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Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Senator Baba Tela in a group photograph with the NCDC team
By Akanji Alowolodu, Bauchi
As part of move to examining the state of health, deepening surveillance system and assessing contours of challenges and solutions, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has met with the Bauchi State Deputy Governor, Senator Baba Tela and briefed him on some critical steps to be taken in order to avert outbreak of infectious diseases in the state.
The NCDC delegation under the Team Lead of the National RRT, Dr Fahad Mohammed were accompanied by the Executive Chairman of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BASPHCDA), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, alongside State surveillance team and received by the Deputy Governor at his office on Friday.
Dr Fahad Mohammed said that NCDC has been working effortlessly with the state surveillance team in some communities to ascertain level of diseases that may be causing some concern year-in-year out in the state.
Unfortunately, in carrying out this tedious assignment, they are facing resistance due to culture related reprehension stating that those communities do not accept evacuation, testing and treatment whenever the team of experts visited them, which if care is not taken, may exacerbate the situation to a point of deleterious, said Dr Mohammed
The NCDC Team Lead also explained that so far, they have conducted series of assessments and researches on those fever-like diseases across Ningi, Tafawa Balewa, Toro and Kirfi Local Government areas where they discovered that most of these diseases can be treated with proper hygiene, adopt clinical measures backed by treatment.
He further disclosed that NCDC is considering a possibility to set up a laboratory for Lassa fever that can run testing for Lassa fever, Yellow fever and other infections.
On the yearly resurgence of Lassa fever, the team lead said that they are working on fixing Lassa treatment center in Bal Community as focal point, while keeping on monitoring situations based on the epidemiological evidence and system re-engineering and intensifying dialogue within communities.
To further enhance effective disease investigation and strengthen surveillance system, the team has planned to carry out 500 tests within the identified communities, data quality issues in terms of testing, confirmed cases are deeply studied to which it has been resolved.
While responding, the State Deputy Governor and Chairman State Task Force on PHC and Infectious Diseases, Senator Baba Tela, appreciated the continuous interventions of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and other partners, especially World Health Organization for their technical expertise and support to the state.
The Deputy Governor said that Government will continue to listen to partners and medical experts but there should be a mechanism or patterns where there will be a shift from the conventional way of doing things and go innovative, to address the bedeviled issues of health in the communities.
Baba Tela then suggested that all recommendations be in written form so that Government will react in a pragmatic senses that will appropriately respond to all emergencies at any time.
The Deputy Governor also pointed out that as responsive Government, the present administration will never give up on matters of great concerns, particularly health, education and other critical sectors of economy.
He therefore extolled the support of WHO in the areas of coordination, surveillance, testing, Risk Communication, logistics and research where it has substantially reduced the burdens of the state.
In attendance, include Deputy Governor, Executive Chairman SPHDCA, State Coordinator WHO, NCDC Team led by Dr Fahad Mohammed, State Epidemiologist, State Disease Surveillance Notification Officer and my humble self as contained in a statement by Ibrahim Sani, Information OfficerPHCDA, Bauchi State
