At least 40 persons have reportedly died at Ette and Umuopu communities in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State following the outbreak of a strange disease in the affected communities.

According to the Disease Surveillance and Notification Officer in the council area, Vincent Oshomi, the cause of the strange deaths is not yet known. However, he said that the Enugu State Ministry of Health has been alerted and specimen of the affected persons in the communities collected for proper diagnosis and treatment.

The reflector gathered that a resident simply identified as Onoja Boniface, who hails from Umuokpu, one of the affected communities told newsmen via telephone that at least 5 people have been confirmed dead from the community, while at Ete, where the utbreak originally started, has recorded more than 33 deaths.”

He said,

“It started more than a month ago from Uni Ete, a village in Ete which has common boundary with Umuokpu. There were deaths of youths who might just have headache and before you rush them to hospital, they have died. Sometimes they vomit and die.”

“Three days ago, in Ogwurugwu, a young man in the night complained of fever and before he was taken to the hospital, he stopped talking and the next thing, he died. Most of them are reporting fever, headache and weakness.”

“My friend in Igogoro also told me about a lady who left Umuokpu and on reaching Igogoro, she started developing symptoms the same day and died, ” he concluded.

Meanwhile, all efforts to reach the state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Emmanuel Obi, on the strange development, proved abortive as he did not respond to his calls at the time of filing this report.