A strange disease has been reported in Bara village of Kirfi local government area in Bauchi state and affected 15 people by causing their legs to swell.
The chairman of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BASPHCDA), Dr Rilwanu Mohammed made this known while briefing newsmen on the 2021 World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day celebration held on Monday.
According to him, “late Sunday evening, we got report that people’s legs are swelling up in Bara village, report have is that so far, 10 people have been affected, Monday morning we got another report of 5 new cases. I have directed the Disease Control department of the Agency to mobilize to the village to carry out investigation.
“We are suspecting onchocerciasis or lymphatic filariasis considering that the LGA is one of the LGAs that have the cases of those tropical diseases. As soon as we get the results of the investigation, we will take prompt action to curb it”.
On the NTDs, Mohammed said that the world over, mostly in tropical communities with poor sanitation and lack of potable water, over 1 billion people are suffering from the NTDs while in Bauchi state, the number is over 1 million.
He said that with good sanitation and proper hygiene, the diseases can be checked.
He pointed out that as of now, Bauchi State has onchocerciasis in 12 LGAs; Lymphatic filariasis in 11 LGAs; Shistosomiasis in 16 LGAs, Trachoma in 2 LGAs while Guinea worm has already been eradicated in Nigeria as a whole.
Rilwanu Mohammed added that for the morbidity management and prevention, the state is working with UNICEF and a local NGO, Mission To Save the Helpless (MITOSATH).
For the 2020 treatment cycle, he said that the state was able to collect and distribute 9 million tables of ivermecin; 1.9m tablets of Albedazole; 1.7m tablets of Praziquantel; 18 motorcycles for NTDs endemic LGAs; trained 500 health workers on NTD medicines supply chain management and 500 community volunteers on hygiene promotion on collaboration with RUWASSA.
“Generally, the state is making progress on elimination of this preventive chemotherapy NTDs as Oncho is about to be eliminated in the state 3 epidemiological surveys have equally been carried out, 2 were successful and we are waiting for the results of the third. Transmission Assessment Survey for Trachoma was carried out in Shira and Tafawa Balewa LGAs and were successful”, the Executive Chairman said.
Rilwanu Mohammed then enjoined people to imbibe the culture of healthy living, keep their environment clean always in order to minimize the risk of getting infected just as he encouraged them to always report any strange disease to the agency for prompt action.
