Lassa Fever: Joint Council Wants More Sensitisation Campaigns

As the nation continues
to record more deaths as a result of the spreading of the Lassa Fever infection, the leadership of the state Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNL), has called for more sensitization programmes by the relevant authorities within the state.
Speaking to The Tide in Port Harcourt, Wednesday, the state chairman of the union, Comrade Emecheta Chukwu, said such sensitization programmes by the Ministry of Health officials to the Local Government Areas in the state would create the needed awareness about the cause and effect of the disease on the people.
Chukwu said health officials need to carry out fumigation programme in major market in the state as being done in other places especially in Lagos State.
He said the union has directed its relevant officiate unions to sensitise their members to keep clean environment and avoid any contaminated items that might result in the disease Lassa fever affecting them.
The JPSNC boss said the union identified with the steps so far taken by the state government  through the Honourable Commissioner for Health to curb the spread of the Lassa fever in the state.
He tasked the health officials to redouble their efforts to reach all nooks and crannies of the state to sensitise the people of the state, stressing that reports at the disposal of the union indicated that only few local government councils out of the 23 local government councils areas in the state have been covered with the sensitisation programme by the health officials.
He advised the health officials to also visit the various markets and communities without limiting their awareness programme to Local Government Council headquarters as presently being done.
He reiterated the determination of the union to jointly organise stakeholders meeting in the state to seriously create awareness about disease.
Chukwu urged workers in the state to remains vigilante and supportive of government’s efforts for better healthy living.
Meanwhile, the state government has recently said over 400 persons were being monitored in the state effort to contain the Lassa fever out break which has claimed three lives in the state.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Theophilus Odagme, disclosed this while briefing journalists at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMSH) recently.
Odagme said the state has embarked on an intensive sensitisation on the Lassa fever outbreak in the state, stressing that a lot of activities from public enlightenment to training of health personnel at all levels were stepped up.
He said on the current update on Lassa fever in the state presently, there is no new contact, no new suspect or confirmed case after the death of the medical doctor that passed on at the BMSH after contracting the disease.