A fatal epidemic is rampage in Inoma community in Anambra West Local Government area, due to lack of basic necessities of life, especially potable water. Senior Correspondent, OKEY MADUFORO, writes that except interventions come fast, the town may soon be extinct.
Cholera is spread by eating food or drinking water that has been contaminated with cholera bacteria. Contamination usually occurs when faeces from a person who has the disease seeps into a community water supply. Fruits and vegetables can also be contaminated in areas where crops are fertilised with human faeces.
The bacteria also live in warm, brackish water and can infect persons who eat raw or under-cooked seafood obtained from such waters. It is rarely transmitted directly from one person to another.
Inoma community in Anambra West Local Government Area, according to TheNiche checks, is at the firm grip of this epidemic. This made the traditional ruler cried out to government and public-spirited individuals to save the community.
The monarch, Igwe E. Olottah, called on non-governmental (NGOs), as well as the state and federal government to come to the aid of the area to combat the epidemic, which has claimed about 10 lives in recent times.
Olottah noted that despite the state government’s interventions to salvage the situation, the rate at which the disease is spreading is a major threat to lives in the area.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Joe Akabuike, was reportedly in the community with a team of health workers, for first-hand information.
Also, the absence of good healthcare facilities is hampering the treatment of victims, the monarch disclosed.
His words: “The number keeps increasing; even in this hospital, there is no water. Inoma needs potable water. The stream we drink from here is stagnant, and we bath in the same water.
“The nearest place we can take them (patients) to now is Ilah, in Delta State, and it is still very far. We also have to charter a speed boat, which costs about N6,000. We are farmers that cannot boast of N500. To charter a vehicle to Onitsha, it will take about five hours and it costs N25,000.”
TheNiche investigation revealed that only one nurse works in the community health centre, which can only pass for a diagnosis and consultancy room.
“Commissioner of health came here yesterday with council chairman and director of primary health care, and they gave us drugs. But our problem now is manpower; we need more assistance.
“Just yesterday, six people died, and the only doctor that came with the commissioner took some specimen to test and confirmed that it is really cholera,” said Mrs. Rose Oguka, officer-in-charge of the health centre.
“We have recorded 48 cases, while six have died in the hospital. Many are still dying. Because of this, inhabitants are in fear and many people have ran out of this community. I am the only one in this health facility, with one volunteer that is helping me. They brought two nurses to join me and we’ve been trying our best, but we are not enough,” she added.
Also speaking on the development, the commissioner for health said: “When we got the report of the outbreak of cholera in Inoma and that four persons are already dead, we immediately sent the state emergency response team to the place. When they took specimen and carried out test, the result confirmed it was cholera.
“We are doing our best to curtail further spread. But you know that cholera has to do with contaminated water. We are fighting the situation by contending with people who are affected and making sure they take some preventive measures. Our efforts have ensured that no new cases are recorded.”
Although government intervention seems to be swift, it has however exposed the insensitivity of government to provide for its people with basic amenities like potable water.
It is yet to be debunked that out of the 21 General Hospitals in Anambra, not even three can boast of optimal health care services.
In the past, there had been cases of pregnant women in labour putting to bed at night, with oil lanterns in a General Hospital that cannot boast of a good theatre or labour room.
Against this backdrop, many operators in the health sector have called for the provision of social security and good medical facilities for the people.
A respondent from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) told TheNiche that “What the people in the villages need are effective and efficient primary health care, which is affordable on the part of government. Villagers do not experience cases of kidney or heart problems. Those are more of secondary or tertiary health care. Should government provide good roads, electricity, pipe-borne water and the basic medicaments, the people will not have problem,” he said.
He further explained that “the cause of cholera is basically the water they drink, and people who contact the disease now spread it through dirty environment, not washing of their hands and through human waste. The only way out is to provide good drinking water and trace the source of the water pollution and take care of it.
“In the case of those that are being treated, they should be referred to better hospitals where they can get effective medical attention. Also, it is not medically proper for a health centre or clinic to have only one doctor and two nurses in a situation like this.”
To put a stop to what has been described as looming health holocaust currently being experienced by the people of Inoma, stakeholders have asked the state government to take aggressive action on the state of the health centres in the state, mostly in the rural areas.