Yobe dispatches team to contain cholera outbreak in LGAs

The Yobe State government has dispatched a Rapid Response Team (RRT) to contain cholera outbreak in Bade, Bursari, Karasuwa and Yunusari local government areas of Yobe State.

The General Manager, Yobe Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASSA), Alhaji Mohammed Bukar, stated this in an interview with Daily Trust yesterday, attributing the outbreak to poor sanitation and water hygiene.

He said the team had embarked on disinfecting toilets and water reservoirs in the affected local councils.

He said 10 water samples had been collected from the six cholera affected wards in Gashua town and five had tested positive to contamination.

“Using the bacteriological test kit, we discovered five private boreholes with contaminated water. These are shallow boreholes of 15 meters depth that are being managed by private individuals,” he said.

Bukar said that aqua tablets had been distributed to households in all the affected communities, while hygiene promotion education with emphasis on hand washing had been ongoing to stop the spread.

“People should boil water or use aqua tablets before drinking, they should avoid eating raw vegetables until the situation subsides,” he added.

He said that 13 toilets and reservoirs had been disinfected in Gashua General hospital where the cholera patients are hospitalised in an isolated center.

Daily Trust gathered that there was fresh cholera outbreak in Dumbiri community in Bursari Local Government Area, where one person died and seven others hospitalised.