Fear In Anambra Over Ebola Disease Outbreak As Obiano Raises Red Alert

                                  

Anambra state government yesterday raised the alarm on the outbreak of Ebola disease and called on the citizens to be on red alert in case they notice its symptoms around them to alert the ministry of Health. 

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Lawrence Ikeakor who raised the alarm during a press briefing yesterday in his office at the Jerome Udoji state secretariat complex  Awka informed that the signs included headache, vomiting, fever, intense weakness.

He said other signs included sore throat, rashes all over the body, muscle pain, conjunctivitis, bleeding through the orifices, blood in the urine , bleeding gums and a host of others.

Ikeakor informed further that the disease is transmitted from monkeys, gorillas , bats and chimpanzees adding that Ebola disease can be prevented through proper hand-washing, isolation of victims, proper disposal of waste to mention a few pointing out that the disease has no vaccine yet. 

The commissioner who was represented by the director of primary health care and  disease control in the ministry of health Dr.Chukwudi Joseph Okoye said that members of the public should adopt preventive behaviour towards the disease as those who are in the habit of eating pepper soup , roasted bush meat like bats, monkeys and other rodents were prone to contracting Ebola disease adding that people should also avoid washing dead bodies of relatives to avoid contact with the disease . 

He revealed that Anambra state has performed creditably in routine immunization coverage stressing that the state has recorded 95 per cent in immunization services and that the state has not recorded cases of wild polio virus in the last 6 years even though some states across the federation still harboured the virus . 

The Anambra state Commissioner for Health said the second phase of the national immunization plus days would kick-off on Friday this week and the venue for the flag-off would be general hospital Umuleri in Anambra-east local government area.

The exercise was expected to end on Tuesday next week and that in the course of the exercise oral polio vaccines, pentavalent vaccines and a host of other vaccines would be administered on children between 0-59 months, tetanus toxoid vaccines for pregnant women and women of child bearing age. He stated that the vaccines would be administered free of charge and that the vaccines were not contraceptives.