The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has alerted the public to the increasing cholera cases in the country.
It advised people to be more health conscious especially as the rains intensify.
The centre revealed that between 1 January and last Tuesday, 1,141 suspected cases of cholera were recorded while 65 were confirmed.
Of the 65 cases, 30 led to deaths in some Local Government Areas.
NCDC Director-General (DG), Jide Idris said that Lagos, Bayelsa, Zamfara, Abia, Cross River, Bauchi, Delta, Katsina, Imo and Nasarawa states contributed 90 per cent of the burden
Cholera is a food and water-borne disease caused by the ingestion of an organism known as Vibrio cholerae in contaminated water and food.
The health agency advised that in order not to be caught unawares, people should ensure that their water is boiled and stored in a clean and covered container.
It also said that food should be well cooked before consumption while good personal hand hygiene, including frequent hand washing with soap or alcohol-based hand sanitiser should be observed.
According to the centre, raw food such as fruits and vegetables must be thoroughly washed with safe water before being consumed.
The advisory added: “After cooking food and boiling water, the public should protect them against contamination by flies and unsanitary handling.
“Leftover foods should be thoroughly reheated before ingestion. Persons with diarrhoea should not prepare or serve food or haul water for others”.
Open defecation and indiscriminate refuse dumping should not be practised. Proper disposal of waste and frequent clearing of sewage are also important.
The agency assured that it was not relenting in its effects to combat the disease. It said that the multi-sectoral National Cholera Technical Working Group, comprising the Federal Ministries of Environment and Water Resources, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and other partners, has been providing support to the affected states.
“This support includes risk communication, active case search, laboratory diagnosis, case management, provision of response commodities, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions, and dissemination of cholera awareness jingles in both English and local languages”, it said.
