A state of emergency on cholera may be declared if cases recorded goes beyond manageable threshold.
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Jide Idris, made this known on Wednesday, while speaking in Lagos during the Adetokunbo Alakija Memorial Travel Medicine Lecture held at Civic Centre, Victoria Island, orgainised by the Nigerian Society of Travel Medicine, The Punch reports.
He affirmed that, based on the data that would be obtained from all the partners involved in the assessment, “if they look at the data and they decide that the situation has gone beyond a particular threshold, then we call it an emergency situation.”
He said the agency was still awaiting reports from the team conducting the investigation.
“So when they come, when they bring the data, if it has gone beyond a particular threshold, we declare an emergency,” he added.
Currently, Nigeria is trying to curb the cholera outbreak in 30 states. So far, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Children’s Fund, and the International Organisation for Migration have all held an emergency meeting in Lagos on Tuesday to proffer solution to the spread of the disease.
The WHO Country Representative, Dr Walter Mulombo, disclosed this on his X handle.
The NCDC, in its recent report, said from January 1 to June 11, 2024, over 1,141 suspected and over 65 confirmed cases of cholera, resulting in over 30 deaths, have been reported from 96 LGAs in 30 states.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State Ministry of Health said it has recorded 350 suspected cases of cholera in 29 wards across multiple LGAs with 17 confirmed cases and 15 fatalities attributed to severe dehydration caused by delayed presentation.
