The Gombe State government shared that six people died from cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) out of 95 people they suspected had it in the state.
They noticed cases of the disease in Nafada and Funakaye Local Government Areas. The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, talked about this during a news conference in Gombe on Thursday.
He said they sent a medical team to Nafada after hearing about cases with symptoms like CSM.
Out of the 95 people they admitted to the hospital, they took samples from 29. Only two of these samples from Funakaye LGA tested positive for CSM. They treated and released 84 people, but six were still in the hospital.
Dahiru mentioned that although they had six deaths, they couldn’t call it an outbreak yet because it hadn’t reached the threshold for CSM. The threshold is 10 confirmed cases in a population of 100,000 in one week.
The state government, with partners like WHO, UNICEF, and NCDC, set up an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) for suspected CSM.
They also made sure it wasn’t Lassa fever. The EOC’s job is to control the spread of CSM in Funakaye.
The EOC sent the state and local government Rapid Response Team (RRT) to talk to traditional rulers in affected communities about how to tell people about CSM safety measures. They also plan to inform religious leaders so they can talk about CSM during worship.
“We will also sensitise religious leaders to CSM to enable them to make announcements during worship sessions.”.
The Health Ministry gave out drugs and other supplies for free to help manage suspected cases. They also collected samples to send to the NCDC laboratory in Abuja for testing.
