The Ekiti State Government has set up a 30-man multi-ministerial committee as part of efforts at preventing as well as ensuring prompt diagnosis and managing possible identified cases of the dreaded ebola virus disease that is currently spreading across the West African sub region.
The State Commissioner for Health, Professor Olusola Fasubaa who made this known in Ado Ekiti, explained that the government’s proactive stance was to prevent and control transmission of the disease to the state in view of the frightening 90% mortality rate of the current outbreak of the virus which has led to world-wide panic.
According to him, the committee comprised members from different relevant sectors including health, information, Police and other security agencies, road transport workers and women groups that would be able to track and refer suspected infected people for proper treatment as well as prevent further spread of the virus from the possibly infected persons.
Professor Fasubaa disclosed that selected hospital wards in three General hospitals spread across the three senatorial districts of the state at Ode, Ifaki and Okemesi have been identified and set aside as case management centers to handle cases of possible spread of the infection to the state.
He assured that ambulance support would be provided for suspected infected persons from their respective locations and the premises would be properly decontaminated while surveillance measures would be intensified all over the state using community-member approach.
The Commissioner added that it has become mandatory for people in the state to obtain death certificates from government health facilities for all deaths recorded in the state and all corpses awaiting burial, stressing that security agencies have been authorized to ensure proper screening of corpses entering or leaving the state.
Emphasizing that corpses would be properly screened before being admitted into mortuaries in the state, Fasubaa assured that government would continue to strengthen Infection Prevention and Control Mechanism in all the Health facilities in the state, adding that safe and adequate disposal methods for waste and infected corpses would be
adopted by the state.
Whil urging the people to be vigilant and report suspected cases of ebola to relevant authorities, Prof. Fasubaa listed signs to watch out for to include vomiting with or without diarrhea and bleeding with or without dehydration adding that it is dangerous to harbor people with symptoms of the disease particularly those that recently travelled to the virus prone areas.
He also noted that large gatherings promote the spread of the virus and charged the people to be wary of such gatherings in order to curtail the disease.
Fasubaa advised people in the state to call 07039707775 (Commissioner for Health), 08033881226 (Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health), 08076481333 (Permanent Secretary, Hospitals Management Board), 08038171592 (Permanent Secretary, Public Health Care Development Agency) and 08033880425 (Director, Disease Control) in event of emergency and on issues relating to the ebola virus.
Commending the State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi for exhibiting remarkable political will and doggedness in the efforts at halting the spread of ebola virus, the Commissioner said the strategy of the state is to ensure early detection, prompt notification and surveillance as well as adopt infection prevention control mechanism in all nooks and cranny of the state.
Last modified: August 5, 2014