The Borno State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Haruna Mshelia has said that Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) has hit Borno State with 1,068 cases in 10 Local Government Areas of the state, northeast, Nigeria.

Out of the reported cases, 25 patients were hospitalized at the Benisheikh Hospital and Dala and El-Miskin treatment centres.

Mshelia announced this while briefing journalists during the sensitization of the public on hygiene and sanitation to prevent water borne diseases.

He attributed diarrhoea and other water borne diseases to open “defecation and poor sanitary conditions” in Borno Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps and communities.

“To prevent outbreaks of diarrhoea and other water borne diseases, like cholera, there must be public awareness on personal hygiene and sanitation. They are critical in preventing such diseases that claimed 61 lives last August in the state,” he said.

On whether there were losses of lives, he said: “No one has died yet from AWD. Out of the 100 cases of diarrhoea reported early this year, we had one or two cases of cholera at Baga Doro, Borno state.”

He said the protocols of reporting outbreaks of cholera include taking samples to the laboratory for instant test.

He explained that the response team had to confirm that it is cholera, before reporting it to Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).