Earlier this week, News Veo reported that the house of rep member Aboullahi El-Rasheed representing Dukku/Nafada Federal Constituency raised a motion for the federal government to make an urgent investigation to identify and stop the spread of a yet to be identified killer disease plaguing the Nafada Federal constituency of the state.
However, in a recent development, the Gombe state government has made it known that the killer disease has been identified as the to be Cerebrospinal Meningitis. This discovery was made through the results obtained from the samples gathered from the 6 fatality cases in the Nafada and Funakaye Local Government areas in Gombe State( five in Nafada, one in Funakaye)
Speaking about the situation, the state commissioner for health, Dr Habu Dahiru made it known that out of the 95 cases that were identified, 84 cases had been treated and discharged.
He said, “Positive cases from Funakaye are two, and 20 are negative. Results are being awaited for seven.
“We have disease notification officers, who send reports. We received a rumour that people died in the hundreds and this triggered our investigation. We went round to trace them but didn’t see the graves.
“When someone staying in Abuja gives figures of deaths in a state, you should ask him where he got his data. Formally, we received cases with symptoms suggestive of cerebrospinal meningitis in the Nafada LGA on February 18, and immediately swung into action
“I can’t activate an Integrated Management System now because we have not reached the threshold for cerebrospinal meningitis outbreak, which is 10 confirmed cases in a population of 100,000 people in 1 week.
“We are now at Alert Threshold in Nafada and Funakaye LGAS. I have since day one activated an Emergency Operation Centre, comprising of WHO, UNICEF, and NCDC for suspected CSM, and to also rule out Lassa fever.