An Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), ActionAid Nigeria has donated cholera kits to 1,500 patients and carried out campaigns on the disease in four Local government areas of Bauchi state, according to Mrs Lola Ayanda, ActionAid Communications Officer.
“With commitment to ActionAid Nigeria’s Core Humanitarian Standard and Emergency Intervention Policy, the project will provide cholera kits to 1,500 patients in 4 LGA’s, Dass, Toro, Bauchi and Ningi, of Bauchi State.
“And also carryout mass media sensitization on cholera prevention and treatments through the local media outlets across the state,” she said, at the launch of the donation on Saturday, in Bauchi.
Ayanda noted that due to the inadequate health system in the project state, it was easy for major health outbreaks such as this cholera to spread fast, reaching other states and thereby further crippling efforts to achieve a more stable healthcare system in the country.
She explained that the 10-day intervention was set to prevent the spread of the disease, through the establishment of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector approved cholera kits to households that have infected persons.
This would ensure that such households, including the households of neighbours within a 30-metre radius were also disinfected.
“ActionAid will work with 100 locally sourced and trained hygiene promoters who will ensure that information on early detection of the disease, prevention and treatment centres, are communicated to the people in their local dialects, while 20 health workers will support the disinfecting process as volunteers”, Ayanda said.
In a remark, Alhaji Yunusa Ya’u , WASH unit Coordinator, Bauchi Local government area, expressed appreciation to ActionAid for complementing government’s efforts at curbing the spread of the disease in the state.
Ya’u, who identified the kits as containing detergent, soap, chlorine, spray buckets, oral rehydration therapy, cups and jerry cans, among others, said they would be judiciously used for the most vulnerable areas of the local government because of its size.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ActionAid Nigeria, in partnership with FAHIMTA Women Development Bauchi, with funding support from STARTFUND, are working with Cholera Treatment Centres (CTC) to provide emergency response for cholera patients.
This was also being done in collaboration with government institutions that include the Primary Health Care Development Agency, Rural Water Supply Agency and the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA). (NAN)
