Nigeria: Mystery illness killing people in Kano. Coronavirus confirmed?? PTF says no conclusion yet

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2020/05/mystery-deaths-kano-loses-another-prof-two-others/

Mystery deaths: Kano loses another Prof, two others
On May 8, 20207:32 am
…Sacked commissioner who mocked Abba Kyari tests positive for COVID-19
…As 25 passengers on flight from Kano to Beirut test positive
By Bashir Bello

As the spike in deaths continues in Kano, three more persons, including a senior lecturer with Bayero University Kano, BUK, Professor Monsuru Lasun Emiola, have been confirmed dead.

This came as Muazu Magaji, former Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Kano State, who mocked the late Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, tested positive for COVID-19.

This is even as the Lebanese government said in a statement that 25 of its citizens evacuated from Kano on Wednesday tested positive for the virus.

Prof. Emiola, with the Department of Physical and Health Education, died after a brief illness on Wednesday night at the university’s clinic.

The university’s Secretary, Information and Publication, Lamara Garba, confirmed the death, yesterday.

Garba said the late professor was an indigene of Oyo State, who is survived by a wife and children...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/ne...s-deaths-in-the-north-as-the-new-reality.html

...Very strangely, however, the government of Kano State denied the story, with the governor insisting that the number of those who died was being exaggerated. When the government was confronted with superior facts, more so when 20 days ago Kano lost 22 very prominent persons in a single day, including a newspaper editor, it now said the reason for the deaths had nothing to do with coronavirus, that those who died were already managing such terminal ailments as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, etc. Very shockingly, the government made this categorical statement without conducting autopsy on even one corpse.

I travelled all the way from Abuja to Kano to ascertain the true position of things and, after going round at least 10 graveyards in the city, one can confirm that citizens of Kano State have continued to die in hundreds. In terms of the figures of positive cases released daily by the NCDC, I can also confirm that it has jumped from 59 to around 700 as at the time of this publication. But even this figure is only for those who had the privilege of getting tested, meaning only God knows the huge number of persons suffering from the ailment.

I wonder whether it requires rocket science to decipher that, bitter as it may sound, what was at play in Kano was simply a case of community transmission of COVID-19. Indeed, a committee set up by the Federal Government to ascertain the truth came up with the same conclusion, though it was made to eat its words a few days later when the minister of a health appeared before the House of Representatives to say no conclusion was reached yet.

But look at it this way. Diabetes, hypertension and asthma, some of the ailments being cited by government officials as responsible for the spike in the number of deaths, are not in any way strange ailments. They have always been with us. Why is it that it is only now, with the advent of coronavirus, that these ailments are killing people in an unprecedented manner? The simple answer is that there is more to it than these ailments...

 

[Shiloh]

Source: https://punchng.com/unresolved-mystery-surrounding-deaths-of-kanos-high-and-mighty/

Unresolved mystery surrounding deaths of Kano’s high and mighty
Published May 29, 2020
JOHN ALECHENU writes that the deaths of some prominent citizens of Kano State are still shrouded in mystery

When the late Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari, confirmed the news that he had contracted the coronavirus disease and was going into isolation to seek medical attention, many Nigerians prayed for his quick recovery. Some expressed the hope that he would return to work. But this was not to be...

...In an attempt to resolve the debate on the cause of the mysterious deaths in Kano, the National Centre for Disease Control, in collaboration with the state health authorities, agreed to conduct verbal autopsy to ascertain the cause of the deaths.

The Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Sani Aliyu, while responding to media enquiries about the issue in Kano, said a government team was collating “verbal autopsies” to determine whether the deaths were linked to the epidemic.

He said, “We don’t have a true baseline when it comes to the number of deaths. It’s something we need to investigate quite closely; it may not necessarily be COVID-19.”...

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