Oyo State Government has called for more vigilance and the adoption of precautionary measures among residents to prevent the spread of a potential cholera outbreak in the state.
The State’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi gave the charge while visiting a private hospital in Ibadan where two suspected cholera cases were receiving treatment.
Ajetunmobi noted that Cholera is a bacterial infection spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by the faeces of an infected person.
She explained that cholera is highly infectious and could cause severe acute diarrhoea with severe dehydration, adding that the disease might be associated with nausea, profuse vomiting and fever.
The Commissioner described the suspected cases in Ibadan, which have been tracked to a private facility as male workers at a construction site in Lekki Peninsula from Lagos State.
She however said there was no cause for alarm as the ministry and other partners were on top of the situation.
Ajetunmobi, therefore reiterated the response efforts of the state government through the ministry at ensuring that the state did not record casualties from the cholera outbreak from Lagos State.
According to her, the response efforts included the deployment of LGA DSNO, promotional jingles in English and Yoruba running in different media houses, immediate inauguration of the Cholera Technical Working Group, putting IDC Olodo into active mode for isolation and management.
He mentioned other measures to include reaching out to all our surveillance rangers at the LGA level to intensify surveillance activities, re-posting of cholera case definition on the platform of community informants for updates, awareness, and sensitisation of the gatekeepers and other well-established community structures.
The Commissioner, therefore appealed to all to be safety conscious and always drink water only from clean sources, practice good personal hand hygiene by frequently washing hands with soap and water.
She maintained that anyone with the symptoms mentioned above should not partake in self-medication but present themselves at the nearest healthcare facility immediately.