By James Moses (9News Nigeria -Jos)
Plateau State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Cletus Shurkuk, has said the State has not recorded any case of Cholera, adding that his team has alerted all medical apparatus in the State to be on red alert to forestall any outbreak.
Shurkuk said however, there were two suspected cases in a local government, but he quickly dispatched a response to quickly run a test on them and the result came out negative.
“So, we are bold to say that there is no Cholera case in Plateau State”, he said.
The Commissioner said the State epidemiologist have been going round radio stations in the State to educate the public on preventive measures and stick to the universal precautions and preventive methods.
“We are taking these measures so that the State will not record a single case”, Shurkuk said.
In his word, “We are also working in conjunction with other partners as well as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), who are ready to donate drugs to the State in case of any outbreak”.
“We are calling on citizens to adhere to precautions like frequent hand hygiene, hand washing with soap, or ashes under running water always before/after cooking, eating of food, after visiting the toilet, before and after work and when we return to our houses from work or other places.
“Alcohol based hand sanitizer can also be used on the hand.” In the absence of portable drinking water, boiling water if about ten (10) minutes before drinking is very important.
“Always was fruits and fresh vegetables with salt and clean water before consumption.
“Avoid open defecation, cook food properly before consumption and we should always eat our food hot and practice good environmental sanitation practice”, he said.
The Commissioner said the State is on red alert to handle any outbreak and urged citizens once they notice any symptoms of Cholera should hurry to any nearby hospital where they can be attended to immediately.
“We discourage self medication”, he said.
-9News Nigeria.
