Five die as strange disease hits Benue community

At least five people have been killed in the outbreak of a strange disease  in Oye-Obi, an Island community bordering Obi and Oju local government areas of Benue State  

At least 100 persons have also been affected by the unidentified disease.

The Caretaker Chairman of Oju LGA, Mrs. Alicia Eru, who disclosed this in Makurdi, Saturday, said some of the victims had been moved from the Oju General Hospital to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital for further investigation and treatment.

She said the state government had delegated the commissioner for health and his team to the community to assess the situation.

Eru said: “It is actually a strange ailment. Four people died after the outbreak and when the issue was brought to my notice, I sent people to the community and three of the victims were brought to GHO.

“When doctors confirmed the condition of the victims we moved to the Island and discovered that over 100 people are down with the strange ailment.

READ ALSO: MALAMI: Why I stopped Goje’s N25bn fraud case

“And from our interaction, they all had the same symptom of headache, fever, internal heat, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach ache, and body weakness. We learnt that after the initial death of four people another victim died Friday morning.

“Outside that figure, some are in the rural hospital which does not have many facilities to handle the case.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now