By Udora Orizu
The House of Representatives has called on the federal government to curtail the spread of Cholera in various states across the country, particularly Jigawa State.
The House directed its Committee on Health Care Services to liaise with the Federal Ministry of Health and other health-related agencies take immediate steps to protect the lives of the people from further deaths as a result of the outbreak.
The resolution followed the unanimous adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Abubakar Makki Yalleman.
Moving the motion, Yalleman noted that the mandate of the Ministry of Health among others is to manage outbreaks of diseases in Nigeria, formulate policies on all activities relating to disease management and coordinate the plans and programmes for efficient response to disasters at all levels of government.
He also noted that within one month of the Cholera outbreak, Jigawa and other states have recorded over 2,000 cases of the disease and over 30 deaths, thus causing financial burden on the state governments, as all its resources have been channelled to addressing the disease.
The lawmaker said: “Malam Madori/Kaugama federal constituency is surrounded by water, which aided the spread of cholera, a water-borne disease, thus calling for intervention of the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and other relevant health-related agencies.
He expressed concern that the cholera outbreak is not easing in the federal constituency despite the efforts by the state government as the statistics have risen to over 10, 000 cases in the last four months with over 295 deaths recorded especially in Jigawa State.
