An outbreak of gastroenteritis has claimed some 160 lives in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto State in five months, a senior state official has said.

Bacterial gastroenteritis. (File Photo)

He said the outbreak had affected 17 of the 23 local government areas of the state. About 53 percent of the dead were people above15 years old, 28 percent were between five and 14 while 19 percent were below five.

The commissioner said the disease was caused by the contaminated water drunk by people in the affected areas.

“The affected people were mostly using water from ponds and other stagnant water sources,” he was quoted as saying by the News Agency of Nigeria.

Kilgori said that a joint state and local government medical team was working around the clock in the area to bring the situation under total control. The state government had purchased drugs and medicaments worth 2.6 million naira (about 22,500 U.S. dollars) and distributed them to the affected areas.

Kilgori said that the local governments’ councils had also purchased drug to complement the efforts of the state government to control the epidemic.

He said that Nigerian federal government had also donated drugs worth about 1 million naira (about 8,700 U.S. dollars) and dispatched a medical team to the state to help control the disease.

The commissioner said the government was doing all it could to provide boreholes and wells across the state, adding that it was also creating public health awareness.

Kilgori advised the people to use latrines, avoid drinking from stagnant waters, boil water from all suspected sources as well as wash their hands after visiting toilets.

Gastroenteritis is a disease that disturbs the intestines, causing vomiting, diarrhea and cramp. It is often caused by eating contaminated cookings or drinking such water.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet