Following the death of five children within 24 hours, The Nasarawa State Government has deployed health workers to Gidinye community of Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State.
The 5 children disclosed to be within the ages of 5 and 15 died after complaining of stomach aches, vomiting, and purging on Monday and Tuesday. The five children who belong to the same family reportedly died after consuming a meal on the farm.
The state Epidemiologist, Dr Grace Tsakpa confirmed on Wednesday that healthcare workers had already been deployed to the community to take samples of the surviving family members.
Dr Taskpa also stated that even though the results from the samples collected were yet to be released, from her observations, the cause of their deaths could be related to food poisoning because the ailments started immediately after they finished eating their meal on the farm.
She said, “For now, we have taken samples from the other family members, but our suspicion is going towards food poisoning. This is because the incident happened after they ate food at the farm.
“The five children belong to two brothers. The family (parents and children) went to the farm, cooked there, and ate. It was on the farm that one of the children started complaining of abdominal pains, and he later died. The other four children also died after developing symptoms.”
The state epidemiologist further commiserated with the families for the untimely death of their children and assured them that she and her team would leave no stone unturned to unravel the actual cause of the children’s death.
The Publicity Secretary of the Migili Youth Association, Samuel Akala, mentioned that the circumstances surrounding the children’s death required forensic findings as there were a lot of cases in the area.
He suggested that the Centre for Disease Control and the Primary Healthcare Development Agency be invited to carry out disease surveillance in communities around Obi and Keana LGAs where there were reported cases of acute diarrhoea, vomiting, and death of children in the past few days.
Akala also appealed to the authorities to make haste in finding a solution to the matter to prevent the unknown disease from affecting a wide range of the populations in the area, emphasising that the community was interested in knowing the actual cause of the untimely death of the five children.
