Saturday, July 18, 2026

Cholera Outbreak: Death toll reaches 29 as Lagos records 579 suspected cases

Mr Abayomi disclosed this during a state multi-agency news briefing and an update on the cholera outbreak in Lagos on Monday.

• June 24, 2024
Cholera patients
A photo of Cholera patients used to illustrate the story [Photo credit: The New York Times]

The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, says fatalities from the state’s cholera outbreak have risen to 29 deaths and 579 suspected cases across multiple local government areas in the state.

Mr Abayomi disclosed this during a state multi-agency news briefing and an update on the cholera outbreak in Lagos on Monday.

The commissioner disclosed laboratory confirmation of 43 cases, noting that Lagos Island, Kosofe, and Eti Osa recorded the highest numbers of infections.

“Most of these deaths were caused by patients presenting very late at a stage where we could not resuscitate them because they had severe dehydration, and many patients were actually brought in dead.

“Many, many children came down with cholera, many students, lots of traders, and artisans; those were the predominant cases, and these we suspect are people that are in crowded areas,” he said

According to him, the state recorded severe cases that led to fatalities due to severe dehydration, while some were resuscitated at the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba.

“In some of these cases, their kidneys had shut down from the severe dehydration and at that facility, we had access to renal dialysis, so we were able to wake the kidneys back up with renal dialysis and rehydrate them.

“Those are the kinds of cases that we still have on admission because they were very severe. We were able to rescue them from dying,” he said.

The commissioner further said that 30 patients were left on admission as of June 23, noting that the cases were declining in the state.

Mr Abayomi disclosed that 209 patients visited general hospitals, 193 primary healthcare centres, 152 private hospitals, 14 military/police hospitals, eight tertiary hospitals, and 12 unknown.

He advised citizens to seek medical attention immediately if they experienced watery diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, general malaise and fever.

The commissioner stressed that the state was intensifying its public health prevention campaigns to prevent a resurgence.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae.

The health agency confirmed a cumulative death toll of 194,897 deaths and 1,932 cases globally as a result of the cholera outbreak in 24 countries.

(NAN)

We have recently deactivated our website's comment provider in favour of other channels of distribution and commentary. We encourage you to join the conversation on our stories via our Facebook, Twitter and other social media pages.

More from Peoples Gazette

farmers

Agriculture

FG tasks ECOWAS on leveraging financing strategies for agroecology

The federal government has urged stakeholders in the agriculture and finance sectors in the West Africa region to leverage financing strategies to enhance agroecology practices

Katsina State

Politics

Katsina youths pledge to deliver over 2 million votes to Atiku

“Katsina State is Atiku’s political base because it is his second home.”

Diaspora

Police dog exposes Nigerian traveller with hidden guinea fowl, goat meat package at Canada airport 

Authorities stated that both the food and meat products sniffed out by the dog weighed 37 kilogrammes

Armed Policemen

Hot news Home top

Police hunt Anambra teacher for allegedly flogging pupil to death

Mr Ikenga said that the incident occurred on July 16 in the Adazi-Ani Anaocha Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

Police officers

Heading 4

Six alleged Nigerian fraudsters targeting UK citizens arrested over online fraud

The suspects, aged between 20 and 34, were arrested in Asaba, Delta State, on July 4.

Kiran Kaur and Henry Nowak

World

Mother of Henry Nowak’s killer jailed for removing weapon from murder scene

Mr Digwa was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 21 years for Mr Nowak’s murder.

LEGISLATIVE GAVEL

Hot news Home top

Two Anambra men to die by hanging for raping teenage girl to death

The prosecution counsel said the victim was rushed to a hospital on police instruction but was confirmed dead on arrival.

Naira and Dollar

Economy

 Naira ends week stronger with 0.9% gain against dollar at official market

Data published on Friday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed the local currency gained N1.34 compared with Thursday’s closing rate of N1,381.52 per dollar.