Mystery deaths in Bonny: Preliminary investigation pins cause to resistant variant of malaria, typhoid, others

Preliminary investigation report is already out in the panic over mystery deaths in Bonny Island of Rivers State, home of Nigeria’s biggest single economic installation, the $12.5 billion Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), which plans to start off a $10 billion Train 7.

Reports had emerged at the week that important personalities were dropping dead, counting up to 10 in 24 hours, with distress calls going to relations across Nigeria. The Bonny Local Government Authority had flagged off investigations immediately and by Saturday night, preliminary reports came out.

The report issued by secretary of the LGA, Omoni LongJohn, and an elder, Pafuro Tolofari, the supervisor for health, stated: “Following the recent media reports of alleged persons with loss of sense of smell and taste, malaria and typhoid fever, and high level of deaths, the Bonny Local Government quickly swung into action to investigate and ascertain the truth of the whole panic.”

The report said a team headed by the secretary to the LG and the supervisor of health, the Covid-19 Team, and a media team, together with representatives from the Primary Health, went to all the health facilities in the Island both privately owned and government-owned, including major pharmacies and laboratory.

The report added that the head doctors on duty as well as the managers were interviewed and recorded. “The following facts were ascertained. There has been an increase in drugs resistance malaria in the past two weeks on the Island; there are also increases in the cases of typhoid fever in the said period.

“About 50 percent of the patients also complain of dizziness, bitterness in the mouth, lack of a sense of taste and smell. There are some few patients with complains of only loss of sense of taste and smell.

“The resistance to normal malaria drugs results in patients returning almost immediately with the same symptoms, resulting in the administration of intravenous injections. This treatment shows 100 per cent improvement in the health of the patients.

“Patients with loss of taste and smell are given allergy drugs, and they report improvement, as majority of them do not show symptoms of cough and catarrh.

“There have been no deaths as a result of these illnesses in any of the hospitals/clinics on the Island in the past one month.”

The team found that there had been less than six in-patient deaths in all the hospitals/clinics on the Island in the past two weeks, and they all had chronic medical history. “There are about six cases of dead patients brought to the hospital/clinics for confirmation. They also have compromised health situations beforehand, on inquiry to their families by the doctors.

“The rumours of high death rates in Bonny are unfounded, and may not be too far from the fact that the mortuaries are filled as a result of the ban on Public Burial in the state, resulting in bereaved families making calls to all and sundry informing them of the plan to bury their deceased loved ones almost immediately.