The media in Adamawa, has been commended for sensitising the public on efforts by the state’s Ministry of Health to contain the cholera outbreak in Yola Metropolis and environs.
The Director of Public Health in the ministry, Dr Bwalki Dilli, gave the commendation on Friday in Yola, at a meeting to review activities of Journalists Against Polio (JAP) in the state.
Dilli said the recent outbreak of cholera in Yola North, Yola South and Girei local government areas of the state, was being effectively managed with the support of partners such as the media, WHO and UNICEF.
He said the media, through JAP members, provided timely information to the public, particularly on hygiene, which helped contain the spread.
“Public health cannot succeed without information communication, and the people that drive it are the journalists,’’ Dilli said.
He therefore, called for collaborations between JAP and the Ministry of health, in mobilising the public on issues in the health sector.
The Surveillance Officer of World Health Organisation (WHO) in Adamawa, Dr Jerry Pantuvo, also commended the media for its role in preventing escalation of the outbreak.
Pantuvo, however, said the media needed to do more, particularly in the area of attracting government attention to real causes of cholera in some communities.
He noted that the major causes of cholera outbreak were open defecation, poor sanitation practice and overcrowding in houses.
He said WHO, on its part, was assisting the state in the control of cholera by setting up treatment centres and mobilising search teams to identify cases in affected communities.
According to Pantuvo, WHO is also coordinating response to the outbreak for effective control.
He said that in 2018, WHO gave cholera vaccination in Mubi Zone, which went a long way in curbing recurring incidences’ of cholera outbreak in the area. (NAN)
