The death toll following the cholera outbreak in Mubi, Adamawa State, has risen from 16 to 18.
As at Wednesday, 1,076 people had been diagnosed with the disease through house-to-house search and chlorination organised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to mitigate the spread of the disease to other towns and villages across the state.
The house-to-house search and chlorination have really helped to disinfect the outbreak to drop from 17 to one per cent, adding that although new cases are identified and brought to the health centre for treatment daily but the joy is that the spread has drastically reduced to one per cent.
The Surveillance Officer of WHO, Dr. Jerry Pantuvo, said WHO recruited 63 staff for the exercise, adding that 40 members of staff were deployed to conduct the house-to-house search across the city, while 23 members of staff were also deployed for the disinfection and case management .
He said 40 members of staff were paired into 20 groups to go out and identify new cases, adding that when new cases are identified, they immediately call for ambulance to pick the patient to the health centre for further examinations and treatment.
According to him, “If a case is identified in an area, the disinfection team will go there and disinfect the area to prevent further spread of the disease.
“Our major challenge was that when we started the house-to-house active search, most of the residents refused us entry into their houses but with the intervention of the Emir of Mubi and some major stakeholders, we were able to get access into their homes.”
He said when the victims are taken to the health centres, WHO, which is the coordinating organisation for the fight against cholera in Mubi, has provided free drugs for their treatment.
With the coming of other partners like Medecins Sans Frontieres, which has taken care of disinfection and Unicef has taken chlorination aspect, he believed the outbreak will soon be a thing of the past.
He said the active search and the disinfection programmes have helped to mitigate the spread from 17 to one per cent.
