Kwara House of Assembly tasks executive to intensify efforts against Diphtheria

The Kwara House of Assembly has urged the State Government to intensify efforts to prevent the outbreak of Diphtheria in the state.

This followed a motion on Matters of General Public Importance raised by the House Leader, Mr Magaji Oba-Abdulkadir (APC/Ilorin Central), titled “Need for the State Government to ensure Surveillance against the outbreak of Diphtheria in the state,” at Tuesday’s plenary.

Oba-Abdulkadir described diphtheria as a serious infection in the nose and throats, and called for adequate vaccination to insulate the citizens against the disease.

He said though there was no reported case yet in Kwara, it was imperative for the government to be proactive because of its presence in neighbouring states.

Other lawmakers in their contributions alerted government to work towards prevention of the disease as prevention is cheaper than cure.

They said it behoves on all stakeholders involved to work together to nip the outbreak of the disease in the bud, which would be much cheaper than treating it.

The Chairman, House Committee on Health and Environment, Mr Razaq Owolabi (APC/Share/Oke-Ode) said the government should be proactive through community sensitisation which should be done in the different languages of the communities.

Reading the resolutions, thebSpeaker, Mr Yakubu Salihu, urged the state government to improve surveillance against the disease and tasked the State Ministry of Health to work out modality to fight the outbreak.

Salihu alerted thenstate Ministry of Communications to embark on sensitisation to educate citizens on the need to be cautious and guard against the outbreak of diphtheria.

He said the sensitisation should be done in the print, electronic and social media in local languages and parents should make their children available for vaccination against diphtheria.