As the government at various levels in the country are trying to control and prevent the cholera outbreak, I would like to commend the World Health Organisation (WHO), Kano office, and the Kano State Ministry of Health for stepping forward to prepare the state against the disease by organising an orientation training for officers on emergency preparedness and response and the introduction of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control App, GRFCC.
The orientation covers training of state teams, primary healthcare coordinators, LGA health Eeducators, disease surveillance and notification officers, DSNOs, clinicians and surveillance focal persons.
As much as the training covers important stakeholders as far as emergency preparedness is concerned, there is a lacuna in not including environmental health officers. There are ward environmental health officers across the 484 wards of the state that have access to each premises and know the various water supply sources of each community and can sensitise and engage the communities on preventive measures against cholera and other diseases. More so, they have knowledge of wells’ disinfection which will greatly help secure the safety of both sanitary and unsanitary wells.
Sani Garba Mohammed, Karaye LGA, Kano State. [email protected]