Cholera Outbreak: Plateau Govt Trains Community Leaders In Response, Spread Containment

Worried by the cholera outbreak in Plateau State, which resulted in 14 deaths in four local government areas, the state government has trained members of the communities to contain the further spread of the disease.

LEADERSHIP reports that the commissioner for Health, Dr Nicholas Ba’amlong, who gave an update on the state’s emergency response efforts on Monday last week, revealed that 20 cases had tested positive via Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDTs), while six others had been laboratory-confirmed through stool culture.
The commissioner added that the infections had so far affected 25 wards and 107 settlements across the state.

To tackle the menace, the state government through the Plateau State Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) organised cholera preparedness and response training for community members of the affected LGAs.

At the three-day training supported by UNICEF, RUWASA director-general, Engr. Godfrey Dashuhar, explained that the participants were drawn from five local government areas of Bokkos, Mangu, Barkin Ladi, Jos South and Jos North.

According to him, the five LGA’s are under what is called the Case Area Targeted Intervention (CATI), and that they want to do all they can to intervene in those areas and tackle cholera spread.

“This is about the life of our people, and for us as a rural water supply agency, we know that our work is dealing with the people in the rural communities, where many people are disadvantaged, and so we take our work seriously because if we don’t do so they will be affected.

“This training is therefore meant to be stepped down to the primary healthcare centers, and that is why we have selected the participants from these local government areas. And by so doing the cholera spread will be taken care of.

“Tackling cholera requires a multi-sectoral efforts, and so offiials/trainess from the health ministry as well as that of the environment are all here. But why we are the ones handling it is because once water situation can be dealt with it is as good as we have dealt with the cholera issue. That is why we in rural water supply are the prime people handling it now,” he said.

He called on the people to check the kind of food they eat so that they don’t eat contaminated foods, and also make sure that the foods they eat are properly cooked.

Again, he urged the people to engage in proper hand washing at all times (adults and children alike), and that even breastfeeding mothers should ensure they wash their hands properly at all times before breastfeeding their babies because they don’t know what their hands must have touched.

“Importantly too, people should check the water they drink to ensure the screen and safe. Besides, it is advisable now that the water people fetch from water sources should be boiled before it is consumed.

“We are also warning against open defecation, because that it is also another major source of cholera transmission,” he said.

The Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, Hon. Bashir Lawandi, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Lohnan Gambo in his remarks said the state government is not relenting in its efforts to curb disease outbreak which has already claimed some lives.

He emphasised that access to potable water remains key to preventing cholera and other water-borne diseases, and that is why the state government is working to ensure clean water runs in the taps by rehabilitating all facilities of Jos Water Services Corporation and overhauling the treatment plants and reticulation system.

“We recently commissioned a mini treatment plant in Mado to Tudun Wada, one of the most populated areas in Jos, as a temporary measure to ensure water supply during rehabilitation,” he said.

On his part, the Assistant Director of Water Quality Surveillance, Federal Ministry of Water Resources and Sanitation, Ayodele Babalola, noted that the training is very important because during rainy season there is high probability of cholera outbreak and spread.

Babalola who represented the Director Water Quality Control and Sanitation at the ministry, pointed out that even though a popular saying goes that ‘water is life’, but it has to be good water.

He then urged people to monitor the quality of water they consume in order to ensure they drink safe water and keep their environment clean.