NCDC Reveals Disease That Has Killed More Nigerians than COVID-19 in 2021
- The NCDC's director general, Ifedayo Adetifa, has spoken on the need to give equal attention to other diseases apart from COVID-19
- Adetifa said Cholera has killed more Nigerians in 2021 than the dreaded COVID-19 which the entire world focuses more on
- The NCDC DG said while cholera has caused over 3,600 death in 2021, the total COVID-19 deaths recorded since 2020 stands at 2,977
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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) says Cholera has claimed more lives in Nigeria than the dreaded COVID-19, especially in 2021.
Premium Times reported that the director general of the agency, Ifedayo Adetifa, said the country has recorded “a little more than 3,600” deaths from cholera in the last 11 months.
Source: Facebook
However, the total fatalities recorded from coronavirus since 2020 when the index case was recorded still stands at 2,977.
Legit.ng gathers that Adetifa made this known when he appeared as a guest on Channels Television.
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Giving an an update on the Omicron COVID-19 variant found in Nigeria, he noted that the NCDC “has been working behind the scene to mitigate the spread of cholera, as the public attention is more on COVID-19 than other diseases”.
He said:
“Nobody actually knows that we have teams out in five, six states now that have good cholera response. We’ve had rapid response teams in all of the states that have had cholera outbreaks.
“We are currently preparing for the meningitis season, all the refresher training, all the sensitisation are already in the works.
“So, behind the scenes, we would like all of these other areas to receive equal or even more attention, but we have no choice but to focus on all of the diseases that are likely to have public health impact on the country according to the mandate that we have been given.”
Cholera outbreak in Nigeria
As of Sunday, November 21, the NCDC disclosed that Nigeria has recorded a total of 3,566 deaths and 103,589 suspected cholera cases across 32 states of the federation and the FCT.
According to the health agency, four states; Bauchi (19,470 cases), Jigawa (13,293 cases) Kano (12,116 cases), and Zamfara (11.918 cases) account for 55 per cent of all cumulative cases.
Nigeria records two cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant
Meanwhile, the NCDC on Wednesday morning, December 1 confirmed the first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the country.
This was contained in a press statement issued by the NCDC boss, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa and seen by Legit.ng.
The Adetifa-led NCDC says contact tracing has commenced to reduce the possible spread of the new COVID-19 variant in the country.
Source: Legit.ng
