The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has listed Zamfara, Cross River, Adamawa and Ogun as states with the highest cholera cases in the country.
NCDC’s Incident Manager, Cholera Technical Working Group, Dr Sebastian Yennan, said this at the monthly meeting of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Emergency Working Group on Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, the cases are updates from the centre’s Epidemiology Week 39, saying efforts were ongoing in providing response commodities to affected states and in the country.
Yennan said NCDC’s intervention through cholera case management was carried out in partnership with the WHO by distributing infection prevention and control kits, WASH kits, and Chlorine powder among others.
This intervention, he noted, was being prioritised in the four states, saying the kits distributed could also be used in emergencies like the Lassa fever and diphtheria outbreaks.
“The NCDC has partnered with a third-party logistics company in the distribution of commodities and also to bring samples, our cholera response is at the 36 states and the FCT.
“In Zamfara for instance, the governor visited the cholera treatment centre in Anka local government that was built by Doctors Without Borders/MSF, they have received response commodities”.
He said states must do more to prioritise cholera prevention by ensuring that funds were budgeted early and were accessible, adding that the centre was in charge of the administration of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
The fund, Yenna said, was designed to strengthen the national health system, calling on states to preposition their needs to access it before, during and after a disease outbreak.
He also urged all stakeholders to strengthen partnerships to promote advocacy towards the prevention of health emergencies in the country.
