LEADERSHIP

January 31, 2008

FG Declares State Of Emergency In Health Sector

Federal government, has declared a state of emergency in the health sector following reports of an outbreak of communicable diseases from various states of the country.

Surveillance reports from various states including Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Borno, Katsina, among others revealed a total of 5,957 cases of measles outbreak alone with a total of 196 fatalities nationwide.

Between epidemological weeks 41 to 52 of 2007, a total of 1,800 cases with 31 deaths were reported in Kaduna State. Kano State recorded 1,371 cases between September and December 2007, while Katsina had a total of 834 cases and 74 deaths from 27 local government areas, stretching from December 2007 to January 2008.

Also in Katsina, a cumulative total of 201 cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis were reported resulting to the death of 21 persons between December 2007 and January this year.

Jigawa also reported 9 cases with 2 deaths and was said to have crossed the alert threshold with attack rate of 7.9/100,000. Most outbreaks of this disease in Nigeria were said to emanate from neighbouring countries of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Cholera outbreak was also reported in Borno, Jigawa, Bauchi, Kaduna, Edo, Delta and Bayelsa states with a total of 1,444 cases resulting in 34 deaths nationwide.

This was attributed to the acute shortage of potable water as well as poor environmental sanitation.

Within the last 8-12 weeks, cases of lassa fever outbreak in endemic states of Edo, Plateau, Lagos, Ogun, Nasarawa, Taraba, Borno and Anambra have been re-occurrent with 8 fatalities.

Minister of health, Prof. Adenike Grange, who disclosed this yesterday in Abuja, said the World Health Organisation (WHO) and a team of health supervisors from the ministry confirmed these outbreaks.

Grange disclosed that an on-the-spot assessment of Zaria, Kaduna State, which is one of the most affected areas confirmed that the situation needed the urgent intervention of the federal government.

According to her, a team of experts had already been dispatched to the endemic areas to determine the extent of outbreaks as well as initiate preventive and containment measures in affected communities, and to report to the ministry.

She said, "The ministry of health held a meeting with the state Epidemologists, Disease Surevellance and notification officers at the state levels on the 14th of January 2008. The meeting reviewed our disease surveillance and response activities, and identifified gaps in reporting and response to communicable disease in the country. It also concluded that the outbreaks had created an emergency situation that needed the federal government’s intervention immediately".

The minister lamented the poor surveillance and notification of outbreak of diseases at border and entry points, where cross border interactions with Nigeria's neighbouring countries are intense as a result of ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods.

She called on local communities to be on the alert and report any case to officers for appropriate preventive measures.