Cholera Outbreak: Plateau State Government takes Preventive Measures

By Timothy Alamba

The Programme Coordinator, Plateau state Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (SURWASH), Engr. Jonathan Malann has assured citizens of measures put in place to maintain the cholera free status of the State.

He gave the assurance ar a press briefing yesterday at the Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, Press Centre in Jos.

According to him, one of the measures employed by the State government is Multi Sectoral Approach which involved working with multiple local and international stakeholders to ensure targeted and timely response activities.

“Another multi-sectoral approach among others that is worth noting is the Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Hygiene (SURWASH) Program supported by the World Bank to the Government of Nigeria (GoN) through a facility of USD 700 million using bank financing instruments namely a Program for Results (PforR) component, and an Investment Project Financing (IPF) technical assistance component.

“The Program is for a six-year period in seven states starting from May 2021 to June 2027. The states include: Ekiti, Delta, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina and Plateau.” Engr. Malann added.

On hygiene and access to improved sanitation, he said the Ministry through her agencies educates the public on hygiene promotion when handling water to reduce the risk of contamination and improve access to sanitation facilities. It also discourage open defecation and work with the community to ensure safe disposal of excreta among others.

Other measures taken by the state government include: early identification of cholera cases, procurement of water treatment chemicals for water supply agencies, and access to safe water.

He said 33 States in Nigeria have recorded cases of Cholera but Plateau has been certified to be Cholera free by the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC). According to the statistics, Nigeria have recorded 1528 suspected cases, 65 confirmed cases and 53 records deaths.

The State epidemiologist, Dr. Maren who represented the State Commissioner for Health at the briefing, in his submission described cholera as a deadly and communicable disease.

He added that flies plays an important role in the transmission of the disease and advised people to cover their food properly when they are not eating it. And that people should avoid eating cold food as only heat can destroy the bacteria that causes cholera.

“We discourage people from taking ice cream where they don’t know the source. There are so many ice cream that are sold on the street, you don’t know where the water comes from and as we said, cholera can survive in ice, so please avoid that too.

“Washing of fruits and vegetable is very important, not only with clean water but also with salt added to it. You soak the fruit or the vegetable inside that salt water and make sure that you allow it for some minutes, that will help in draining the fluid from that bacteria and kill the bacteria, then you rinse it with clean water then you consume. ” Dr. Maren said.

Answering questions from newsmen on open defecation during the press briefing, the Director General Plateau Environmental Protection and Sanitation Agency, Engr. Samuel Dapiya said government is doing its best to ensure people have toilet facilities but government alone can not provide it for all the people in the state, so they are encouraging citizens and private ownership of latrines.