Strange Illness Hits Federal Government College, 300 Hospitalised

About 300 students of the Federal
Government Girls’ College in Efon
Alaaye, Ekiti State, have been
infected with an outbreak of a
disease suspected to be cholera.
Although some of the students
affected were treated and
discharged, a good number were
still undergoing treatment in the
hospital.

There were reports that parents
had started rushing to retrieve
their wards from the school as
news of the epidemic became
widespread on Thursday.
It was learnt that signs
were noticed on October 10, when
some students showed symptoms
of the infection.
Although the school principal,
Grace Ogunyomi, reported the
matter to the state government, no
immediate action beyond the
routine medical attention was
provided.
It was gathered that the students
were infected in small numbers,
but the matter escalated on
Wednesday, resulting in
government action, after the
principal, Mrs. Ogunyomi, made a
formal report.
Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele
Fayose, immediately directed the
Commissioner for Health, Dr
Olurotimi Ojo, to deploy
professionals and drugs to help in
stemming the spread of the
disease.
The commissioner, however,
denied that it was a cholera
epidemic, saying it was a
gastrointestinal infection popularly
called diarrhea.
There were fears that the outbreak
resulted from the contamination of
the students’ food and water, but a
teacher in the school, who spoke to
journalists but would not want to
be quoted, said further
investigation revealed otherwise.
“What we felt was that, we
thought their food and water were
infected, but we later gathered that it was not
from that source,” she said.
The Permanent Secretary at the state Ministry
of Health, Folakemi Olomojobi, who confirmed
the incident, said about 300 students were
affected.
He said majority of the affected student had
been treated and discharged, while only 20 of
them were still being treated at the hospital.
Ms. Ojo said the Ministry of Health had brought
in environmental health officials, while many
professionals were still being deployed to
forestall further spread.
“We alerted the water corporation to chlorinate
their water. They have about six boreholes and
we have got them chlorinated, because we
knew as professionals that the water could be a
source,” he said.
“We are trying to look into their environment,
so that we can get where such could have
broken out. We want to know how they dump
their faeces and how they dump their sewage.
“We have taken the blood samples of students
infected to the hospital and preliminary test
shows that it was not cholera. It was diarrhea
and vomiting. We are sending the samples for
further test to confirm that it was not cholera.”
She urged members of the public not to panic,
saying government would take every decisive
action to put the situation under control.