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By Our Correspondent in Abuja
The FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu, has flagged off sensitisation and awareness campaign in Gwagwalada Area Council of the territory as part of proactive measure to avert possible outbreak of Lassa fever and Corona virus in the nation’s capital.
Mr Austen Elemue dislocated this in a statement in Abuja.
The awareness campaign according to the minister is aimed at ensuring that residents especially mothers take up up responsibilities in preventing Lassa fever and corona virus diseases outbreaks in the territory.
She stressed that the battle against these global diseases should be the collective responsibility of both government and personal commitment.
Aliyu taskef religious leaders, traditional institutions and civil society organisations to join hands in the sensitisation campaign and urged Area Council chairmen in the FCT to replicate this in markets and other locations in their respective councils.
She explained that sone of the key preventive measures for Lassa fever and corona virus infections were neighbor to neighbour information, conducting advocacy and sensitisation visits to communities, markets and other places where people live and gather.
The minister also called for intensification of the awesomeness campaign as a potent means of the spread of the disease.
The minister who revealed that transmission from person to person could occur, following exposure to the virus in the blood, tissue, urine, faeces or other bodily secretions of an infected individual, called for promotion of good environmental and personal hygiene in individual homes.
She said, “Humans become infected from direct contact with the urine and faeces of the rat which contains the virus, through touching soiled objects, eating contaminated food, or exposure to open cuts or sores.
“Transmission from person to person can occur, following exposure to the virus in the blood, tissue, urine, faeces or other bodily secretions of an infected individual.
” Promoting good environmental and personal hygiene are to discourage rodents from entering homes and markets and having access to food stuff.”
The minister pledged FCT Administration’s commitment to all activities aimed at strengthening the awareness and prevention of Lassa fever and corona virus diseases and outbreaks in FCT.
She reminded parents and caregivers to ensure that they follow all the preventive measures against the diseases.
In his remarks,the Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council,Adamu Mustapha Danze, commended the Administration for taking proactive steps toward curbing the outbreak of Lassa fever and corona virus in the territory.
He observed that taking the campaign to market women was a step in the right direction, adding that when women and mothers take leadership positions in matters of public health importance, the results were usually great and rewarding to families and society at large.
While enlightening the public, the Director of Public Health of Health and Human Service Secretariat, Dr Josephine Okechukwu, explained that Lassa fever “is an epidemic prone zoonotic disease.”
According to her, it is also an acute viral illness, a haemorrhagic fever first reported in Lassa community in Borno state in 1969,where two missionary nurses died from an unusual febrile illness.
