Police in Katsina State, northwestern Nigeria, said all 154 students affected by an illness at a Batagarawa boarding school had been discharged, as a state committee investigates the episode’s cause.
Channels Television reported Oct. 29 that the Katsina State Police Command confirmed the discharges and said there had been no deaths. In the same account, police identified 25 pupils as the final group receiving inpatient care; that figure is distinct from the 154 students affected.
Students at Government Science Secondary School reportedly became ill after receiving praziquantel during a bilharzia treatment and prevention campaign on Oct. 26, according to the police account carried by Channels Television. The timing does not establish what caused the illness.
Katsina State Commissioner for Health Musa Adamu Funtua told Channels Television on Oct. 28 that preliminary inquiries raised the possibility of a gap between breakfast and medication. He said officials had set up a committee to investigate. The reports did not give a date for its findings.
Accounts of hospital care differed across reports issued Oct. 27-29. Channels Television reported at least 64 hospitalizations on Oct. 27. Funtua said eight students were still receiving medical attention on the morning of Oct. 28, while police later cited 25 as the final inpatients. The reports do not explain the differing totals.
The World Health Organization recommends praziquantel for schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, in treatment and prevention programs for at-risk populations. It describes treatment as generally well tolerated, with mild, temporary adverse effects; that guidance cannot determine what happened at the school. The committee’s findings are the next update identified in the reports.
