Kano State Ministry of Health has described as untrue a media report that says there was measles outbreak in the Municipality.
A release by the Director Public Health and Disease Control of the Ministry , Dr. Imam Wada Bello, described the item as baseless and unfounded which he explained that Friday not hold water.
Dr. Imam pointed out that before one could declare disease as outbreak, there were certain procedures and indexes that are being considered, including laboratory investigations and examinations as well as assessing its gravity and number of people contracted.
In the case of the Municipal, according to the Medical Practitioner, , none of the procedures were conducted to warrant the declaration of the outbreak, urging people to disregard the story as according to him it lacks empirical and clinical evidences to substantiate it.
The Director assured that the Ministry is vigilant on all public diseases causing havoc to the lives of the people by taking all necessary measures to contain the effect such diseases might bring about.
He further assured that the Ministry and its 44 LGAs Emergency Preparedness Response (EPR) were on alert to ensure quick response. to outbreaks in collboration with relevant stakeholders.
Dr. Imam noted that the Surveillance Outbreak Response and Management System (SORMAS), a national dashboard that showcased summary of Kano state measles report from January to March 2024, indicated that there was 697 “suspected cases” of the disease in 23 LGAs in which Municipal has the highest number of 647, adding that five samples were taken for laboratory test and fortunately none was positive.
The Director reasoned that the Municipal became the LGA with high number of “suspected cases” because of the presence of Hasiya Bayero Paediatric Hospital which serves as centralized facility for diagnosing and managing paediatrics cases including measles statewide not only within the municipality, stressing that it was that centralization that made the facility to lead in high reporting incidence of cases in the LG compared to others.
When contacted, the Municipal Primary Healthcare Coordinator, Aliyu Jinjirri Kiru, whom the report was attributed to denied making the announcement on the mattet.
He emphasized that it was the report of their emergency preparedness response meeting that the information unit of the LGA wrongly perceived as outbreak of the deadly disease in the locality.
He said the story was that they received “suspected measles and diphtheria cases” from the health facilities within the LGA including secondary facility with intent of alerting the stakeholders to support the PHC department in order to curtail the situation in case it was confirmed.
He seized the chance to enjoin journalists on the need to authenticate the source of their item before making it public so as to boost their image that of their outlets and above all forestall anything that may cause misunderstanding among the generality particularly at this period that everyone is at each throat.
