The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has disclosed plans to donate critical items to health facilities across six local government areas currently grappling with cholera outbreak in Niger State…in order to curb further spread of the epidemic
Speaking to Newsmen after inspecting an isolation centre at the old wing of late Senator Idris Ibrahim Kuta Primary Health Care centre in Minna, the UNICEF Chief of Kaduna Field Office, Dr. Gerida Birukila said even though the center had been operational, UNICEF intends to beef it up to the required standard of a cholera treatment centre.
She added that UNICEF will be working in collaboration with the Niger state government and other organisations like the World Health Organisation (WHO) to ensure the spread of the disease is curbed.
Also speaking during the inspection of the facility, UNICEF Health Specialist with the Kaduna Field Office, Dr. Sule Mele said the cholera outbreak was first reported two weeks ago and in the metropolitan city of Minna which has Chanchaga and Bosso LGAs before gradually spreading to four other Local Councils
According to him, out of the over two hundred suspected cases reported thus far, 50 percent have tested positive for cholera with chances of a likely increase in reported cases.
He further disclosed that, the UNICEF is doing all it could to curb the spread by carrying out sensitisation as a well as case-management of suspected cases.
Earlier, the Director Public Health in the Ministry of Secondary and Tertiary Health, Dr. Ibrahim Idris said the State Government had set up treatment and isolation centres to mitigate the spread of the epidemic while also embarking on an aggressive sensitization exercise to educate the public about cholera
Recall that the Niger state government through the Commissioner of Primary Health Care, Dr. Ibrahim Dangana, had confirmed that thirteen lives have been lost to the epidemic thus far with about two hundred and forty persons hospitalized across the affected local government areas.
- By Oni Kayode Philips