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Nigerian govt advises citizens on ways to avoid Lassa Fever

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Nigerian govt advises citizens on ways to avoid Lassa Fever

The Federal Ministry of Water Resources has intensified efforts to promote handwashing culture to prevent the spread of Lassa fever outbreak in the country.

This was made known by Mr Emmanuel Awe, the Director, Water Quality Control and Sanitation in the ministry while speaking with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

Awe said that with the recent outbreak of Lassa fever in parts of the country, the ministry could not fold its hands to watch.

According to him, advocacy had started among its partners to see how the promotion of handwashing culture with soap, water or ash in public places will be achieved.

He said that promoting handwashing at critical times was key to fighting the spread of diseases, especially with the recent threat in the country.

“We are going to start an awareness campaign on promoting handwashing with soap or ash and water, we all know our hands have a way of passing germs into our body.

“The ministry will see how the gains recorded during the last Ebola outbreak will be harnessed, how we emphasised handwashing culture at all times.”

Also reacting to the Lassa fever outbreak, Mr Benson Attah, the National Coordinator, Society for Water and Sanitation said that as the dry season starts, there was the possibility of having rampant cases of diseases such as Lassa fever.

“As the weather is changing, so are those things that affect our health, we also see the need for continuous sensitisation because it is not just Lassa fever after some time now, we will hear of a cholera outbreak, we are now hearing about coronavirus in Asia.

“We are hoping that it will not get into the country, hence the need to keep up with the handwashing culture, there are also some kinds of behavioural practices that people, especially at the grassroots should do.

Read also: Everything you need to know about Lassa Fever

“Citizens should focus on behavioural change, remember that time when we had Ebola outbreak, everyone was ready to wash their hands and do all sorts just to stay clean, immediately we heard that Ebola was defeated, we all went back to our normal lives’’.

Attah said that the role of behaviour change could not be overemphasised as it relates to food and water, adding that with adequate knowledge and attitudinal changes, the disease spread would be curtailed.

He said the organisation had begun processes to partner with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to promote awareness creation and sensitisation in parts of the country, adding that this would go a long way to promote hygiene and halt the spread of diseases.

Attah said that the organisation was part of the Emergency Operation Centre which met regularly to advocate for interventions in emergency situations, saying more stakeholders partnerships was needed, especially in rural areas.

“We have started the discussion in the area of providing health education and awareness creation in communities, this has helped us to see that being proactive will help us to minimise the impact of such outbreak, reduce cost and unnecessary deaths.”

The coordinator said key organisation in charge of health education should do more on health promotion, and not wait for an outbreak of diseases before doing last-minute activities.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as of January 24, no fewer than 195 confirmed cases of Lassa fever and 29 deaths have been reported in 11 states.

Lassa fever is largely transmitted through contact with items or surfaces contaminated with urine, faeces, saliva or blood of infected rats.

It can also be transmitted from person-to-person through contact with blood, urine, faeces and other body fluids of an infected person.

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