Gombe state Government has declared that it has not recorded any case of cholera since the reported outbreak across the country though it has a few cases of gastroenteritis.
The declaration was made by the Commissioner of Health, Dr Habu Dahiru while speaking with Tribune Online vide telephone conversation on Sunday.
According to him, “We have been proactive about the situation that is the reason we have not recorded any confirmed case of Cholera in the state. Even in 2023, we did not record a single case because we put in place very active preventive measures.”
The Commissioner added that in 2022, the State recorded huge cases of Cholera which led to deaths stressing,”We were so disturbed, we wanted to do Cholera vaccination but we could not get the vaccine. We then resorted to the traditional ways of doing it.
“The first thing we did was to establish Cholera Watch Teams after which we activated the cholera incident management system to control cholera, the third thing we did was strengthen collaboration with development partners, WHO, UNICEF and CDC. The fourth thing was an inter-agency collaboration with the Ministries of Water Resources, Environment and GOSEPA responsible for clearing debris, and culverts and ensuring a clean environment.
Dahiru said that the collaboration ensured that every refuse dump site was cleared, and drainages evacuated to allow free flow of waste water while massive sensitisation and enlightenment on radio and television on the negative side effects of a dirty environment.
He added that the government went around all 114 political wards in the state for chlorination of all wells and water reservoirs to ensure that the water was safe for human consumption.
According to him, “We embarked on health education telling the people how cholera is spread and what you can do to prevent it. Though we had a few cases of gastroenteritis, they were not confirmed laboratory-wise to say that it was due to symptoms of cholera. Even during the last Sallah celebrations, we had cases of gastroenteritis across the state.”
The Commissioner stressed that government officials were on alert during the Sallah celebrations considering that there were movements in and out of the state saying,”We were very conscious so we activated surveillance system so we were on the watch, did not wait to be informed before acting.”
He concluded that government officials went into the communities on tracing victims to ensure that the cases of gastroenteritis did not spread.
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