‘Why meningitis wreaked havoc in Zamfara’
Recently, at least 14,518 suspected cases of cerebrospinal meningitis, which resulted in 1,166 deaths, were reported in 25 states of the federation, including Zamfara. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Zamfara State was the worst hit.
Mohammadu Lawal, whose two children were the first to be hit by the outbreak in the state, described his experience as ‘scary and confusing’ because the symptoms were strange to him and members of his family.
“My first son complained of headache in the morning, and minutes later, the second complained of the same thing. We bought ‘Paracetamol’ and gave them, but later in the day, they both complained of abdominal pain, which later escalated to unconsciousness.
“I was confused and scared, so I rushed them to the hospital, where drugs were administered on them. I had no money, but brothers contributed to assist me pay for medication. They recovered after two weeks. I am happy to inform you that my children have fully recovered and are doing fine. One is in school as we speak,” Lawal said.
He thanked the Zamfara State Government and non-governmental organisations for providing medical intervention, which helped to curb the outbreak of the disease.
Also narrating his experience, a survivor of the outbreak, Mubarak Salisu, said that when he started having headache and body pains he complained to his mother who gave him some drugs. But the situation worsened.
“When it got severe at night, she quickly informed my father. All I remember is when I found myself in the hospital and the signs and symptoms I was feeling had disappeared,’’ he said.
Salisu Yusuf, Mubarak’s father, recalled how he rushed his son to the hospital about 12am, where he was diagnosed of meningitis.
A family who lost five children to the outbreak in two days in Kurya, Kaura Namoda, blamed the situation on lack of exposure and nonavailability of vaccines and drugs.
However, Mustapha Madaro, an uncle to the deceased five children, noted that the health care provider in his area did his best, but unfortunately, they lost three children on the first day while two died later.
“The father of the children was in Abuja at the moment, but he called me and I quickly went to his house and rushed the children to the hospital. Since they did not have all the prescribed drugs and vaccine in the health facility there, I had to travel out of our community to buy them.
“The late children all slept under the same mosquito net and displayed same symptoms before they died,” he narrated.
Madaro called on the government to improve the health facility in his community and make drugs and vaccines easily accessible. He condemned a situation where the government would wait for the outbreak of a deadly disease before taking action.
Muhammad Yusuf, a community health worker in charge of the Primary Health Care Centre, Kurya, Kaura Namoda, said that out of the 292 cases of meningitis brought to the facility, only 15 people died. He said they carried out treatment based on signs and symptoms because the health centre did not have the equipment or laboratory to carry out tests.
“We lacked enough members of staff to render services during the outbreak; we really need manpower,” he said.
He further said their district head instructed relatives of patients to take them to an isolated centre instead of the hospital to avoid infecting others with the disease.
Also narrating his ordeal, Mallam Muhammadu Balarabe, the Imam of ‘Makaranta Zawuyya’(school for the almajirai), Gusua, told our correspondent that meningitis outbreak easily affected and spread in his school because of overpopulation, poor feeding and unhealthy environment.
He said that overseeing over 2,000 almajirai was a major challenge, and wondered why parents within and outside the country would abandon their children in almajirai schools without contributing to their welfare.
“I have over 2,000 children under me, and some of them are from Niger Republic. Meningitis outbreak was disastrous to this school as most of the children were infected, and some died. We had to force them to sleep outside, far from one another when we were informed that the disease is contagious,” he explained.
Balarabe advised parents to always cater for their children rather than abandoning them in Islamic schools. He called on the Federal Government to extend its school feeding programme to almajirai schools, saying that as a result of poverty, most parents cannot afford food for their children.
Garuba Maradun, the director of the Primary Health Care Department, Talata Mafara Local Government Area, said the first case was reported from the Guradaji health facility.
“We first sent our team to investigate the situation and know the severity of the cases, the number of people involved and the age group that was mostly affected. After that we reported to the appropriate authority. The state team took samples to the lab before we got results,’’ he said.
Also speaking, Lawal Bello, the officer in charge of the Liman Dara Women and Children Welfare Clinic, Gusau, said there was an urgent need to improve health education and decongest schools. He noted that during the outbreak, health workers carried out treatments blindly before the NCDC stepped in.
Findings by Daily Trust on Sunday revealed that various district heads played vital roles in curbing the outbreak of the deadly disease in Zamfara State.
The district head of Kannu village in Birni Magaji Local Government Area, Abdullahi Usman, where the first case of meningitis was recorded, narrated how he immediately informed the Emirate Council of the outbreak.
“After the health facilities discovered it was deadly and contagious, I informed the Emirate Council, after which they informed the local government authority and they immediately sent drugs and vaccines.
However, I think the unavailability of vaccines and drugs at that time contributed to the spread of the disease,” he said.
Usman called on the Federal Government to build a better primary health care facility in the area so as to combat future outbreak of any deadly disease.
Reacting to the outbreak, the executive secretary of the Zamfara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Yusuf Marafa, said they were ready to combat the deadly disease, adding that the agency had started training and mobilising health workers.
“We have learnt our lessons and have taken measures because we don’t want it to happen again. We are above 90per cent ready to tackle the outbreak. We have strengthened our routine immunisation exercise. We are also going to review our source of fund, which is being contributed by local government chairmen, the state government and partners every month. We want to expand our health facilities with routine immunisation from 666 to 700. So we have a plan to cover the whole state,” Marafa said.
Also speaking, the Emir of Gusau, Alhaji Ibrahim Bello, attributed the outbreak of the disease in Zamfara to abject poverty, illiteracy, unclean environment and malnutrition. He explained that lack of sufficient and good food, as well as unclean environment weakens the immune system, thus exposing the body to all sorts of infection.
“People don’t have sufficient food to eat for energy and protection. Once there is no money, there won’t be good food and this leads to low resistance, and low resistance gives room to infection. They cannot eat three square meals, let alone buying soap to bath or wash their clothes,” he said.
He further said the outbreak was mostly recorded among the almajirai community because of their population and how they live in groups.
“The disease was easily spread among the almajirai because of how they lived together. We had to use our mosques and churches to educate the people about the disease and how it could be prevented,’’ he said.
The traditional ruler further said that before the outbreak, people preferred to go to native doctors for treatment because they did not believe the disease required orthodox medical attention, “People were not interested in going to health facilities initially, so we had to convince, educate and enlighten them. It was then that they understood the need for orthodox medicine and started going to health facilities,” he said.
The emir said there was the need for legislation on the almajiri system of Islamic education to discourage parents in other countries from sending their children to Nigeria at will. Those children can obtain Islamic education in their various countries, he added.
“How can somebody send his son from Niger Republic or any other country to Nigeria to learn Arabic and other languages without caring to visit or know how the child is doing? These children do not feed well; they go about begging for food.
“These are some of the issues that need to be addressed urgently. All health facilities need to be equipped; we have to always be ready and not wait for outbreaks before acting,” he advised, adding that there’s need for adequate budgeting for the health sector, including training for health workers and improved access roads to rural communities.