Posted by From Adamu Suleiman in Sokoto on
Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) epidemic has broken out in Lugu and Tuttudawa villages in Wurno Local Government Area of Sokoto State, killing in the process, a seven year old girl, Hafsatu Ibrahim.
Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) epidemic has broken out in Lugu and Tuttudawa villages in Wurno Local Government Area of Sokoto State, killing in the process, a seven year old girl, Hafsatu Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, who is a native of Lugu village is said to have died off "classical meningitis", which broke out in the local government area two weeks ago.
THISDAY gathered that the epidedmic was first discovered, when a four year old boy, Isa Lawal was found and identified to be affected by the disease.
The village, which is said to be congested is barely 500 metres from Wurno, the headquarters of the council.
Confirming the incident yesterday in Wurno, the Principal Medical Officer of the Wurno General Hospital, Dr. Cherima Yakubu said the first victim, Lawal Isa was brought to the Hospital with " suddedn onset of severe headache, fever and loss of consciousness in addition to vomiting".
"Clinical diagnosis confirmed that the signs elicits signs of cerebro spinal meningitis. Samples of the cerebro-spinal fluid were found to be cluody(not pure)", Dr. Yakubu explained.
He confirmed that 12 patients including an adult were admitted out of which 10 were treated and discharged.
"Only two children are now on admission and are responding to treatment.I can assure you that the situation has been brought under control andl even the dead girl, Hafsatu, was not brought to the Hospital before she died as a result of the verbal autopsy given to her at home by her parents", the doctor further said.
The medical officer also stated that the village is "congested" as 20 to 30 persons are said to be living in a house at a time.
He said the entire village was sitting on a "time bomb" which is just waiting to explode, adding that an urgent relocation and conduct of "mass CSM immunisation" in the area saying,"this is refered to as herd immunisation".
However, Yakubu lamented that poverty was inhibiting the attitude of the public to health campaigns in the area while commending the Sokoto state and Wurno local governments for taking "swift action" in containing the spread of the edpidemic disease to other areas "one million naira worth of drugs and medicaments were sent to the hospital by the state government".