By Asmau Ahmad with agency report
The Adamawa Government has on Thursday confirmed the outbreak of measles in some Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the state. Mr Haruna Furo, the Executive Secretary, Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola. Furo, however, said that there was no dead recorded.
“There is outbreak of measles not just in the IDPs camps, but also within the community,” said the scribe. He listed the affected camps as the NYSC Camp at Bajabure, Girei and Malkohi camps in Girei and Yola North local government areas, respectively. He attributed the outbreak to the daily mass movement and influx of new IDPs from Borno and Cameroon mountains into the various camps across the state.
“Not minding the fact that some of these Internally Displaced Persons came across the borders where they were into hiding for quite sometimes escaping from insurgent attacks.
“Some came down from top of mountains between Nigeria and Cameroun borders where they were trapped for two to three weeks; so these type of ailments are bound to be with them,” Furo said. He assured that the cases were not beyond the medical team in the camps and that they were working hard round the camps as well as the host communities to curtail the spread of the disease.
According to Furo, routine immunisation days were being conducted by the primary healthcare workers, state Ministry of Health, NEMA, Red Cross and some other agencies for victims in the camps. “We have competent medical teams that are attending to all the cases,” Furo said.
According to him, the agency was yet to ascertain the exact number of the affected persons.
