By Bolu Ajijo, Akure
Inadequate publicity , awareness and funding, dirty and filthy environment and prevalent of old habit in food processing have been identified as the major causative factors for the spread of lassa fever in Nigeria.
This was the consensus of participants at the One day Sensitization meeting with Farmers and Stakeholders on Lassa Fever by the Department of Veterinary Disease and Pest Control of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture at Fadama Hall in Akure.
Declaring the event opened, Ondo State Commissioner for Agriculture, Otunba Adegboyega Adefarati, who commended the efforts of stakeholders to nib the scourge in the bud called for more actions to eradicate the it because of its mortality Rate.
To underscored the seriousness the state government placed on taming the spread of the epidemic Otunba Adefarati told the gathering that it has instituted an Emergency Preparedness and Response Committee under the chairmanship of the Commissioner for Health and released fund to the Ministry to ensure that Lassa Fever is kicked out of the state
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According to him, apart from lending support to the Federal Medical Centre , Owo to ensure that suspected and confirmed cases are well managed, the Veterinary Services Department of Ondo state Ministry of Agriculture has been mandated to commence Publicity and sensitization on the control of rats as part of measures to tame the spread of lassa fever in the state.
According to Commissioner for Agriculture these actions are aimed at protecting none infested areas from rats proliferation in order to eradicate incidence and spread of lassa and other rat- borne diseases in the state.
He thanked the organzers for choosing the state as the venue for the meeting which was not a coincidence as it ranked next to Edo as the most affected state in Nigeria.
It is instructive to note that following the ravaging of Lassa Fever in the Country recently, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control NCDC on 22nd, January 2019, declared the outbreak an Emergency in the country..
To tame the scourge, the Federal Government set up a multi- partners and multi a sectoral Emergency Operations Centres EOC to coordinate the response at all levels.
Pursuant to the mandate of the EOC under the watch of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture the meeting was convoked to sensitized critical stakeholders on the causes of the deadly disease and must be done to avoid it.
The event which was well attended by farmers and other stakeholders across the state witnessed presentation of good will messages from critical sectors.
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