The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria, NAHCON’s, Medical Team has debunked claims that there was an outbreak of cholera at one of Kano State pilgrim Houses in Makkah.
The Head of the Medical Team, Dr. Usman Galadima stated, in a chat with a member NAHCON Media Team, that it was rather acute food poising which affected some pilgrims as a result of unhygienic food vendors they patronised and poor sanitary condition they live in.
He said a temporary surveillance clinic was opened at the house when about nine pilgrims suffered from mostly diarrhea which medical checks and investigations confirmed to be food poisoning from a local delicacy called Dambu.
Dr. Galadima said since last night Saturday, when they moved in to handle the situation, the pilgrims affected have stablised, discharged and no further complications, neither from the first set of patients, nor any other pilgrim in the house.
He lamented that, advice to pilgrims to desist from patronising unauthourised food vendors fell on deaf ears, as pilgrims claimed it was the only delicacy they yearn for, which meets and satisfies their taste.
Some pilgrims who patronised such food vendors when interviewed claimed that it was their only saving grace as the meal they could afford now, having exhausted their Basic Travel Allowance, BTA.
It could be recalled that during a media chat Saturday evening at the Headquarters of NAHCON, the Commissioner, planning, research, statistics, information, and library services of the Commission, Shaykh Sulayman Momoh admonished pilgrims to be wary of what they eat to avoid food related illnesses.
However, findings by this reporter show that at times like this it is almost practically difficult to prevent the pilgrims from patronising such unauthourised food vendors for obvious reasons, including, though not limited to, affordability as most of the pilgrims have exhausted almost all their BTA on unnecessary expenditures and the authorities feeding arrangement in the holy land covers only breakfast and dinner, as a result, resorting to the vendors became inevitable to pilgrims, almost every operation year.
To solve this problem the authorities should consider the possibility of giving the pilgrims three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, even if it entails increase in fares, and or reduction in BTA.
