As of Monday, June 17th, 2024, Nigeria is in the middle of another cholera outbreak. That’s why *my friends and I made Cholerafacts, a simple microsite that gives people agency to take action against cholera. You can check it out here, but here’s the backstory of how it happened.
The year is 2014, and Dr. Stella Adadevoh resumes work as she has for the past 21 years. During her ward round, she encounters a patient presenting with fever, chills, aches, and other “malaria-like” symptoms.
She steps into the ward, takes one look at the patient, and an alarm bell goes off in her head.
Something feels off. Yes, the patient has all the “typical” symptoms of malaria. Yes, he has been travelling through a malaria-endemic region. Still, Dr. Adadevoh can’t shake off an ominous feeling about the man before her.
As we all know, it turned out that the man before her, Patrick Sawyer, had Ebola, and this discovery triggered a chain of events. Dr. Adadevoh’s spot-on diagnosis and quick thinking would serve as ground zero for the Nigerian government’s Ebola containment efforts.
But in the first few days, when news of her discovery hit the streets, Nigerians—naturally—had no clue how to protect themselves against this deadly virus.
Amid this confusion and widespread misinformation, Big Cabal Media built an Ebolafacts microsite to empower Nigerians with the necessary information to stay safe and protect themselves. This website had everything from signs and symptoms to safety precautions and emergency response numbers. It was a timely resource.
Fast forward to 2024, and Nigeria is experiencing another disease outbreak in the form of cholera. As of this post, Lagos State has recorded 350 suspected cases, 17 confirmed cases, and 15 deaths. The Nigeria Center for Disease Control and Prevention [NCDC] has also recorded 1,141 suspected cholera cases across 30 states so far in 2024.
Time is of the essence, and prevention has never been more critical, especially for a treatable disease like cholera.
Inspired by Ebolafacts, my friends and I built a simple microsite to help people take action and stay safe during this outbreak. Cholerafacts aggregates information about cholera in one place—a single [and referenceable] source of truth.
The main feature is a simple guide to everything about cholera, from prevention to recognising the symptoms to knowing what to do if you suspect someone has cholera. You can walk through all the information you need in 5 minutes or less.
Another feature is a counter that tracks the number of suspected cases and recorded fatalities to give you a sense of what we know so far. The information here is based solely on the NCDC’s data.
I hope you interact with it and go away with a better knowledge of how to prevent, care for, or identify the signs of cholera.
On the Cholerafacts website, you’ll find a link to Famasi, a pharmacy infrastructure platform that connects you to pharmacies across Nigeria. This link has a guide on where to get a cholera vaccine, how to store it, and how to get a cholera care kit to stay safe.
Finally, you’ll find a resource list with contact numbers for reporting to the appropriate health agencies and escalating issues, plus relevant articles and videos to keep you safe.
You can support Cholerafacts by sharing the site with your loved ones or sending us feedback [support@cholerafacts.com] on what we can improve.
Remember, we’re all in this together. 🫶
*Thanks to Fu’ad Lawal, Faruq, and Dipo for their immense contributions and for coming through on this project.