The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has shared some worrying news. So far this year, cholera, a severe disease, has caused 378 deaths and sickened 14,237 people.
Dr. Jide Idris, the big boss of the NCDC, talked about this on Thursday. He explained what’s being done to fight diseases that are affecting many people in Nigeria and around the world.
Dr. Idris said that people from 35 states, including the big city area called the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have reported cases of cholera. This covers 339 local government areas.
Cholera is a big problem, especially in places where clean water, good toilets, and proper hygiene are missing. Dr. Idris said the NCDC is working hard with others to stop the disease from spreading and to save people’s lives.
Dr. Idris mentioned that there have been two big outbreaks of cholera this year. The latest one started around September 29, during what’s called Epi Week 39, and was mostly because of lots of rain and floods.
He said, “We thought this might happen because we got warnings from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET) about the weather risks.” Northern states like Borno, Adamawa, Jigawa, Yobe, and Kano have been hit hard by these floods, making things worse for cholera to spread. These areas are now the worst affected by the outbreak.