50 kids die of ‘strange disease’ in Jigawa

No fewer than 50 children have died in a Jigawa State village of  ”a strange disease”, the village head said yesterday.

The kids who died within the last two months in Gidan Dugus in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State were within the age of one and five years, it was learnt.

Gidan Dugu village is 35 kilometres from Jigawa State capital Dutse in the Northwest geo political zone.

Village Head Malam Bashari Galadima Gidan Gudu told our reporter that ”the problem started about two months ago, but the situation got worse in the last few weeks”

Explaining how the disease affects the kids, he said: “The children will start with serious fever, than develop stomach swelling and within a little time they will give up.”

Painting a grim account of the situation he said: ”there are families that lost seven, four and three children to the disease and at a time, we buried between four and two kids daily during the worse period.”

The village head said the children were treated at Wangara Health Clinic and some referred to Dutse General Hospital and to Kano, the neighbouring state, where some of them are still on admission.

Ministry of Health Permanent Secretary Alhaji Ali Dandidi said: “ We learnt the problem started sometime in July. The community members refused to go to the public health centre. They relied on and patronised chemists and other medical vendors all the while

“Nobody reported to the ministry (of health) until on October 27. The ministry sent a medical team there. The team took samples of the patients to the laboratory and we controlled the situation within a few days.”

According to him, “after laboratory tests of the samples, it was confirmed as malaria and typhoid. We supplied the drugs for treatment and the situation was brought under control.”