- Eti-Osa is the epicentre of the latest cholera outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city and commercial capital.
The outbreak of cholera in Lagos state is not unconnected to the consumption of locally made tiger nut drink, authorities have said.
The state government said patients who were hospitalised in Eti-Osa LGA due to the disease took an unregistered tiger nut drink.
Eti-Osa is the ground zero for the latest cholera outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city and commercial capital.
Kemi Ogunyemi, special adviser to the Lagos state governor on health, made this known in an interview with Punch on Saturday.
As of June 21, Lagos had recorded 24 deaths and 35 confirmed cholera cases.
Speaking during the interview, Kemi disclosed when the government noticed a surge in suspected cholera cases in Eti-Osa LGA, it visited the neighbourhood for a firsthand assessment.
Ogunyemi said a survey showed that people who visited hospitals all said they had consumed a particular tiger nut drink.
She said officials were then dispatched to find the drink in other to test samples for cholera.
According to her, it was during the fact finding mission that they discovered that the drink was not registered with NAFDAC, adding that they found an empty bottle of the drink with a number on it but the number was not reachable when it was called.
“We found empty bottles with a name on them, but we discovered that it wasn’t even registered with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the regulatory body that ensures the safety of consumables,” she said.
“There was a phone number and a name on the bottle, and we started tracing. We did contact tracing, similar to what we did with COVID-19.
“We combed the area to ask people where they got the drinks from. We couldn’t find any full bottles. We only found empty ones, which were of no use because we could not test them. The phone number on the bottle was not reachable.
“Cholera is also water-borne, so we took samples of the water to test it. The bottom line is that we took stool samples because different things cause diarrhoea.
“It could be anything else. We found out that it was confirmed cholera, specifically Vibrio cholera subtype 01, which is the most infectious and aggressive type.
“There are different types, but we identified this one. In Lagos Island, Eti-osa, and Kosofe, we recorded the highest number of cases that went to the hospital.
“I’m not talking about reported cases. These are the people who did the right thing by going to the hospital to complain of symptoms, and they were treated. That’s when we were alerted.”
Ogunyemi added that the government has ramped up sensitisation and awareness to ensure that the outbreak does not morph into an epidemic