Ondo govt says ethanol poisoning responsible for death of 20 in Irele

By Dayo Johnson Akure

‎ONDO state government weekend says it suspects ethanol poisoning as responsible for the death of over 20 persons in Irele area of the state last week.
It dismissed insinuation that the alleged strange disease was contagious and put death tool at 18.

Conflicting reports emanated from the remote community last week over the outbreak of strange disease.

While the natives people in the community alleged that the death was caused by some unknown persons who committed sacrilege by breaking into the Malokun Shrine and stoling sacred objects, government insist such is unknown to science.

The Health Commissioner Dr Dayo Adeyanju, speaking in Akure said ‎”findings from post-mortem carried out on the victims and other laboratory tests revealed that the disease was neither epidemic nor contagious.

According to him” preliminary report shows that ethanol poison was found in the systems of all the victims.

“Our investigations have also revealed that the victims, who, interestingly, were all Okada riders, gathered at some local joints to consume alcoholic substance mixed with roots and some other local herbs on the eve of the outbreak of the disease.

“I can assure you that the disease is in no way contagious. The fact that none of the caregivers has contracted the disease has greatly underscored this point.‎

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