The Minister of State for Environment, Dr Iziaq Salako, has identified sustainable human and environment interaction as one of the major steps that could help in preventing and controlling the Cholera outbreak in the country.
This was contained in a statement issued on Sunday which was made available to Tribune Online, stating that the Federal Ministry of Environment is deeply concerned about the ongoing cholera outbreak in some states of Nigeria.
He noted that the Cholera outbreak has claimed many lives and affected many communities based on the report by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which indicated a total number of 1,159 suspected cases, 65 confirmed cases and 30 deaths across 30 States.
Salako said that most states affected with about 90 percent of the total cases includes, Bayelsa, Lagos, Zamfara, Abia, Bauchi, Cross River, Ebonyi, Delta and Katsina.
He urged Nigerians to be more vigilant to prevent the spread of cholera; imbibe good sanitation and hygiene practices at home and in their workplace and take preventive measures such as keeping their environment clean always and disposing of waste properly at designated places.
The Minister said, “Against this background, the Federal Ministry of Environment has been actively involved through the Department of Pollution Control and Environmental Health and the Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria in activities to break further transmission of the deadly disease through water and food testing to identify sources of infection, environmental sanitation campaigns and household water chlorination. Arrangements are also being made to support states most affected by the outbreak with chlorine solution/tablets, water and food testing resources, IEC materials and technical advisory.
“The Federal Ministry of Environment is issuing this press release to sensitise the general public on cholera preventive and control measures to avert further spread and strengthen collaboration with the health authorities and other stakeholders in line with the one health approach of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Cholera, a poor sanitation and poor hygiene driven disease is an acute diarrhoea infection caused by ingestion of unwholesome food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. It remains a global threat to public health, affecting both children and adults and can kill if untreated promptly. It is an extremely virulent disease that takes between 12 hours and 5 days for symptoms to manifest. The common early symptoms are frequent watery stool that is usually milky white in colour, nausea and vomiting. Cholera outbreak is a seasonal public health event in Nigeria, occurring annually mostly during the rainy season and often in areas with poor sanitation and hygiene practices. Extreme climate events like flooding are also contributing in multiple ways to drive the outbreak of the disease.
“The World Health Organization has confirmed the global resurgence of cases of cholera classifying the current outbreak a “grade 3 public health emergency”, requiring maximal WHO system-wide response. Nigeria is one of the 14 countries in Africa where the resurgence is being experienced.”
The Minister urged all Commissioners of Environment and Local Government Chairmen to support Environmental Health Officers across the country to step up their sanitation and hygiene activities through enhanced community-led total sanitation in order to break further transmission and spread of the disease.
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