The Commissioner for Health in Ebonyi State, Daniel Umezurike, has debunked reports of outbreak or death from cholera in the state.
Mr Umezurike disclosed this on Friday in Abakaliki after an assessment visit to Ndiegu Amagu, in Ikwo Local Government Area of the state where the outbreak was said to have occurred.
The commissioner said when the outbreak was first reported in early November 2021, officials of the ministry, World Health Organisation among other relevant agencies visited the area.
“We carried out rapid diagnostic tests and all tested samples turned negative.
“We also forwarded collected samples to the reference laboratory in Abuja and the microscopies all showed negative,” he said.
He said that when the current, ‘rumour’ of the outbreak broke, relevant officials were dispatched to the area and they interacted intensively with members of the community.
“We visited the area with the objectives of confirming the rumour, attending to the sick people among them, collecting and testing samples and sensitising the people on the disease.
“We saw the four persons suspected to be suffering from the disease and after thorough medical analysis, did not discover any trace of the disease.
“One said that she defecated in the morning of November 26, has not defecated again since then and that it was not watery.
“The other persons were admitted in a nearby health facility with one of them showing pregnancy symptoms.
“Another one said that he had been on admission in the facility since November 24, while the other had been discharged,” he said.
Mr Umezurike said that relevant health partners would be consistently monitoring development from the area and were also ready to contain any emergency.
“When there is panic over reports of an outbreak, people can attribute the cause of any death to cholera or any of such diseases,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that speculations about an outbreak were heightened on November 25 when the Chairman of Ikwo local council, Steve Orogwu, claimed that nine people had died from cholera in the area.