Unknown sickness kills 50 children in Jigawa State

A strange illness has killed 50 children, while 40 others were hospitalized in Gidan Dugus village of Wangara district, Dutse Local Government of Jigawa State.

According to reports, the children under the age of five, are dying on a daily basis as a result of high fever, stomach upset, vomiting, diarrhoea and shortage of blood. Parents of the deceased children are mourning the death of their loved ones, while those whose children were affected are living in fear due to their worsening health condition.

A parents who lost his seven children to the strange illness, Haladu Usman, said:  “Within 14 days, I lost seven of my children, three males, and four female. The children, aged between three and one and infant, died one after the other, I lost three in a day.”

Another parent, Salisu Abdullahi, said he lost four of his children in one week, despite several efforts made to secure medication from nearby clinics. “I was scared by this unknown sickness which consumed the lives of innocent children of this community,” he said.

The ward head of Gidan Dugus, Mallam Umar Dashiru, said what had happened was alarming and pathetic, saying that the community now lives in fear and agony of seeing its children die in numbers. He explained that they reported the case to the state government which sent a team of medical personnel to take blood samples of some children for test, adding that results of the test were being awaited