Cholera outbreak

Cholera outbreak: Bring back sanitation inspectors, lawmakers tell Ambode

By Aisabor Osaloboh, Damilola Olabiyis & Obinna Mbajunwa

THE Lagos State House of Assembly has called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to bring back health inspection officers in each of the 57 Local Government and Local Council Development Areas, LCDAs, to address the menace of cholera outbreak.

The House contended that the return of sanitary health officers and inspectors in the local councils will the state to tackle the problem of poor hygiene, which leads to cholera outbreak.

The legislators also called for a major stakeholders’ meeting on the recent cholera outbreak in Oshodi/Isolo Local Council Development Area, LCDA,where six people died and about 45 people were reportedly infected.

The stakeholders’ meeting, according to the lawmakers, will involve the ministries of Health, Environment, Information and Strategy, and Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, where all participants would be expected to map out ways to identify the root cause of the problem with a view to forestalling recurrence.

Key stakeholders from the Ministry of Agric and Rural Development as well as all Community

Development Associations (CDAs) are also expected to be part of the meeting.

The Chairman, House Committee on Health, Mr. Olusegun Olulade, in a motion under ‘Matter of Public Urgency’, yesterday drew the attention of other lawmakers to the unfortunate incident, which was said to have occurred when some residents of the community consumed some local salad popularly known as “Abacha,” believed to have been contaminated.

To avert recurrence, he said the state government should deploy health inspection officers to the councils, who would be going from one food seller to another with a view to fishing out potentially contaminated food.

“The outbreak of the disease with the subsequent loss of six lives is regrettable. Its cause has been attributed to the consumption of contaminated local salad by some residents. But in order to forestall a recurrence there is need for a stakeholders’ meeting involving relevant ministries and agencies to be held as soon as possible”, he said.