‘The children I thought would become lawyers, doctors…are gone’ – Grieving Mum Laments Loss of Three Children to Recent Febrile Rash Outbreak

Recently, 25 children in Lagos were confirmed to have died following an outbreak of the Febrile Rash Illnesses (FRI) in Otodo-Gbame community in Ikate, Lekki (read here).

One of the bereaved mothers who lost three of her six children, an 8-year-old boy and 9-months-old twins, to the strange illness, told Vanguard,

“Ina omo jo mi (I have suffered the tragic loss of children). I am a full time housewife. My husband said I should be a housewife full time so that I can take proper care of our six children. Despite that, death still came and took away three of them.

I carried their pregnancies for good nine months without any health challenges, and after their birth, they grew normally and did not give me any problem. My children are healthy. If at all any of them falls ill, within two to three days that child is back on his or her feet. But Taiwo, Kehinde and Jisime fell sick and were unable to make it.

…what we thought to be minor sickness took away three children from me. I can no longer be called mama twins because a strange disease has rendered the name useless. The children that I thought would become lawyers, doctors and accountants are gone.

My thought was that the hot afternoon weather was responsible, so I gave Taiwo a cool shower. The following morning I noticed something like chickenpox all over his body and also when I wanted to feed him, he refused so I tried to breastfeed him, but he rejected that also. Then I forced him to drink agbo (local herb potion) and when there were still no changes, I decided to take him to the Primary Healthcare Centre which is about 20 minutes drive from our house. He was attended to and I brought him back home, however, despite all the treatment, he died three days later.

While I was still mourning Taiwo, as if his death was not enough, Kehinde started her own illness. We tried our possible best but it was not enough. She too left us. All this happened towards the end of last month January.”

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During the first week of February, Jisimi, the fourth child, a healthy and energetic boy, began coughing. He was running high temperature and was not accepting his food. She continued,

“I gave him pap but he complained it was ‘pepperish. All the herbs that were available in the house were given to him. When there was no improvement, we took him to the hospital but he could not make it. The twins were nine months old while their brother was 8. I had six children but death has claimed three and left me with three.

My husband is a fisherman but we are not in the season of fishing now so he hasn’t much money with him. We cannot afford to go to any of the few private hospitals that are nearby because they charge too high. There is not one Primary Healthcare Centre in this area; the closest is about 20 minutes way by road. Sometimes the PHC staff comes here to immunise the little children. That’s all.”