Unusual cough, fever stir panic in Lagos

 Forty-two-year-old Lagos resident, Kabir Adeoye, has been battling persistent fever and related symptoms despite completing several rounds of treatment.

•Travellers

Adeoye, who initially assumed he had contracted malaria, began experiencing fever, chills, and sweating about two weeks ago.

He took antimalarial medication and travelled briefly to Kano, expecting to recover.

But a week later, Adeoye was still shivering, sweating, and burning up internally.

“Despite completing my medications, I still felt the same way and wondered if the drugs no longer worked,” he told Saturday PUNCH.

Frustrated, Adeoye tried self-medication, switching brands, and even combining drugs, but nothing worked.

His palms and feet felt as though they were on fire, and his confusion grew daily.

When herbal remedies seemed like the last option, he decided to give them a try.

That night, the situation took an unexpected turn when he returned from work.

“When I got home, my wife told me our two children were also running a fever, coughing, and had catarrh. I was shocked, and it was past midnight. We rushed them to the hospital, where they were diagnosed with malaria,” he stated.

The diagnosis puzzled him.

Kabir emphasised that he prides himself in maintaining a clean home and regularly fumigating to keep mosquitoes at bay.

“So, how could they have malaria all of a sudden?” he asked.

The doctor advised further tests for malaria and flu, even though he had already completed a full malaria treatment.

The results left him more confused than ever.

“It has never happened to me, let alone my entire family,” Adeoye said.

For another Lagos resident, who only gave her name as Amusan, the first sign of illness came in the second week of September.

She told Saturday PUNCH that what began as a dry, itchy throat soon developed into a prolonged cough.

“It all started with a persistent cough that I couldn’t explain. But that was not the first symptom. A few days earlier, I had been dealing with a very dry throat that felt sore. To prevent it from worsening, I bought some menthol and throat tablets. After all, who wants to live with a sore throat? It is one of those dreadful ailments I absolutely dislike,” the banker recounted.

The menthol sweets helped temporarily. The soreness subsided, and she returned to work, thinking the worst was over.

But soon after, the cough returned in full force; dry, throaty, and unrelenting.

It coincided with her annual medical check-up under her Health Maintenance Organisation plan.

While undergoing routine tests, including a chest X-ray, fasting blood sugar, urinalysis, stool analysis, and full blood count, her phone rang.

It was a colleague, also “coughing badly” and struggling to speak.

The coincidence unsettled her.

“I told her I was experiencing the same thing, where my voice had even become rough. We both concluded that it must be a passing infection and decided to get some medication for it,” Amusan said.

However, the cough intensified, and catarrh and cold soon followed.

At work, colleagues sitting nearby began complaining, fearing infection.

“They were worried that I might infect them since colds spread easily in the office. I even approached my boss to ask for some days off, which was granted,” she said.

On her way home that evening, Amusan stopped at another hospital, seeking relief and interpretation of her earlier test results.

The doctor prescribed another round of medication after reviewing her results.

“Unfortunately, the cold refused to go away. The cough subsided a bit, but my nose kept running even after I had finished the prescribed medication. I eventually bought another set of tablets to self-medicate. This entire ordeal lasted for more than a week,” she recalled.

Over the weekend, she received a call from the same colleague, who suggested, “It might be COVID-19, given the symptoms we both have.”

She initially dismissed the idea, not wanting to be completely isolated.

Still, the suggestion lingered in her mind.

“At one point, I even worried that it could truly be COVID-19, especially after seeing reports of new cases on X in parts of the U.S. and the U.K., countries from which many people travel to Nigeria daily. I just hope it isn’t what I’m fearing,” she said.

To aid her recovery, she turned to home remedies such as ginger and honey, steam inhalation with menthol ointment, and dietary supplements.

“Thankfully, all of these worked wonders. I am still taking zinc and vitamin C, but I still have a lingering cold,” she said.