Enugu govt. sets up mechanism to detect yellow fever threat — Official

The Enugu State Government says it has set up a mechanism that would help detect the eruption of yellow fever.

The Enugu State Chief Disease Surveillance Officer, Dr Okechukwu Ossai, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Thursday.

NAN reports that international health experts recently warned that yellow fever could be the next global health emergency following the outbreak of the disease in Angola and its spread to Uganda and Congo.

Ossai said that the mechanism would also provide treatment for victims of the disease in the event of an outbreak.

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“We have sensitised our disease surveillance administrator officers to intensify surveillance activities within their domain.

“We have also asked them to do refresher training on how to identify or case-definition for yellow fever because of the threat and other viral (disease); because it is a viral hemorrhagic disease just like Lassa fever.

“We have told them to do a rehearsal on the training on case definition, and reporting channel on these focal persons in all the health facilities in Enugu State.

“We have already made arrangement to sensitize the large public through the media on how to prevent, how to contain and how to manage yellow fever in case it breaks out in (any community).

“We have also pre-positioned some of our equipment for protecting people, who are our first responders (to disease outbreaks), people, who go out in case of outbreak to ensure that they are protected.’’

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He urged residents of the state to keep their surroundings clean as the yellow fever virus could be transmitted by the same daytime mosquito specie carrying the Zika virus.

He stated that the ministry recently restocked its Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in an effort towards safeguarding the lives of health workers in the ministry during an emergency.

NAN reports that yellow fever is hard to spot early on and spreads quickly in towns and cities.

It is transmitted by the same daytime Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the Zika virus.