By FLORENCE AMAGIYA
Shock, pandemonium, and fear gripped Lagosians as another five persons from Ago area of Lagos reportedly died of cholera recently. Before now, three persons were confirmed dead out of the 13 cases reported to the Ministry of Health.
Sunday, 25, a newspaper vendor in Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos state was found dead on the staircase of a residential building in the area recently. It was also discovered that another young man who tried helping the deceased in his helpless state to the hospital  died few hours after Sunday’s death.   Comments from neighbours suggested that he stooled and vomited profusely the previous day.
Chika Eze, a resident in a wing of the complex located by Marcity bus-stop, Ago, Lagos told Saturday Vanguard how Sunday, from Abia State who made the corridor of the complex his home had shown no sign of illness until the day before  his death eating African Salad popularly known as  Abacha.
Eze disclosed that the deceased was stooling and vomiting consistently from Friday evening till Saturday when he was taken to the hospital. “We rushed him to a nearby hospital but he wasn’t attended to because we couldn’t pay the mandatory deposit.’’
We brought him back to the complex and tried ‘self – treatment’ and there was no improvement. It was about 8pm that fateful evening that someone upstairs screamed that Sunday had died on the staircase.
The founder of Balm of Life Ministry (BLM) at the wing of the complex where Sunday died, Pastor Ralph James, said:  Sunday could have survived if he had gotten financial help to pay the required deposit at the hospital. So, it was a great shock that Sunday morning to see his corpse lying on the staircase. It is indeed so sad.”

( Some of the victims had eaten Abacha)
Awa Idika, a, fashion designer who seldom sleeps in the complex  exhibited the same symptoms but was lucky because he had some money to pay for treatment. He  approached Treasure Gold Hospital in the area where he promptly received treatment.  According him, he had taken about 59 drips within 72 hours.
Narrating his ordeal, Idika said: “I shared a plate of pepper soup and a bottle of stout with my wife last week Monday. But I later woke up in the middle of the night stooling which lasted for more than four times before dawn.  I didn’t see it as anything and went about my work.  Again, since I didn’t eat anything, I thought the stooling would stop but it continued with intermittent vomiting. So, I spent four days in the hospital and paid the sum of N100,000 before I was discharged.
That same day, Saturday Vanguard gathered  a woman and her son who were said to have eaten the popular African Salad called ‘abacha’ were both hospitalised after showing similar symptoms.  The 15-year old boy died after a few hours while the mother as at press time, is still receiving treatment in another hospital.
When Saturday Vanguard visited Treasure Gold Hospital, the doctor in charge, Dr. Tosan Hamsa disclosed that the hospital had eight chronic cases of cholera patients in the past few weeks.
He advised Nigerians to imbibe the culture of visiting the hospital regularly to ascertain their state of health.
“Nigerians are known to indulge in ‘self–treatment’ and it is when they cannot help themselves that they take themselves to the hospitals. In one of the cases, we had treated a patient who had stooled up to 40 times before he was brought to the hospital,” he said.
He advised the public to watch out for consistent running stomach and vomiting and that first aid can be applied on the sick person before being taken to the hospital for immediate attention. He said: “It is worthy of note that cholera cannot be treated at home but the victim can be given (ORL) Oral re-hydration before the professional attention.
“What the hospital basically does is to send back fluid into the patient’s body through drips and stop the infection causing cholera. Hands washing cannot be over emphasized; it saves life. A word, they say it’s enough for the wise,” he said.
Another young girl who was said to have gone to GKS hospital to see her sister being treated for cholera also died mysteriously last Monday.  She was said to be retuning from the hospital when she also slumped and died.
Again, at Cele Bus-stop, Lagos, another young woman in her 30s  while returning from work was said to have eaten Africa Salad (abacha) which she bought at the same bus-stop.  We gathered that on reaching home, she began to stool and rather than visit the hospital, embarked on self-treatment.  The situation grew out of control and she died the following day.
Sources from her residence hinted that she was stooling and vomiting heavily before she passed on.
The State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, had in a statement a few days ago said: “The suspected cases that were recorded have been contracted from food sources such as the African  salad popularly called abacha, well-water sources, especially in areas like Ikare community, Amuwo-Odofin local government area and Badia area of Apapa local government area, as well as other infected foods from food sellers and other unhygienic habits.
Cholera is an acute contagious bacterial disease characterized by severe form of sudden onset of profuse painless watery stools, nausea and profuse vomiting. The disease is acquired through the ingestion of an infective dose of contaminated food or water, and could be transmitted through many mechanisms like direct or indirect contamination of water or food by faeces of infected individuals.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/10/cholera-outbreak-vendor-four-others-died-mysteriously/

Hey! Fashola!!!!
Reform DAT!

