1 week ago
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In a bid to curb the spread of some infectious diseases across Nigeria, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) has intensified its integrated preventive campaign against three seasonal infectious diseases namely Cholera, Meningitis and Lassa fever.
According to a statement Friday by deputy director press of the agency Paul Odenyi, Director General of NOA, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu told heads of state offices involved in the campaigns that lack of awareness of the required preventive measures contribute to the recurrence of the epidemic around Nigeria every year.
The statement noted that the core objective of the campaign is educating citizens on basic personal hygiene to mitigate the spread of these diseases.
According to the statement, for Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM), the DG said changes in weather pattern resulting in extreme heat; especially around the Northern part of the country is mostly responsible for its outbreak.
“The campaign against Lassa Fever which began around August 2024 is giving way to the sensitisation on the spread of CSM which results from extreme heat waves, while the rise of cholera follows the flow of droppings from open defecation into water bodies, which serve as source of water to several communities in Nigeria. The integrated campaign on cholera is expected to take off in April as the rainy season sets in,” it said.
According to the agency, the first stage of the integrated campaign started from selected states of the six (6) geo-political zones in Nigeria namely; Ondo, Edo, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Bauchi and Ebonyi state as shown by epidemiological data from the National Centre for Disease Control.
It said the campaign will spread to Yobe and Borno states where reports of CSM outbreak were earlier recorded.
The Agency also highlighted some preventive measures citizens can observe to reduce the spread of these infectious diseases, they include;
• Taking personal hygiene seriously;
• Regular washing of hands with sanitizer or soap;
• Safe processing of food; and
• General environmental sanitization.
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