By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
In an effort to create more awareness on prevention of epidemic prone diseases, the Yobe State Government in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) have engaged 30 Community Health Champions that would reach out to 27,000 households against outbreak of diseases.
The WHO State Coordinator, Doctor Nuhu Barau-Ningi revealed that the aim is to increase awareness to individuals living in hot spot locations and protect them from outbreak of diseases such as meningitis, measles, cholera among other.
“The House-to-House sensitization is supporting the pillars of the emergency response. By conducting house-to-house and other strategies of risk communication intervention, the community will be more empowered to take informed decisions to protect themselves and to also break community transmission”
“When they go house-to-house it brings awareness on the symptoms and signs of those diseases, for example meningitis, Cholera. The symptoms, when spotted, will immediately be reported to health facility.” he said
The intervention which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the German Government is aimed at improving risk communication intervention in the state especially in some selected communities in Nangere, Machina among other local government areas.
The Director Public Health in the State, Dr. Hauwa Larai Goni appreciates WHO for its continual support. She says, WHO is doing an incredible job, especially on capacity building of health workers and outbreak response in the state.
The WHO explained, each of the 30 Health Champions is expected to cover 30 households each day for a period of 60 days in the prone communities during the exercise.
The residents are optimistic that, the state having reportedly recorded 10 mortality from meningitis in April, 2023, the move by the WHO would put more communities on alert in detecting symptoms of any disease outbreak.
