A mysterious disease has killed 18 people in southern Nigeria. They died 24 hours after the first symptoms. For now, herbicides are suspected.
No one knows where it comes from and yet it is wreaking havoc! After the Ebola epidemic, a mysterious disease has suddenly killed 18 people in southwestern Nigeria. “Twenty-three people (have been) infected and 18 deaths have been recorded,” said a health official in Ondo State, Dayo Adeyanju. A previous death toll reported 17 dead. State spokesman Kayode Akinmade had previously said that this “mysterious disease” appeared “at the start of the week in the town of Ode-Irele, in the southwest of the country. “
One death in 24 hours
And the pathology worries the Nigerian authorities also because of its devastating nature. According to Akinmade, “The first four people to contract the mysterious illness between Sunday and Monday died within 24 hours of onset of symptoms. ”
However, he reassured residents by adding: “apart from the 18 deaths recorded, we have not discovered any new cases in the last 72 hours. No patient suffering from the disease is hospitalized and the disease has not spread beyond the city, ”he concluded. Side symptoms, it is headaches, loss of consciousness and weight, vision problems, unfortunately followed by death within 24 hours.
Neither a viral disease nor Ebola
“The first tests carried out did not indicate that it could be a question of a viral disease or in particular of Ebola”, specified the spokesman for the State of Ondo. Ebola is a haemorrhagic fever of viral origin which has killed more than 10,600 in recent months, mainly in three West African countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea since early 2014. It has generally spared Nigeria where the epidemic has now disappeared.
Herbicides involved
For the time being, the cause favored by experts to explain the origin of these deaths points to phytosanitary preparations having the property of killing plants. “The current hypothesis is that herbicides are the cause of the disease,” said World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Gregory Härtl in a tweet posted this Sunday.
He did not specify how these herbicides would have poisoned the sick.
In Geneva, another spokesperson for the UN agency told the Parisian that samples of bodily fluids had been sent to Lagos University Hospital on Saturday, and that analyzes were underway to better understand these deaths.
A city in quarantine
In the meantime, on a local Nigerian channel, Olusegun Agagu, the Governor of Ondo State (south-western Nigeria), asked the population until further notice to stay at home, and to take strict hygiene measures (eg cover their mouth with a mask). The city of Ode-Irele therefore remains under quarantine.
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