The commissioner spoke at a forum organised by a group, PATH2, in collaboration with UKAid in Kano on Wednesday. He said the patients were being treated at the Infectious Disease Hospital in the metropolis.
Kiru, however, explained that the state government was taking measures to control the outbreak and providing drugs in the hospitals, adding that the administration was also sensitising the public on measures to prevent the disease.
Stressing the importance of eating hygienic food, the commissioner advised residents of the state to desist from eating food, especially vegetables without washing them. She said that one could easily contract the disease by eating unwashed vegetables and fruits.
Kiru pledged government‘s commitment towards safeguarding the health of its citizenry through provision of drugs, adequate health personnel and establishment of more health facilities.
One of the victims, Mallam Mohammed Ibrahim, in an interview with reporters said that he might have contracted the disease after eating an unwashed Moringa, also known as Zogale.
Meanwhile, investigations have shown that the figure may be higher as several other people have been hospitalised in health facilities across the state.
In a related development, health crisis is currently looming in Oyo State as doctors under the aegis of the Nigerian Medical Association, Oyo State chapter made good their threat to begin an indefinite industrial action.
The strike was called in solidarity with their counterparts on the employ of the state government, who have been on strike since December 2010, over several unresolved issues with the government.
They identified the unresolved issues with the state government to include the non-implementation of the Consolidated Salary Structure for doctors, which was approved by the National Salary and Wages Commission since 2009 and the government‘s failure to employ at least 100 doctors for the state hospitals to reduce their workload following acute shortage of doctors.
Other unresolved issues are the non-reversal of the arbitrary taxation of the state doctors‘ salaries, which they claimed is 500-600 per cent more than other states in the country despite being the least paid; and the non-payment of their arrears from January 2010.
Since the strike started, residents of the state, who were ejected from the state-owned 42 hospitals and could not afford the huge bill of private hospitals, have been trooping into the University College Hospital, Ibadan, in huge number therefore overstretching facilities.
With the strike, the UCH has thrown its numerous patients, both in and out patients, into problem.
Some patients were seen unattended to on Wednesday when our correspondent visited the federal facility.
Some, who came on referral from outside the state, and apparently did not have a premonition of the development at the hospital were also seen stranded at the gate.
The state Chairman of NMA, Prof. Millicent Obajimi, had told journalists last week that the national leadership had ordered the state chapter to embark on an indefinite strike in solidarity with the state doctors.
Obajimi called on the people of the state to prevail on the government to do that which was right in order to prevent health crisis as a result of the strike.
“Oyo State has only 120 doctors for its 42 hospitals. There are no adequate consultants. Most of the state‘s specialist hospitals have no consultants. The hospitals cannot provide specialists‘ attention,” she said.
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