World Health Organisation (WHO), Kaduna state office, has donated a motorcycle to each of the 23 local government councils in Kaduna state for disease surveillance activities. Its Coordinator, Dr. Dauda Madubu, disclosed this yesterday in Kaduna, adding that the motorcycles were distributed to help in controlling and maintaining the outbreak of diseases in the state. He said the motorcycles would also help in the investigation of any suspected disease outbreak and regular supervision of surveillance activities in rural areas.
According to him, surveillance requires prompt reporting from the community members, including religious leaders and traditional rulers. “When there is any disease which is not reported early then it will become a big problem in the state,” he said. Madubu also called on the Ministry of Health to support the programme to help fight diseases. Responding, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Malam Shehu Mohammed, who received the motorcycles on behalf of the commissioner, pledged to strengthen the disease surveillance. He said one of the challenges the surveillance officers were facing was lack of logistics and transportation to cover remote communities. Mohammed commended the WHO for the support, promising that the motorcycles would be used judiciously.
The state epidemiologist, Aisha Sadiq, in her remarks, said the aim of the intervention was to have a review of the disease surveillance and emergency activities over the past three years. Mrs. Sadiq listed the common outbreaks in the state as measles, cholera and meningitis. However, she said the state was recording influx of more people and exposure to more diseases due to training, commerce and security, among others. According to her, the state recorded outbreaks of cholera, measles in 2016 and 2017, and eight cases of meningitis in 2017. “In 2017 we confirm four cases of Lassa fever and this year we only confirm one case, but we are still investigating to see if there are more.
“We want our disease surveillance officers and directors of health to accept that with these changes in disease epidemiology, there is a need for us to work harder,” she said. The epidemiologist said the local council directors of primary health care were sensitised “because they work directly with community members.” She expressed satisfaction on the dissemination of surveillance reports and the speedy surveillance activities across the state.
