The Katsina state government has announced it is closely monitoring, at least, 118 suspected cases of cholera. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, June 26, 2024, the incidence manager and director of epidemiology at the state primary healthcare development agency, Kabir Suleiman said that the state has activated incident management system to contain the disease. He also said it is fully prepared to prevent its spread and other vaccine-preventable outbreaks in the state.
According to him, that the state government has embarked on building about 102 health facilities across the local government areas, and already looking at other interventions such as improvement in wash facilities, solarization and rehabilitation of boreholes in many local government areas.
“We have also commenced deployment of commodities to the 34 LGAs of the state because Katsina is one of the states termed as high risk for Cholera based on the report of the global task force for Cholera control.
“We also have Oral Rehydration Points. We maintained a very sensitive surveillance system where we have regular reporting in those areas to manage the situation.
“For now, we don’t have an outbreak of Cholera but the state is fully prepared, basically we can coordinate any outbreak that affects the state at any point in time.
“We have all the necessary gadgets needed from the LGA to the state level to respond to these outbreaks
“Cholera is a very severe illness which is detected with acute diarrhoea commonly associated with a lot of complications. Cholera is basically caused by bacteria.
“Katsina is one of the most populous states in Nigeria with over nine million population cut across 34 LGAs and 361 wards. Among these, we have 21 LGAs that are security-compromised.
“We have a normal routine surveillance system that is working 24 hours a day, seven days a week and throughout the year. Through that, we can detect cases of all priority diseases like Cholera.
“Based on our records, the week that we had a big outbreak this year was week 12 around March where we had an outbreak of Cholera from Kusada LGA and we were able to send our rapid response team to the LGA with support from the government and partners, we can manage the outbreak, we recorded about 68 cases there with one death.
“That was very commendable, we must appreciate the efforts of the government in supplying the commodities that we used so also the local government chairman and all other supporting partners that supported us to respond to the outbreak.
“As of today, we have recorded about 118 suspected cases of Cholera out of which two were confirmed from Kusada LGA
“We have maintained our system at alert, where we are at alert mode, rapid response team including the surveillance and notification officers have been trained where we emphasize the need for them to detect cases wherever they are.
“In terms of infection prevention and control, we want to ensure that if the infection happens, it does not spread especially in the healthcare settings.
“And on risk communications, we have already produced jingles which we are about to start airing for people to be sensitized.
“Using our network of VCMs, we have trained over 3,000 VCMs that go from house to house to sensitize women on how best to maintain personal hygiene and make use of sanity water and the issue of eating well-cooked food”, he said.
