Few months after the outbreak of yellow fever in two local government areas of Bauchi state which has claimed no fewer than 22 lives, the outbreak has now spread to 12 out of the 20 LGAs in the state with a reported death of one more person.
The confirmation of the spread was made by the Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (BSPHCDA) which declared the death of one person in Ningi local government area.
Executive Secretary of Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Rilwan Muhammed, who gave the update of the disease in a chat with newsmen, said that the outbreak started in September last year, “Now we have some suspected cases from 12 LGAs. We have taken samples from 224 persons and 29 were confirmed positive yellow fever in Bauchi state.”
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Rilwanu Muhammed further revealed that the major challenge hindering the control of the spread of the disease is the delay in getting the laboratory investigation results to confirm the disease.
He added that “we have taken the samples to Dakar in Senegal for confirmation which takes between three to five weeks. The recent confirmed case in Ningi took up to five weeks before the result arrived and the person died before the result came out”.
The Executive Chairman lamented the security challenge in controlling the disease in Bauchi, saying, ” One of the challenges in controlling the disease is the serious security problems. In one of the areas in Alkaleri LGA where there are confirmed cases, officials from the Ministry that went to vaccinate the locals were kidnapped and it took a lot of time and security intervention before they were released. ”
He added that “In the recent outbreak in Ningi and Toro LGAs especially the Burra and Lamai axis, we have to involve a lot of security personnel before we carried out the investigation of the suspected cases in the areas. One of the problems confronting the control of the disease is security challenges.”
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