....300 others on admission in hospitals --Commissioner for Health

Yola--No fewer than 10 persons, mainly women, children and the aged, have been confirmed dead, following the acute diarrhoea disease in Yola North and Yola South Local Government areas of Adamawa State.

The casualty figure might be higher as some of the victims in the hospital were on danger lists.

The state Commissioner for Health, Mr Felix Tangwami confirmed the development to newsmen in Yola, yesterday while giving an update on the acute digestive disorder situation that erupted in the areas on Monday.

He said already 300 others were admitted at the Yola Specialist hospital even as many were on danger list.

The commissioner stated that some of patients have been treated and discharged, while fresh cases are been recorded.

"Those on danger with serious cases have been isolated for medical attention at the Infectious Disease Center of the Specialist Hospital.

"The situation though rough, but it is still within the scope of the government as everything humanly possible is being done to contain the outbreak," Tangwami assured.

He said: "The Government is not hiding anything rather following due process in handling sensitive life threatening health concerns with the hope to know the outcome of the result of the samples in the next 24 hours from the National Centre for Disease Control, NCDC.

"For now, nobody can confirm that what we are facing is cholera outbreak until all necessary analysis is conducted thoroughly and results are out.

"We don't have the PCR equipment for testing the collected samples here in Yola. So, we have to send it to Abuja for confirmation which would be ready in the next 48 hours," the commissioner maintained.

He advised the public to desist from jumping to conclusions without experts advice, especially in health related issues.