"Unknown disease" kills at least 13 in Nigeria's capital city: official

An "unknown disease" which broke out at a community in Nigeria's capital city Abuja has so far killed at least 13 people since last week, a senior health official said on Wednesday.

The yet-to-be identified disease, suspected to be shigella dysentery or typhoid fever, broke out in Saburi community of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) on Feb. 18, according to Rilwanu Muhammad, executive secretary of the Federal Capital Primary Health Care Development Board.

"There is no good sanitation in the community and we suspect salmonella typhi and shigella dysentery in the area," the health official told reporters here.

Health experts said shigella dysentry is a bacteria causing dysentery in humans and in monkeys, found only in faeces of symptomatic individuals.

Victims of the disease were experiencing abdominal pain and diarrhea, sometimes blood diarrheoa, and fever before they subsequently died, the official hinted.

Blood samples of victims were taken to a laboratory of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control to confirm diagnosis, he said, noting 13 of the 14 people affected had died in similar circumstance.

A five-year old child who has fully recovered after treatment on Monday has been the only survivor of this outbreak, he added. Endit