A strange illness has
reportedly claimed the lives of four people in the rural community of Oye-Obi
in Obi Local Government Area of Benue State.
President-elect, Igede
National Youths Council, Andyson Iji Egbodo, who raised the alarm on Wednesday
night on behalf of the villagers told newsmen that 15 more people with same
symptom are hospitalised in the affected community.
“The sickness has so
far killed four persons in two weeks. The four victims namely Happiness Ogbu,
Onah Ogbedu, Andy Edu and Wisdom Agwo developed the same symptoms of headache,
internal heat, diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach ache, weakness of the body and
swollen stomach and died,” he said.
Egbodo added that
about six other persons who as at Wednesday were developing the same symptoms
have already been moved to the General Hospital in Oju while the remaining,
nine making up total of 15 victims on admission are kept at a private
dispensary.
The youth leader who
suspected the illness to be Lassa fever has appealed as a matter of urgency to
the state government as well as relevant health authorities to come to the aid
of the boundary settlement people before the illness caused further deaths.
When contacted, the
state’s epidemiologist, Dr. Sam Ngishe, confirmed the death of the four people,
saying that the health authorities were alerted over the situation.
Ngishe said an
emergency response team from the state’s Ministry of Health had been sent to
the area to contain the situation, while three of the patients are expected to
be moved to Makurdi on Thursday for further investigation.
The epidemiologist
added that until investigation on the matter is completed, he cannot
immediately confirm the nature of the illness as there were already two sides
to the rumour of possible causes of the deaths.
He explained that
there were reports that the community’s source of drinking water was poisoned
with Gamalin and those affected may have consumed fish sourced from the pond,
while another dimension was that the people who died exhibited symptoms of
fever.
