… As Katsina govt confirms Cholera outbreak, says situation under control***
The Police Command in Jigawa has confirmed the death of a 13-year-old boy, Zaiyana Garba, who drowned in an opened water in Auyo Local Government Area of the state.
The command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Lawan Shiisu, confirmed the incident to newsmen in Dutse on Thursday.
Shiisu said the deceased, a resident of Makerayi village, got drowned in the water while bathing after working on farm.
“The police received information from the Village Head of Makerayi in Auyo LGA, that one Zaiyana Garba, aged 13 of same address, went to the farm and while coming back home, he decided to take a bath in a stream.
“However, he got drowned and died in the water,” Shiisu said.
The PPRO said that on receipt of the information, the police rushed to the scene and recovered the corpse.
Also read: 9-year-old boy drowns in Jigawa
According to him, the remains of the deceased has since been handed over to his relatives for burial as no foul play was suspected in connection with his death.
In another development, Following suspected cases of Cholera in some parts of the country, the Katsina State Government has confirmed the incident in some local government areas of the state, assuring that the situation is under control.
The Executive Secretary, Katsina State Primary Health Care Development Agency (PHCDA), Dr. Shamsuddeen Yahaya, disclosed this in an interview with the newsmen on Wednesday in Katsina.
Yahaya, who did not disclose the affected LGAs and the number of victims said the state government had taken necessary measures to prevent further spread of the outbreak.
He further explained that the state government had provided adequate preventive facilities to be distributed across the 34 LGAs in the state.
“Wherever you see Cholera outbreak, it is related to poor personal and environmental hygiene.
“Because of that, it means what people are doing in terms of their surroundings and the water they are drinking has issues.
“Hence, we have to make sure that we enlighten the public on the specific ways to have good personal and environmental hygiene.
“And also enlighten them to make sure that they consume wholesome water that is safe for drinking to improve their general hygiene.
“We also do what we call outbreak response, wherever we have the information that there is an outbreak, we quickly go there and provide drugs.
“Drugs have been pre-positioned in the affected areas, there are drugs for case management, we have to do that. And in every LGA, we have a structure where we have disease surveillance and notification officers.
“These disease surveillance and notification officers are the people that coordinate all the activities that have to do with disease outbreak response,” he said.
He noted that in their facilities, they have surveillance focal persons while in the communities they have informants, saying; “this is how they report from the community to the local and state levels”.
Yahaya added that recently the state government provided additional drugs that would soon be distributed across the facilities in the state.
“Under surveillance, we have what is called active case and contact search in the affected areas. Because, when you see one case, it means another is hiding.
“We have laboratories where we conduct laboratory diagnosis of not only Cholera, but other diseases that cause diarrhea; we have all the necessary facilities to carry out our work perfectly,” he added.
