Doris Obinna
As a result of concerns over the recent growing incidences of gastroenteritis (vomiting and diarrhoea) in Lagos State, the state government has activated its Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) to coordinate response against the outbreak and other infectious diseases.
According to the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, who inaugurated the centre today, “the EOC is a command and control centre headquartered in the Ministry of Health that will coordinate and fine-tune logistics and resources in response to the increase in numbers of diarrhoea and vomiting recorded in the past weeks in five local government area of Lagos State such as Lagos Island, Ajeromi, Apapa, Mushin and Ikeja and about 117 cases of the diseases recorded at health facilities during the time.”
He noted that EOC which is made up of representatives from the Ministry of Health, Primary Health Care Board, Health Service Commission, Lagos Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and Central Public Health Laboratory amongst others, will be meeting on a daily basis, collating results, reviewing plans and interventions as well as suggesting and coordinating the implementation of measures to effectively curtail the spread of the disease and manage future occurrences promptly and effectively.
“The EOC is made up of sub-thematic areas of surveillance and laboratory, communication, health education and social mobilisation, case management and infection control as well as logistics and data management. We are going to have a complete narrative of what happened during these past weeks, lessons learnt and how we are going to move forward,” the commissioner said.
Abayomi stated that the state government had been proactive in its response and management of the excess cases of vomiting and diarrhoea since the report was made and investigation commenced.
The commissioner revealed that some samples which were collected in the course of the investigation and sent to the laboratory, tested positive to a type of cholera. He disclosed further that investigation is still on going to ascertain whether cholera is solely responsible for the entire cases or whether there are other pathogens involved in the excess cases recorded.
He urged the public to pay due attention to personal hygiene and environmental sanitation by keeping their environment clean, avoid open defecation, as well as ensuring drains are clean and water is able to flow freely and imbibe the culture of regular hand washing. “Citizens should visit the nearest health facilities early when they are sick and avoid going to work or school where they are likely to infect others.”