Two persons have died and 167 residents hospitalised following
the outbreak of an infection suspected to be food poisoning in Kano state.
The state ministry of health confirmed that the affected
patients presented symptoms of haematuria which causes bloody urine or dark
urine, fever, lethargy, and sometimes jaundice.
The patients were said to have consumed expired citric acid
powdered drinks.
Aliyu Mohammed, coordinator of the sector 4 command, joint
border patrol team of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) in the north-west, had
raised the alarm that expired citric acid drinks were in circulation.
He said the products are common in the market given that
Ramadan is around the corner.
He said they seized 84 cartons of the products which have
expired since 2019.
“Fasting will soon come. The people now have the habit of
importing very expired items. These are the flavours. Any man who performs his
fasting in the evening will like something very delicious but these things have
expired since 2019,” Mohammed said.
“We have arrested about 624 pieces in each carton and we
have 84 cartons.”
Bashir Lawan, an epidemiologist in the state ministry of
health, told reporters on Tuesday that “these symptoms are classical of ongoing
haemolysis (breakage of red blood cells) and bleeding”.
He said the index case was a six-year old girl recorded on
March 6, 2021.
“We initially suspected viral haemorrhagic fever but the
test results came back from the National Reference Laboratory as negative for
Yellow fever and Lassa fever. But we are still awaiting the test of Dengue
fever,” Lawan said.
The state government has provided a list of hospitals
designated for patients affected by this outbreak to be admitted for treatment.
The hospitals include, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH),
Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, and Infectious Disease Hospital.
Others are Sheikh Jidda Hospital, Waziri Shehu Gidado
Hospital, Rano General Hospital and two hospitals in Dawakin Tofa Local
Government.
Lawal said the outbreak has spread to eight LGAs including
Gwale, Kano Municipal, Dala, Bunkure, Fagge, Gwarzo and Dawakin Tofa.
He also said a water sample was taken from Dandolo
cemetery’s bore-hole for analysis to rule out other potential causes of the outbreak.
He added that they have about three samples of expired
powdered mixed-fruit and citric acid powder with NAFDAC for laboratory testing
to confirm the link to either expired ingredients or preservatives, while four
additional samples were taken for heavy metals and leptospirosis screening
among other technical response activities.
A source disclosed that “their men are currently conducting
shop to shop operation in the market”.
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