Cholera outbreak hits Kirikiri prison

The Lagos State government on Sunday, June 30, disclosed that 25 cases of severe gastroenteritis at Kirikiri Medium Security Prison were confirmed to be caused by cholera.

Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, while giving an update on the outbreak of cholera in the state, added that urgent med­ical and environmental interven­tion measures had been imple­mented with success.

“We were able to supply Kiriki­ri medium prison with intrave­nous fluids, infection prevention and other health consumables.

“Additionally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has donated 10,000 doses of pharmaceuticals which have been delivered to the prison to support prison health facilities with prevention strat­egies for about 3,200 inmates if required.

“Immediate water and sanita­tion issues have been corrected and there is ongoing inspections of other correctional facilities in the state,” the commissioner said.

Addressing the source of the original outbreak two weeks ago, Abayomi disclosed that it has been traced to unregulated street beverages and contaminated wa­ter supply.

He explained that many of the samples taken from popular street beverages purchased by un­dercover environmental officers from the Environmental Protec­tion Agency (LASEPA) and the Ministry of Health in the affected areas confirmed the presence of vibrio cholera bacteria, which is the cause of cholera.

“All of containers had no NAF­DAC accreditation numbers, in­dicating they are small cottage backyard informal production units. Identifying the precise lo­cation of manufacture has prov­en difficult and the directorate of environmental health is plan­ning to seal any such unregulated manufacture and make arrests of anybody involved with manufac­ture or distribution of beverages without NAFDAC numbers,” Abayomi said.