Nigeria is prone to seasonal disease outbreaks and in the last few years, a series of outbreaks including monkeypox, measles, Lassa fever, yellow fever, cerebrospinal meningitis and cholera have threatened the nation’s public health security. In 2020, while responding to COVID-19, Nigeria was at the same time tackling what was reported as the largest recorded […]
On the 16th of August 2017, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was notified of a possible outbreak of Cholera in a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) in Borno State. Following investigations led by the Borno State Ministry of Health with support from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partner agencies, cholera […]
This post was contributed by Iruka N. Okeke – a Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Haverford College in the USA. Her book, Divining without seeds; the case for strengthening laboratory medicine in Africa, is a must read for anyone really interested in the field of infectious diseases. As we begin to pat ourselves on the back […]
While in medical school in Nigeria, I learnt a bit about cholera …that it is an infection caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, and that the main symptoms include profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, with the management being primarily with oral rehydration therapy (ORT) etc etc. The truth however is that I barely saw a case […]