The Lagos State Government has announced that unregistered tiger nut drinks are the primary cause of the recent cholera outbreak in Lagos State.
The cholera outbreak has affected several local government areas in Lagos, including Lagos Island, Eti-Osa, and Kosofe, with the highest number of cases reported in hospitals.
The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Health, Kemi Ogunyemi, told Punch that the outbreak was linked to an unregistered tiger nut drink that was not registered with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
“So when we noticed an increase in cases in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos specifically, we went there to investigate. We carried out a survey and found that the common denominator, which was one of the deadly factors, was a tiger nut drink,” Ogunyemi said.
Ogunyemi added that people who came to the hospitals all identified that they had drunk tiger nut drink and noted that efforts to trace the source of the drinks included collecting samples and conducting contact tracing, similar to the approach used during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She stated that efforts to track down the source of the drinks were hampered by a lack of registration and the inaccessibility of the phone number on the bottle.
Ogunyemi noted that further testing of stool samples from affected individuals confirmed the presence of Vibrio cholerae subtype 01, the most infectious and aggressive strain of cholera
She stated, “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. The phone number on the bottle was not reachable. From our investigations, we realised that the beverages were not registered, so 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. Of course, cholera is also water-borne, so we took samples of the water to test it. The bottom line is that we took stool samples because different things cause diarrhoea. It could be anything else. We found out that it was confirmed cholera, specifically Vibrio cholera subtype 01, which is the most infectious and aggressive type. There are different types, but we identified this one.
“In Lagos Island, Eti-osa, and Kosofe, we recorded the highest number of cases that went to the hospital. I’m not talking about reported cases. These are the people who did the right thing by going to the hospital to complain of symptoms, and they were treated. That’s when we were alerted. When the hospitals report cases, we are notified, and we set up an emergency office in Yaba to swing into action. That’s what we’ve been doing since. We continue to test everyone’s stool specimens. Unfortunately, we can’t test everyone because most have already taken antibiotics, which doesn’t give us a good sample. We test those who just came and have not taken anything at home.”
She, however, urged the populace and pharmacists not to sell antibiotics to patients with cholera symptoms, as they can hinder proper diagnosis and treatment, noting that they should come straight to the hospital for testing as they will be provided with oral rehydration therapy, which is crucial during cholera symptoms.
