Nigeria's health commissioner said on Saturday that the nation's cholera outbreak (in the northern regions) has claimed 13 more people. The death toll now stands at 52.

"We recorded more cases of cholera outbreak in the state in the last five days," Zainab Baba Kwanci told AFP of the outbreak in Adamawa state.

"In Demsa, we have recorded nine deaths while 120 people are hospitalised. In Fufure, we recorded four deaths and 18 hospitalised."

On Tuesday, 39 people were reported killed by the disease in Maiha, according to local government official Yahaya Hamman-Julde.

He said "scores of people" had been hospitalised as a result of the disease, stressing that an ongoing strike by medical workers in the state was hampering efforts to assist the sick.

Julde could not pinpoint the cause of the outbreak, but recalled that a similar one in June killed 20 people in the area.

Cholera is an intestinal infection that causes serious diarrhoea and vomiting leading to dehydration. With a short incubation period, it can be fatal if not treated in time.

Last September, a spate of cholera outbreaks in northern Nigeria claimed almost 100 lives in Katsina, Zamfara and Bauchi states.

Cholera is a water-borne disease and can also be transmitted by food that has been in contact with sewage.

Source-AFP
TAN