As floodwaters ravage villages and towns in Nigeria, there are worries over the increase in mental health disorders, chronic diseases, malnutrition, and disruption in healthcare services.
It has been documented that extreme rain and flooding bring cholera and other deadly waterborne diseases. Other common waterborne diseases are typhoid, diarrhoea, and typhoid.
The states are Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara. With the floods, children are at an increased risk of vaccine-preventable diseases as some facilities providing life-saving vaccines were washed away.
The centre also disclosed that the country has recorded 961 suspected cases and 56 deaths of meningitis in 32 states, including the Federal Capital Territory across 159 local government areas so far in 2022. “Kogi most certainly will be affected by this crisis going by how it has been underwater for days. There will also be an increase in cases of malaria in communities where the flood has formed stagnant water.