Following the outbreak of cholera in the camps of displaced persons in Borno State, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), a medical humanitarian organisation, has scaled up activities to control the disease.
The MSF said it is working in with the state Ministry of Health and other organisations to curtail the spread of the disease which had already killed 23 persons.
Anna Cilliers, MSF’s Medical Coordinator, said in Maiduguri that the organisation had set up two Cholera Treatment Units (CTU), and an Oral Dehydration Point (ODP) in Maiduguri and Monguno local government areas.
Cilliers said that a 100-bed capacity treatment centre was set up at Dala area of Maiduguri and an ODP at Muna Garage Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp, while a 40-bed capacity centre was also set up at Monguno.
“About 312 patients have so far been admitted at the Dala centre and 194 persons discharged while 9 others died.
“About 135 health personnel were deployed for case management of the disease at the Dala centre.
“The organisation also set up an Oral Rehydration Point (ORP) at Muna camp. A team of Community Health Workers (CHW) are helping with disease monitoring and surveillance in the affected communities.”
Cilliers explained that majority of the cholera patients come from Muna Garage IDP camp, where some of the persons displaced by Boko Haram insurgency took refuge.
“I will say that MSF is planning to scale up not only in Maiduguri but also in Monguno because cholera is still present and I think we both have to scale up not only in case management but in activities.
“Continue to monitoring households for early case detection and also to provide prevention basic care and health promotion in a coordinated response in collaboration with Government of Borno State, state ministry of health and other Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and other United Nations (UN) agencies.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that MSF has been providing nutrition; primary and secondary healthcare interventions, medical aid and disease control services in IDP camps and war ravaged communities.
It is also providing and monitoring access to food, nutrition support, clean water and shelter across 11 locations in Borno State in the past three years.
UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Activities (OCHA) announced that about 23 persons died of cholera outbreak while over 500 other infected with the disease in the state.
(NAN)
