At about 6:40 pm on 17 January 2023, Gift Sunday-James, (35
years) shouts for help as she approaches the Primary Health Centre (PHC)
located in Ovomum, Obabura Local Government Area (LGA), in Cross River State.
Her brother Emmanuel Sunday-James, conveyed in a taxi, had
been stooling and vomiting continuously and was now dehydrated and could not
move.
“As a farmer, my
usual practice was to drink water from the stream near my farm” says Mr
Emmanuel.
On that fateful day
Mr Emmanuel fell ill, he recalled drinking water from the stream.
“I was passing watery stool and vomiting for about four
hours after getting home. I felt like I was dying, and I am grateful for the
quick intervention I got at the health facility, he says.
At the clinic, Mr. Emmanuel was placed on Intravenous Fluid
(IVU) and subsequently on oral rehydration solution.
Furthermore, a Rapid
Diagnostic Test (RDT) was conducted on his stool sample and it tested positive
for cholera.
Mr. Emmanuel has since been discharged and now advises people to drink purified water
either by boiling or using water purifiers.
“I don’t want anybody to experience what I went through,” he
says.
Interrupting the outbreak transmission
Aside from Mr Emmanuel. many people have reported cases of
stooling and vomiting in other LGAs (Abi, Biase and Obabura, and Ikom,Etung). While some got better after being
hospitalized, some died from the disease particularly those who reported late for
treatment.
An epidemiological report from the State Ministry of Health shows
that 638 suspected cases and 17 deaths have been reported between December 2022
and February 2023 in the affected LGAs.
To stop further fatalities,
the state government, in collaboration with the World Health
Organization (WHO) and its partners, set up a Rapid Response Team (RRT)
comprising experts to coordinate the interruption of the disease,” says Dr
Janet Ekpeyong, the Cross River State Commissioner of Health.
“With support from partners, we increased the capacity of
existing cholera treatment centres (CTC) in the hotspot LGAs. The government is
committed to taking action to ensure residents of the state have access to safe
drinking water and sanitation services to reduce the incidences of cholera and
other waterborne infectious diseases.
Commending WHO for its prompt support, Dr Ekpeyong says “WHO
is a dependable lead partner providing technical guidance, coordination and also donated medical
commodities for the emergency cholera intervention in the state.
Part of WHO’s support to the state included the donation
of Rapid Diagnosis Test (RDT) cholera
kits, and Cary Blair medium for transporting stool samples for culture
testing for effective diagnosis of the
patients.
In addition, 2000 intravenous fluids, cannula and oral
rehydration salts and Infection Prevention Control (IPC) commodities were
donated.
“The donated medical commodities eased testing and case
management, says the WHO State Coordinator in Cross River State, Dr Yewande
Olatunde.
Dr Olatunde explains that WHO further supported the
replenishment of testing and treatment commodities at the 29 cholera treatment
units (CTU) in three hotspot LGAs.
“To enusure all cases receive prompt care at the facilities,
WHO conducted an extensive training for health professionals on treatment, and
increasing infection prevention and control (IPC) measures,” she adds.
Robust community engagement
Further working with community leaders and volunteers from
the affected communities, WHO partnered with the state to promote educational
risk messaging on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and conducted
decontamination of homes of active and recovered persons, health facilities
attending to cases and providing IPC materials to volunteering community
members.
The WHO-trained volunteers from the affected communities
conducted house-to-house (H2H) awareness campaigns to stop the spread of the
disease.
From December to January, 4811 households were covered, and
88 607 residents were educated about WASH and IPC control measures in the three
hotspot LGAs of the state.
Base on the integrated support and coordinated response,
there has been a decline in the number of cases reported since January. ( 69% decline between Epi-weeks 3 and 7,
2023).
Other partners involved in the response are Nigeria Centre
for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), UNICEF, Medicine San Frontier (MSF)
and Save the Children, who donated commodities to strengthen the Cholera
response.