Cholera kills 40 in Kwara

Around 40 people, including five children, died last week following a cholera outbreak in seven communities in the western state of Kwara, local media reported at the weekend. Scores more are receiving medical treatment in hospitals and clinics in the town of Jebba on the banks of the Niger river, 'The Guardian' said on Saturday. All primary and post-primary schools in the affected communities of Ekejo, Ejidongari, Eleja-Sulu, Ile Pupo, Jebba, Lasaki and Marafa have been closed to avoid further spread of the disease, it added. The outbreak, symptoms of which include vomiting and diarrhoea, has been blamed on a lack of clean drinking water, local media reported Ezekiel Afolabi, state director of public health, as saying. Afolabi and a health team, following an assessment mission to the affected areas, said the epidemic was now under control.