Ekiti warns residents of ‘possible cholera outbreak’, deploys surveillance teams to LGAs

The Ekiti government has cautioned residents on the need to be careful over possible outbreak of cholera in the state.

Oyebanji Filani, Ekiti commissioner for health and human services, in a statement on Friday, said the state recorded suspected cases recently, and has deployed monitoring officers across LGAs.

He urged residents to step up efforts on ensuring that their environments are clean, and advised persons who develop symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting to report to approved health facilities immediately.

“Following outbreaks of cholera in 28 States of the Federation, the Ekiti State ministry of health heightened cholera surveillance to pick up early, on any suspected cases, in view of mitigating an outbreak,” the statement reads.

“The Government of Ekiti State hereby wishes to alert the general public of a possible outbreak of cholera in some Local Government Areas of the State.

“On the 19th of September 2021, five (5) suspected cases of cholera were reported in Moba Local Government Area of the State. These cases were picked up by community informants and reported to the LGA health authorities who in turn reported to the State ministry of health for proper investigation.

“Given the risk of this outbreak escalating rapidly across the State, the Ministry of Health has commenced active case finding across all LGAs in the State. State surveillance teams have been deployed to support the outbreak response at the LGA level.

“These teams are actively searching for and investigating suspected cases in health facilities, informal treatment centres and within communities. This is in line with earlier developed emergency operations plan to tackle a possible cholera outbreak in the State.

“The State is also leveraging the capacity that has been built during the COVID-19 response. This capacity includes the existing LGA and State EOCs, laboratory services, health workers and treatment centres among others.”

He added that the state will also support LGAs “to ensure a coordinated and effective response to the possible outbreak” through the “provision of medical and laboratory supplies for case detection and management, rapid scale-up of risk communications and WASH activities, amongst other activities”.

“Healthcare workers are hereby directed to maintain a high index of suspicion for cholera while consistently observing standard protocols for infection prevention and control,” he added.