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)