to hospital for routine examination and when I got there, I observed that the Accident & Emergency Unit of the hospital was full to capacity. Some people were receiving treatment on the floor because the beds were not enough for the patients,” he said.
Ibrahim is one of the many people who suffered the severe fever that recently ravaged various communities in Kano State, one year after a similar ailment wreaked havoc on many residents in the state.
It was gathered that the fever attacks started in July, through August to September and that most of its victims were diagnosed with malaria, typhoid and in some cases, both.
Our correspondents gathered that some of the affected persons resorted to herbal medication as the fever defied orthodox treatment.
Because of the fever, it is now common sight in the state metropolis, to see queues at patent medicine stores. Unlike Alhaji Ibrahim Sani Ibrahim of Badawa quarters, Alhaji Ibrahim Sani Ibrahim was not so lucky as he lost a his five-month-old daughter, Hauwa Sani, to the fever. He said about six members of his family were attacked.
“We had a similar outbreak last year and a lot of people opted for herbs to cure the malaria. However, a lot of sensitization was done on the dangers of using such herbs and that is why when the outbreak occurred this year many people didn’t consider the herbal option.
“Moreover, this year’s malaria came with a difference as it defiled medications. The headache keeps coming back. Though, we have all recovered, I lost a five-month-old baby to the malaria,” he said.
Another victim of the fever, Malam Ahmad Usman Bulama of Hotoro quarters, said all his family members suffered from the attack and that he was the last person who came down with it.
“It usually starts with severe headache then nausea and vomiting. My wife was the first to be attacked then my five children. It was like the fever was contagious or what the doctors call, airborne. I was on treatment for almost a week, but the headache refused to go. I thank God that we all survived, but it was indeed a bad experience,” Bulama said.
Forty-five-year-old Sanusi Yunusa Abubakar, on his part, said, “I woke up one Friday morning with body pains which I thought was due to stress. But later in the afternoon my head started aching and later my body temperature rose. I took Paracetamol before going to see my doctor. At the hospital, they said I had malaria and I was given some pills. Within two months, I had malaria four times. The last time I had the attack; it started with stomach ache.”
Aishat Sanusi suffered from the fever for two weeks before she recovered. “I lost my appetite followed by severe headache, abdominal pains and cold”, she said.
A patent medicine store owner in Tinshama, Nassarawa Local Government Area, Malam Yahuza Danbaba, told our correspondents that the fever had become an annual tragedy in the state, adding that owners of medicine stores were making brisk business.
“This fever is becoming an annual thing in the state. This is the second time such is hitting Kano. Although, there is a decrease in the number of people attacked by the fever this year when compared to last year, we still had good business. However, the authorities need to do something to address the situation.
“Treatment of the fever depends on the nature of the attack and what one can afford. The good thing is that the fever is responding to treatment. Full treatment of the fever is between N800 to N4,500 and it is usually through injections, tablets and drips. On the average, we treat not less than 20 patients in a day.”
Alhaji Ali Ibrahim, a resident of Tinshama, attributed the fever attack to what he called the lackadaisical attitude of some people towards their environments and refusal to sleep under treated-mosquito nets.
“It is unfortunate that many people in the state are not sleeping under the mosquito nets that are being distributed to residents by the government and other non-governmental bodies,” he said.
A medical expert, Dr Halima Adamu of the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, attributed the outbreak to poor environmental hygiene and improper medications. She said the outbreak usually occurs during the rainy season because “most Kano communities lack good drainage system”.
She noted that a water-logged area is a breeding site for mosquitoes which spread the malaria parasite. On the complaints that the fever defied treatment, Dr. Adamu said, “it has not been proved scientifically, but one cannot overrule the possibility of the parasite being resistant to treatment.
Corroborating Dr Adamu, another medical doctor working with the Bayero University, Kano, Dr Sanusi Zakariyya, said the fever persisted because patients were not properly
treated.
“Many patients tend to receive treatment from Chemists instead of doctors and this leads to taking wrong medication which either compounds the already existing illness or causes another problem,” he said.
He urged medical practitioners to stick to their areas of specialization, just as he urged people who are ill to desist from selfmedication.
“People who live in Government Reserved Areas (GRA), which have good drainage system, tend to suffer severely when attacked by malaria because the virus is new to their immune system which makes it difficult to fight the virus even if the body had similar experience before while those living in the areas that have no good drainage system are familiar with the virus because of its frequent occurrence in their immune system.
“The type of food people eat is the second reason why some people suffer a great deal from malaria. Unlike before, when people ate natural food not processed food preserved with chemicals. The chemicals used in preserving foodstuffs accumulate with time in our body which weakens our immune system. This also makes it hard for the immune system to fight diseases.
“Again, improper treatment or half treatment is the third reason some people suffer from malaria. Sometimes patients only take half dose of treatment and when they feel better, they abandon the remaining prescriptions and that causes the virus to return to the body”, he said.
When contacted, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Kabir Ibrahim Getso, said according the nation’s records, 79 of 100 Nigerians are at risk of malaria attack.
“The disease is common during rainy season. It happened last year and also this year, but last year’s experience was worse”, he said.
Getso added that last month the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the discovery of a new malaria fever called Super Malaria, which according to WHO, was resisting treatment.
He, however, added that the Kano State government distributed malaria drugs to public hospitals across the state for treatment of patients free of charge.