Kanwulia: Hey! Fashola!!!!
Reform DAT!

so fashola nd hs master prof emeritus of all Tinubu can nt provide clean water ko,ba kpumi

The ish is gettin serious. The govt shld take the necessary action joor. Also people should be made to know how to prevent this from affecting them. The problem is that some people do not care about their personal hygiene. Hope the right things are done sha. My 'RIP' reservoire is nearly empty. I don't want more unnecessary death.

Very unfortunate, Fashola with all the tax and billion Naira budget can not provide portable water for his citizens.

I want to bet any body this pieace of sh1t will never make front page.
Until all those lagosians who are in support of uncle fash and thieftunubu.

Cholera is an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and even death if untreated. It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacterium called Vibrio cholerae.
People with blood type O more susceptible to severe cholera - researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University and the Broad Institute of MIT reported in Science Translational Medicine that people with blood type O are more likely to develop severe cholera.

What are the causes of Cholera? Cholera is a diarrheal illness caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae. This species is not endemic to humans, and its presence in the human digestive system is not part of the natural life cycle of the bacteria. Normally found in an estuary ecology, the Vibrio cholerae bacteria life cycle naturally shifts between various reservoir species such as small snails and crustaceans, free-floating planktonic forms and static forms resident in the silt and muck of the estuary.

Vibrio cholera bacteria enter the human ecosystem through a variety of routes. The most common entry is through contaminated food or water. When humans eat seafood--in particular shellfish native to estuary environments such as oysters or crabs--and fail to cook them completely or even eat them raw, they can ingest the large amounts of bacteria necessary to cause a case of cholera.

Poorly cleaned vegetables irrigated by contaminated water sources are another common source. In situations where sanitation is severely challenged, such as in refugee camps or communities with highly limited water resources, a single affected victim can contaminate all water for an entire population
What are the symptoms of Cholera?
A symptom is something the patient senses and describes, while a sign is something other people, such as the doctor notice. For example, drowsiness may be a symptom while dilated pupils may be a sign.

Most infections are not severe, with 75% of infected people not showing any symptoms.

Within 6 hours to 5 days of exposure, symptoms of cholera range from being mild or asymptomatic to severe disease, characterized by huge volumes of explosive watery diarrhea (sometimes called "rice water stools" because of the similarity of appearance to water that has been used to wash rice), vomiting, and leg cramps. Due to rapid loss of fluids up to 20 liters daily, severe dehydration and shock can occur in these individuals.

What are the treatment options for Cholera?
Because death from cholera is a consequence of dehydration, the disease is treated using oral rehydration therapy (ORT), which consists of large volumes of water mixed with a blend of sugar and salts.

Prepackaged mixtures are commercially available, but wide distribution in developing countries is limited by cost. Therefore, homemade ORT recipes using common household ingredients and materials have been developed. Severe cases of cholera require intravenous fluid replacement.
Preventing Cholera
Eat only fruit you have peeled and avoid salads, raw fish and uncooked vegetables. Suspect cholera if you experience symptoms after consuming these foods in high risk countries.

Learn about cholera if you plan to visit a country experiencing an epidemic. Seek medical attention immediately if you experience cholera symptoms such as leg cramps, vomiting and diarrhea while in a community infected with the disease.

When you are in a different place, do not just drink water from any source. As much as possible, carry with you a tumbler or a water container. Make sure that the water you drink is properly boiled to be safe.

Check out the place first before you eat anything. Cholera is a food-borne disease. The bacteria contaminate water and spread via intake. Poorly cooked foods with water contaminated with bacterium will most likely cause cholera.

Avoid eating raw shellfish because this is known to be contaminated with the cholera. Shellfish that thrive on coastal areas are often contaminated. According to the Center for Disease Control, the source of contamination in US cases of cholera is contaminated seafood.

This also applies to vegetables and fruits. When you are in a foreign place and unsure of the sanitation, avoid eating salads and as much as possible, peel the fruits by yourself.

Street foods should be avoided because they are known to cause not only cholera but other diseases as well. The exposure to dust and other contaminants make it unsafe to eat street foods.

We all know how dangerous cholera is, the is the more reason why it have to be prevented.
Perosnal hygiene is key.

PREVENTING CHOLERA WITH THE BEST WAYS