By RismadarVoice Media, December 16, 2025
The Gombe State Ministry of Health has recorded 54 deaths from snakebites in 2025, the State Epidemiologist, Dr Nuhu Bile, has disclosed.
Bile made this known on Tuesday in Gombe during a meeting of the State Public Health Emergency Management Committee (PHEMC).
The meeting, supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), was chaired by the Deputy Governor of Gombe State, Mr Manassah Jatau, who also serves as the Chairman of the committee.
Presenting a summary of disease surveillance activities for 2025, Bile said a total of 1,591 snakebite cases were recorded at the Snakebite Treatment Hospital in Kaltungo during the year.
According to him, the 54 deaths represent about 3.4 per cent of the total cases, while the remaining patients were treated and discharged.
Bile noted that the number of snakebite cases recorded in 2025 was the lowest in the last four years, compared to 2,794 cases in 2022, 2,594 in 2023, and 2,189 in 2024.
However, he clarified that the decline did not indicate a reduction in the burden of snakebite incidents in the state.
“The low number of cases is not because the problem has reduced, but due to the lack of free, adequate anti-snake venom at the facility,” Bile said.
He explained that many victims had resorted to alternative treatment options, owing to the unavailability of free anti-snake venom, adding that most patients only present at hospitals when complications have already set in.
On other disease outbreaks, Bile disclosed that the state recorded 176 cases of cholera with five deaths in 2025, while 14 cases of Lassa fever were confirmed, resulting in eight deaths.
Meanwhile, a UNICEF consultant from the organization’s country office in Abuja, Dr Jibril Muhammad, said the engagement was part of UNICEF’s ongoing efforts towards strengthening public health emergency preparedness, response across states.
Muhammad noted that participants at the meeting included health officials from Gombe, Bauchi, Adamawa, and Plateau states.
“This is very important because of the ongoing outbreaks of diseases. Currently in Nigeria, we have over five diseases that have reached outbreak proportions,” he said.
He added that cholera remains the most widespread, affecting nearly all states in the country, with significant casualties recorded in Bauchi, Adamawa states.
According to him, Gombe State’s effective response to cholera outbreaks informed UNICEF’s decision to support peer learning among states.
“Gombe has been able to tackle the cholera outbreak. That is why we are supporting other states to come learn from Gombe, the strategies employed that yielded these results,” Muhammad said.
He urged stakeholders to ensure the implementation of public health response plans designed to address disease outbreaks, strengthen healthcare delivery in their respective states.
