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A cholera outbreak has claimed 20 lives in northern Nigeria's Kano state in the last week, officials and residents said on Saturday.
KANO, Nigeria (AFP) - A cholera outbreak has claimed 20 lives in northern Nigeria's Kano state in the last week, officials and residents said on Saturday.
"We have received reports of a cholera outbreak in Rikadawa village in the last week where 20 lives have been lost with about 70 others hospitalised", Ibrahim Muazu, Madobi local government chairman, told AFP.
Residents of the 3,000-strong village, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Kano, said the outbreak started when they began drinking water from a river outside the village because three of the four boreholes in the village were spoilt.
"With the breakdown of three of the four boreholes in the village, we turned to the Kunza river as our source of water and since then we started noticing people falling sick with cholera," said 70-year-old Malam Alhaji Dauda, who lost five grandchildren in the last two days.
Muazu said he had sent personnel to assess the situation and fix the broken boreholes.
Last month about 100 people died of cholera in four northern states.
Cholera is an intestinal bacteria that causes serious diarrhoea and vomiting leading to dehydration. With a short incubation period, it can be fatal if not treated in time.