Following the recent deaths of two students of the prestigious Queen’s College, Yaba over poor water system in the school, the Lagos State Government has advised the school be shut down indefinitely for a proper treatment of the water system
While addressing a press conference on Thursday, the commissioner for health, Jide Idris, said a total of 1,222 students complained of abdominal pain, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea at the school’s clinic.
Idris said water samples taken from six sources in the school were analysed at the drug quality control laboratory of the Lagos state ministry of health in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
He said that samples taken from water sources in the school showed that the water was polluted.
He said out of the 16 pupils admitted in various hospitals, nine had been discharged, two were dead, while four were on admission at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, and Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi Araba.
“Other water samples from 10 sources were also collected and analysed at the Microbiology Department of LUTH, Idi-Araba. The results from the two laboratories showed high bacterial content in the water samples from the kitchen behind the dining hall and Queen’s Delight, the school’s water factory. The bacteria range from Coliforms, Escherichia Coli, Salmonella, Klebsiella ozoana and Aeromonas hydrophila.
“Specimens collected from 40 kitchen workers revealed that cysts of Entamoeba histolytica were isolated in the stool of 23 food handlers; Salmonella Paratyphi, the causative agent of Typhoid Fever, was also isolated from three food handlers.
“All these together imply a common source outbreak, showing repeated or continuous infection from exposure to the infectious agent. Findings from the investigations were consistent with Enteric Fever. The infection was most likely spread through contaminated water sources and infection by food handlers.”
This is just as some parents have threatened to take legal action against the school, saying someone must be held responsible for the two deaths in the college.
It will be reacalled that –Vivian Osuiniyi and Bithia Itulua–who were in Junior Secondary School two and three respectively, died as a result of the epidemic.
The school’s principal, Dr Lami Amodu, was later transferred to another school in Edo State.
The school had been shut for the past two weeks to enable a health team to conduct adequate investigation into the incident.
It was learnt that the pupils were to resume on Sunday, March 19, when the Lagos State Government issued a statement recommending an indefinite closure of the school.