Many residents of Ode Irele, the headquarters of Irele Local Government area of Ondo State, are now fleeing the town following the rise in the number deaths from the strange ailment that hit the place on Wednesday.

The state government on Friday confirmed that 17 persons had died from the disease, an increase from the 12 that were originally confirmed. Some sources said the death toll resulting from the disease was as high as 30.

While the government said the cause of the ailment was not known, other sources from the community blamed the death on some people that defiled the shrine of the community deity known as Malokun.

According to the source, strange death was Ondo diseasecaused by some people who incurred the wrath of the deity when they stole some artefacts from the shrine.

Kayode Akinmade, the Ondo state commissioner for information and strategy, said the deaths are directly connected to an exhumed corpse in the community.

Akinmade said the disease was not the same as Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), although it had managed to kill its victims in less than 24 hours.

“The symptoms were not that of Ebola; it's a 24-hour attack that would make the victim to have headache, be unconscious, then after 24 hours, the person is gone. That one cannot be Ebola,” he said.Click:Ogbulafor, who said PDP will rule for 60 years, visits APC

“All the necessary facility that government should provide, government has done that. We have moved all the ambulances and everything.”

He added that although there were claims that as many as 34 people had died, only 14 people had fallen victim of the strange disease.

“Available data do not indicate that 34 people have died – only 14,” he said.

“And from what we got, the 14 had personal contacts with those people who came to exhume the corpse that led to this epidemic.”

He added that the state commissioner for health, Dayo Akinyanju would “in the next couple of hours, make a state wide broadcast” to update Nigerians on the state of the disease.

Soji Gbadebo, the permanent secretary (protocol), in the state corroborated Akinmade's position.

“There is a general allusion that there was a – there was something buried there (Ode Irele) and some people went there to exhume the thing, and sold it to this English people,” Gbadebo said.

“Only those who were directly involved have been affected by this epidemic.

“Meanwhile, government has sent powerful health team there to unravel the mystery, so, for now, we may not know what actually happened until a scientific report unfolds it.”

Governor Olusegun Mimiko stated that the government had put necessary machinery in motion to control the disease.

Mimiko, however said the state had witnessed a major health challenge said the causative agents, diagnosis and cure are also yet to be determined.

While stating the he was saddened by the losses and the attendant fear of what looks like an epidemic, he said the government can only bring words of consolation to the families of the deceased just as he assured the people of the state of the government's resolve to find solution.

Mimiko said amidst conflicting and confusing information, the investigating team of experts sent by government to the area gathered that all the casualties died within hours of affliction. In all, 17 deaths have been confirmed in Ayadi Community and Ode Irele township and all the

deaths were preceded by symptoms of sudden blurred vision, headache and loss of consciousness.

“It must be said that the team was despatched to the communities affected and the General Hospital as well as other health facilities,

to gather needed information about the nature, scope and circumstances of the outbreak..

“I must state that the symptoms in this situation are not peculiar to any known epidemic and so have remained largely confounding.

“Specifically, it must be stressed, the symptoms observed in the two communities of Ayadi and Ode Irele bear no resemblance to those

associated with the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD)”, he said.

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