And in Oro-Ago, Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, there was also an outbreak of fever which mostly affected nomads living within the community. The Oloro of Oro-Ago, Oba Tafa Dada; and the President, Oro-Ago Development Union, Mr. Olaniyi Olushola, raised an alarm on the disease. Olushola said many people died as a result of the illness within two weeks, adding that it had been reported to the state Ministry of Health in Ilorin, through one Dr Lawal.
Meanwhile, the Fulani do not have the actual figure of people who died of the illness, except for the four people the medical personnel on ground confirmed.
One of the Fulani elders in Oro Ago, who spoke with our correspondent, Alhaji Usmanu Alkali, said some persons came to the area to take their blood sample for diagnoses, but that till date, the results are not yet out.
“They came with journalists and we took them inside the bush where we reside and they saw our people who are very sick but yet nothing is forthcoming from them. Some doctors also came and carried out some test on us, but unfortunately they went back without giving us any drug. We don’t have any medicine except the ones we are expecting from the government and we appeal to them to assist us. Our people have gone to hospitals around for treatment.
“We have lost many people but I cannot say the specific number because many people are still in the hospital for treatment. People are just coming to talk and no solution. We are tired of talking without solution in sight,” Alkali said.
The Community Health Officer, Public Health Science, Obayan M.O Philip, who is in charge of ECWA clinic and maternity in Oro-Ago, said he only recorded four deaths in June out of which one was brought to the health centre, dead.
According to Obayan, “I resumed here in June and when I came in, the Fulani around here brought a case of somebody vomiting blackish substance which medically is called coffee grand vomitus. It is not only the Fulani who were affected, it also affected those guys who are into the migraine work; that is the guys who engage in felling of trees in the bush. I categorised them as migraine guys. They were also affected with the problem. From the little research I have done, I discovered that people who have contact with the bush constantly are the ones that were actually affected because it didn’t affect anybody living in the town”.
Meanwhile, the Kwara State government has directed immediate deployment of medical officers to the area. The state Commissioner for Health, Sulaiman Alege,
Treatment of the fever depends on the nature of the attack and what one can afford. The good thing is that the fever is responding to treatment. Full treatment of the fever is between N800 to N4,500 and it is usually through injections, tablets and drips
said they pulled medical officers from the Offa General Hospital and health officers from the ministry to the area to monitor the situation while all the supportive system were given for proper surveillance. Meanwhile, the commissioner during one of the briefings on the outbreak said the samples that were taken from the people affected were taken for laboratory analysis at a virology unit in Lagos, and that one out of the five samples taken tested positive to Lassa fever while others were negative. Two other cases were identified after a laboratory analysis carried out at a virology unit in Lagos, to be Yellow fever. He said the ministry’s team, drugs and other things needed for the treatment of the illness have been deployed to the area.
Frequent fever among residents of Bauchi State became manifest in April, but got worse when the rains became heavy between July and September, Daily Trust on Sunday gathered. A Nurse, Ibrahim Y. Mohammed, at a primary healthcare facility located at Tashan Babiye in Bauchi metropolis, who spoke to our correspondent, said the centre attends to about 100 malaria cases in a day. He said beds and other facilities have been overstretched and that most patients with mild cases are treated and sent home.
“Mild cases are treated as Out Patients. We diagnose and prescribe drugs for them to go and take at home. But serious cases are admitted,” he said.
He said the anti-malarial drugs in the hospital are not enough because of the number of patients visiting the health facility. “BACATMA has been supplying ACT, treated mosquito nets and other consumables for a long time with the aim of combating this menace but I am afraid we are in a very dire situation, “he added.
A parent whose child was admitted and placed on Drip at the hospital told our correspondent that five members of his family were admitted at the hospital at different times.
“They were admitted and treated here. This child was brought here two days ago and he is getting better,” he said.
At another hospital located at Lowcost, the person in charge of the facility, Lawal Mohammed, said the 20 bed facility has been receiving an average of 80 In and Out-patient malaria cases daily.
“Our facility, because of its location has been battling with the influx of patients. As you can see, it is located in a populated area, so most of the people around here come straight to the facility. One scary aspect of the present situation is that we have cases of Typhoid, Cerebral Malaria, and other diseases which the patients don’t know that they have until we carry out tests to determine their status,” he said.
He added that children are the hardest hit in the present situation as three kids under the age of five died in the facility within two days.
He said health personnel have intensified campaigns on the need for people to take preventive measures like sleeping under treated mosquito nets and clean their environments.
The Bauchi State government had through its Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (BACATMA) been distributing anti-malarial drugs and other medical consumables to various health facilities on quarterly basis.
The distribution as disclosed in two separate statements by the Executive Secretary of BACATMA, Dr Mansur Dada, were to 222 health facilities across the 20 local government areas of the state.
Speaking with our correspondent, the Chairman, Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHDA) Pharmacist Adamu Ibrahim Gamawa, said malaria is being tackled head-on by various health agencies in the state.
He maintained that his agency is engaged in providing skilled manpower and facilities across the state and collaborating with BACATMA and other relevant agencies and international partners to ensure that effective measures are taken.
Kaduna State is also recording high number of malaria cases. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Paul M. Dogo, said though there were cases of malaria, the situation was not as bad as what was experienced last year.
He added that the state government had distributed malaria drugs to all health facilities and that severe cases are to be treated with injections. “It is very effective and it is free,” he said. He appealed to the people to always complete their malaria treatment, saying, the fever crashes very fast.
“When it crashes, people think they are well and they stop their medicine but once they do not complete the treatment, the parasite will attack again,” he said.