Three feared dead, 284 hospitalised due to contaminated water in Kano
APPREHENSIONCONTINUED to mount in Kano as three persons were confirmed dead and 284 were hospitalised after drinking from ‘ ground water’ scooped near Dandolo Cemetery in Gwale Local Government Area of the metropolis.
Prior to the confirmation, an outbreak had reportedly killed scores of persons in the city in the past two weeks, a development that attracted government intervention.
Addressing newsmen on
Tuesday, Commissioner for Health in Kano, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa, who confirmed the development, declared that investigation revealed the contamination had spread across 13 local government areas, including eight metropolitan councils. The commissioner declared 101 persons had been discharged across 25 health facilities where they were managed while 183 were still battling to survive. Dr. Tsanyawa, who debunked any link of the strange illness to the COVID- 19 pandemic, said that preliminary investigation indicated food poisoning, including contaminated water and prepared juice from instant flavored drink powder.
He added that findings revealed that those hospitalised demonstrated barrage of symptoms, including fever, yellowish coloration of the eyes, hematuria abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, headache and dizziness, among other symptoms.
According to Tsanyawa, there was evidence linking the ‘ ground water’ consumed to vapour of the cemetery while others came down after taking juice from instant flavored drink powder with a variety of salt for industrial use.
The commissioner disclosed that an index case of the outbreak, a six- year- old girl, developed abdominal pains, vomiting, jaundiced and urine with blood shortly after drinking water said to have been brought from a water vendor who sourced the water from a borehole within the premises of a cemetery at Dandolo in Kano city, particularly in Warure area in Goro Dutse ward in Gwale.
“Further investigation revealed that those individuals that came down with such symptoms were said to have consumed juice from instant flavored drink powder with a variety of salt for industrial as well as caustic powder, mostly used for cadaver ( dead body preservation). These drink powders were confirmed to have exceeded expiring date and exposed to non- recommended storage conditions.”
MEANWHILE, results of blood samples are still being awaited. While warning residents to be conscious of drinks and water being taken, the commissioner assured that the government was taking necessary measures to curtail the spread of the disease.
LAGOS State governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo- Olu, yesterday, signed the bill for the Prohibition of Unlawful Societies and Cultism of 2021 into law, which stipulates a 21- year jail term for convicted cultists in state.
The state’s house of assembly, in February, passed the anticultism bill, which also stipulates 15- year jail term for anyone found guilty of abetting cultists and residents who willfully allow their property to be used as meeting points by cultists.
Parents of cult members to be punished
Sanwo- Olu assented to the bill at the swearing- in event for newly appointed members of the state’s Public Procurement Agency Governing Board and two permanent secretaries held at Banquet Hall in the state house, Alausa, on Monday.
At the event, the governor also signed three other bills into law. They are Lagos State Audit Service Commission ( Amendment) Law of 2019, Lagos State Public Procurement Bill of 2021 and Coronavirus Pandemic Emergency Law of 2021.
The anti- cultism law repeals the Cultism ( Prohibition) Law of 2007 ( now Cap. C18, Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015) and provides for more stringent punitive measures, as well as makes its application all- encompassing and applicable to the general public, as against the restriction of the previous law to students of tertiary institutions.
Sanwo- Olu said the state had suffered the negative effects of unlawful societies and cultism, stressing that the new law sought to make parents more responsible and show more interest in the up- bringing of their children and wards to ensure that they do not become a burden to the society.