Residents of Otodogame community in
Eti-Osa, Lagos State, have been thrown into mourning following the
mysterious death of their children. Investigation reveals that children
between the ages of 2-8 years in Otodogame, a slum community, are dying
in their numbers following an outbreak of a strange epidemic.
According to the residents, about 70
children have died in the last six weeks in a strange way residents are
attributing to the lack of immunisation of infants in the community in
the last three years.
One of the bereaved parents, Bose Peter,
lost one of her twins – one year and six months old daughter Paulina,
on February 1, after a brief illness. The bereaved mother said: “My
twins had severe fever. Their temperature was very high and I was
scared. I called my husband and we took our twins, Paul and Paulina, to a
private hospital. The doctor treated them but when we got home,
Paulina’s health worsened and she died later in the night.
“Paul is in critical condition. My
family and I have been mourning Paulina. She was a very happy girl. I
have been in shock over her demise. I am scared for Paul. I don’t want
my son to also die because he is also ill. I have never immunised any of
my children for Polio, measles and other diseases because the health
workers do not come to our community. The health workers have not been
to our community for the past three years.”
Bose’s husband, Mr. Peter, could not
hold back tears as he stated that other families in the community have
also been thrown into mourning as they too have lost children. He said:
“We do not know what is happening. We are tired because you hear one
child had died in this family and as you are going to condole with the
family, another family would cry out that their child had died. This is
happening every two days interval. We are having high rate of infant
mortality in the last six weeks.
“At first, we were not bothered because
we thought it was spiritual attack and we engaged prayer warriors to
fast and pray. We also prayed and had vigil to stop the deaths of our
children. However, when we saw that the deaths were too many, we had to
prevail on the Baale (traditional ruler) to call for help. He was the
one that raised the alarm when we observed that close to 70 children had
died due to this strange ailment ravaging our community.
“Many of the bereaved families have
relocated. We do not have any government clinic in this community. Most
of us are Fisher men and our wives sell the fish. We live in a slum but
we do not have any government presence here.”
Another bereaved parent, Avoda
Philomena, said she lost her two-year-old daughter Esther due to the
strange ailment. She said: “At first I thought it was fever and I
treated her with traditional medicine but when the high fever persisted,
I took her to the private hospital but she died shortly after. A lot of
my neighbours have relocated because of the strange ailment. We are
calling on the government to come to our rescue before more children
will die and it will spread to adults and the elderly.”
Following the outcry to the State
Government, health workers visited the community last week and began
immunisation of children while they also treated the sick. It was
further gathered that the health workers took samples of the soil for
laboratory examination so as to find out the cause of the ailment.
Speaking on the epidemic outbreak, the
President of the Rural Urban Development Initiative (RUDI), Mr. Agbodimu
Musbau, expressed concern over the lack of urgent medical attention in
the community.
He said: “Otodogame community is one of
the slum communities that have experienced forced eviction and arson
just to get the residents, more than 1,000 of them, to relocate. We
found out that due to the desire to get them away, the government and
health workers were not going to the community to immunise the children.
“This is not good for government to
neglect the poor and vulnerable. We are appealing to government to come
to their rescue and provide the residents with good medical facilities
and treatment to check the spread of the ailment and other diseases in
the community.”
The Lagos State Government has called
for calm over the disease described as febrile rash. The Commissioner of
health, Dr. Jide Idris, made the call in a press conference in the
ministry.
The Lagos state commissioner of health,
Jide Idris, has confirmed the death of 25 children who died after an
outbreak of a strange disease, Febrile Rash Illnesses (FRI) in
Otodo-Gbame community, Ikate Lekki area of Lagos.
Speaking at a news conference, the
commissioner said there were 34 cases of sick children with FRI, noting
that the graves of 20 children have been identified by their parents.
He said, “The graves of 20 children who
died from the FRI since the day of onset of signs and symptoms in the
first case on January 6 were identified by their parents.
“Also, 34 cases have been line listed so
far with 17 males and 17 females; 17 dead patients have been identified
with nine males and eight females, all are within the age range of
eight and 72 months,” Idris said.
“The source of the infection is still
under investigation and until we know the required source, we cannot say
for sure, what is causing it.”
The strange ailment was said to have
started in January 2016. After contracting the ailment, the victims
developed rashes similar to measles and they die two to three days
later.
The commissioner said the team of
epidemiologists from the state ministry of health are yet to come up
with the report on the source of the strange infection, adding that the
signs and symptoms of the illness suggests Febrile Rash.
“Blood samples and throat swabs from the
patients and water samples from the community have been taken to the
Virology Reference Laboratory.
“This is at Lagos University Teaching
Hospital and Lagos State Drug Quality Control Laboratory and Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja respectively”he said.
Idris urged the residents of the
community ensure they carry out basic environmental sanitation,
including proper disposal of refuse, and avoiding open defecation, as
well as regular hand washing with soap and water, maintaining personal
hygiene, adequate nutrition, and antenatal care for pregnant women.
The government is said to be
intensifying efforts to conduct mapping of all slums and blighted areas
in the state towards reducing the health hazards associated with such
areas.
He enjoined the people to join hands
with the government in the identification of slums and in ensuring
environmental sanitation at all times. And members of the public and
health workers are to report any strange illness to the nearest health
facility or call the following lines- 08037170614, 08055281442 and
08023169485.
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