Sokoto State Government on Thursday said it purchased assorted drugs, consumables and other logistics, to curb the meningitis epidemic in the state in the last ten days. The State’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Balarabe Kakale, disclosed this at a news briefing in Sokoto while giving update on the epidemic.
Dr. Kakale also warned the general public to discountenance traditional beliefs of witchcraft as causes of febrile illness and neck stiffness, saying they are signs and symptoms of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM).
Dr. Balarabe Kakale
He said that this was sequel to the outbreak of CSM the state government declared a state of high alert on the health sector on March 20.
Similarly, Dr. Kakale said that the Ministry of Health had deployed no fewer than one hundred and fifty medical personnel, comprising of medical Doctors, Nurses and other medical professionals across the state.
The teams, he averred, were also provided with adequate drugs, medical equipment, ambulances and other logistics.
According to the commissioner, the state government will soon commence the mass vaccination of over 700,000 children and adults, aged 1 to 30 years, against meningitis.
“The outbreak has been brought under total control by the concerted efforts and inter-sectoral collaborations of ministries, departments and agencies in the state. Consequent upon the outbreak of CSM in the state, the state government swung into action and declared a state of high alert aimed at mitigating the outbreak.
“The massive public enlightenment campaign have resulted in a massive turn out of patients into our health facilities in the affected areas, who will have remained at home. This in turn led to the treatment of all the suspected cases of meningitis and other patients with non-contagious, febrile illnesses like malaria,” he said.
The commissioner noted that the development had led to an abrupt decline and a possible halt in all CSM-related morbidity and mortality in the state.
Dr. Kakale noted that the exodus of the patients to the hospitals had greatly helped in bringing the outbreak under control.
According to the commissioner, the general public should discountenance traditional beliefs of witchcraft as causes of febrile illness and neck stiffness because these are signs and symptoms of meningitis.
“We want to assure that the state government, in collaboration with other stakeholders, will do all that is humanly possible to protect the people from the disease outbreak,” he added.
He, however, disclosed that the state of high alert was still in force until zero-case was recorded, while the massive vaccination was completed across the 23 local governments of the state.
