Cholera: Katsina activates incident management system after recording 118 suspected cases

118 suspected Cholera cases have been recorded in Katsina, and the incident management system has been activated in the state.

This information was disclosed by Dr. Kabir Suleiman, the Director of Epidemiology and Incidence Manager at the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, during a press conference on Wednesday.

He also said it is fully prepared to prevent its spread and other vaccine-preventable outbreaks in the state.

According to the agency, it has also activated its Incidence Management System as part of measures taken by the state government, to ensure that the Cholera outbreak is being managed.

He announced that the state government has embarked on building about 102 health facilities across the LGAs, and already looking at other interventions such as improvement in WASH facilities, solarisation and rehabilitation of boreholes in many Local Government Areas.

According to him, the state government has also designated 34 comprehensive Health Centers with Cholera treatment units, and centres for admission of Cholera cases.

Global Taskforce for Cholera Control shows that Katsina has 10 of its LGAs termed as high risk, with Funtua, Jibia and Batsari LGAs topping the list.

“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 sensitised.

“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 stated.