Mr Kayode Akinmade, Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, says the preliminary report of the cause of the yet-to-be identified deadly disease that struck the town shows Ethanol poisoning.
Akinmade made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
His assertion comes even as the World Health Organisation (WHO) had said it was caused by poisonous herbicides used by the residents.
According to Akinmade, though there has been conflicting reports which have yet to be substantiated by government, the disease is not a contagious one. He also said that the outbreak was not a viral infection which made it easy to curtail.
“The position of the government on the disease is that it is not either a contagious disease or a viral infection, that means it cannot be transmitted from one person to other.
“Also, those people identified to be involved in the disease are males, there are no females among them.
“The initial investigation conducted shows ethanol, maybe as a result of the local gin which manifested in some of the laboratory result taken from the deceased.
“The government has sent for toxicology test, the toxicology test will determine if the disease can be pinned down to ethanol.
“There is cheery news to this, because we have been able to curtail the disease and it is not expanding and only limited to those who had contacted it, it is not an epidemic,’’ he told NAN on telephone.
Akinmade said that the report released by the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) on the outbreak had yet to be substantiated.
“The WHO’s report which attributed the outbreak to the use of herbicides by the community cannot be relied upon until the full report of the test is out.
“Before we can substantiate the WHO report, we must get all the tests, and the reports must be verified scientifically, so it has to be scientifically proven.
“Those reports are speculative, but the full report of the test will be ready any moment from now and we will be able to identify the cause of the disease.
“The locals have their own speculations too, saying, that maybe their god is trying to fight those who desecrated its shrine.
“Government does not believe what has not been scientifically proven and so it cannot be substantiated,’’ Akinmade said.