By EZEKIEL OBI, Abuja –
The Federal Government has intensified measures on environmental health and sanitation in order to curtail the outbreak of Lassa fever in the country.
The Minister of State for Environment, Chief Sharon IKeazor, made this known in a statement issued by Mr Saghir el Mohammed, the Press Director of the ministry, on Sunday in Abuja.
Ikeazor said that the ministry had embarked on environmental health and sanitation response campaign in 11 states to ensure improvement in environmental sanitation, abatement of nuisance, rodent control, and food hygiene and safety.
According to her, Nigeria is currently experiencing increasing number of reported Lassa fever cases.
“The most recent situation report from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on January 16th, 2022, indicated 96 confirmed cases and 11 deaths from 3rd to 16th January.
“The cases recorded are in 27 local government areas across 11 states.
“The states include Bauchi, Edo, Ondo, Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Plateau, Kogi, Cross River, Ebonyi and Oyo.
“This is in addition to the 510 confirmed cases and 102 deaths that occurred from January 2021 to 2nd January, 2022,” she said.
The minister noted that before the recent outbreak, the ministry had taken proactive measures to improve the overall sanitation and hygiene situation in the country.
She said that the measures were establishment of sanitation desks in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.
She said that the measures were to ensure proper monitoring on environmental health issues.
“This is in addition to the setting up of Environmental Health Surveillance Systems designed to strengthen cooperation between the states and Federal Government on environmental health and sanitation issues.
“This will as well aid information/data gathering and sharing between the federal, state and local governments.
“They are also involved in prevention and containment activities including surveillance/monitoring and reporting of Lassa fever cases and other environmental determinant diseases, to the ministry.
“The sanitation desks are being replicated in all the 774 LGAs in the country,” she said.
Ikeazor said that the ministry had collaborated with the NCDC, World Health Organisation and other stakeholders to carry out activities to prevent and contain Lassa fever outbreaks in Nigeria.
She said that environmental health officers in the ministry, in collaboration with sanitation desks in states and local government environmental health officers, were already in the field.
She said that the collaboration was to implement environmental sanitation response activities in Lassa fever-affected states.
Ikeazor assured the general public that the ministry remained committed to ensuring that the environment would be clean, healthy and safe for all.
The minister called on Nigerians to keep their surroundings clean, keep food away from rodents, store grains and other foodstuffs in rodent-proof containers, and cook foods thoroughly before consumption.
She also advised residents to block rat hideouts, carry out deratization, stop eating rats and drying crops where rodents could run through.
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