The outbreak of cholera in the Centre of Excellence was caused by consumption of contaminated tigernut drink in Eti-Osa Local Government, the Lagos state government, has said.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu’s Special Adviser on Health, Dr Kemi Ogunyemi, made this disclosure while talking to journalists in Lagos during the weekend.
Lagos Island, Kosofe, and Eti-Osa local governments are the most affected Local Governments in the state.
Ogunyemi noted that a survey that was carried out had showed that the affected people drank tigernut drink before being diagnosed with the disease.
‘When we noticed an increase in cases in Eti-Osa Local Government specifically, we went there to investigate. We conducted a survey and discovered that the common denominator, which was one of the deadly factors, was a tigernut drink. People who came to the hospitals all identified that they had drunk tigernut drink’ she said.
The governor’s Health Adviser also added that further investigations were carried out to test the tigernut drink and ascertain the claims of the patients.
‘We couldn’t just take their word for it, so, we had to take that drink and test it to see what was in it. We immediately sent people out to look for those selling it so we could take a sample. We found empty bottles with a name on them, but we discovered that it wasn’t even registered with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, the regulatory body that ensures the safety of consumables.
There was a phone number and a name on the bottle, and we started tracing. We did contact tracing, similar to what we did with COVID-19. We combed the area to ask people where they got the drinks from. We couldn’t find any full bottles. We only found empty ones, which were of no use because we could not test them’ she submitted while adding that the phone number on the bottle of the tigernut drink was not reachable and investigations revealed that the beverages were not registered.
‘The producers hadn’t gone through the processes to ensure that what they were producing was safe for the public to consume. We traced it to that’ she said-Team@orientactualmags.com Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com. Thank you
