Dr Stephenson Ojeifo, Edo State Director of Public Health under the Ministry of Health, has disclosed that eight (8) persons have tested positive to suspected cholera disease in the state.
Dr Ojeifo who made the disclosure while speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Benin City, the Edo State Capital, said the affected patients were admitted at the facility of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH).
He explained that eight suspected cases were among the 16 patients admitted at UBTH.
The Edo State Director of Public Health also revealed that 226 out of the 2,300 suspected cases of Lassa Fever have been confirmed in the state since the beginning of 2024.
Dr Ojeifo further informed that 36 of the Lassa Fever patients have died in the state since the beginning of the year.
He assured that the State Government was mobilizing to eradicate the causative rats to ensure that the Edo State is Lassa fever free.
While urging Edo State residents to continually maintain hygiene and clean environment, Dr. Ojeifo, however, advised them to report any suspected case to the nearest hospital or health facility close to them.
On the suspected cholera issue, Ojeifo said: “Last Thursday, we received an alert that there are some patients with suspected cases of cholera on admission at the hospital.
“In collaboration with the WHO team, we quickly mobilized our men to the hospital to investigate and see the condition of the patients and know what exactly to do as quickly as possible.
“Sixteen patients were admitted at the UBTH. We ran an RDT (Rapid Diagnostic Test) for all of them. RDT is not a confirmatory test positive. While eight were not reactive the other eight were positive to it.
“The next line is for us to collect samples from those eight that were reactive to the rapid diagnosis test.
“That samples have been sent to the National Reference Laboratory in Abuja for confirmatory test.
“Until that result comes out and says it is positive, we won’t say that we have any positive cholera case in Edo state.
“The good news is that from Thursday till now, all the patients have been discharged in UBTH except one still in the ward.”
Ojeifo has appealed to Edo residents not to panic, assuring that the state government was on top of the situation with the support from the staff of World Health Organisation (WHO) in the state.
He added that all those affected are being monitored closely, including all those they had contact with, this is even as he said that surveillance system has been activated for contact tracing and line listing.
He added that community enlightenment have been carried out to know what they took before the suspected cholera incidents.
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