Consequent upon the growing concern about the recent increase in the incidence of gastroenteritis in Lagos State, the government has activated an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) to coordinate response against the outbreak of the disease as well as other infectious ailments.

According to the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi who inaugurated the centre today, “The EOC is a command and control centre headquartered in the Ministry of Health that will coordinate and fine-tune logistics and resources in response to the increasing number of diarrhoea and vomiting recorded in the past weeks in five local government areas of Lagos State”.

He noted that EOC which is made up of representatives from the Ministry of Health, Primary Health Care Board, Health Service Commission, Lagos Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA), World Health Organisation and Central Public Health Laboratory, amongst others, will be meeting on a daily basis, collating results, reviewing plans and interventions as well as suggesting and coordinating the implementation of measures to effectively curtail the spread of the disease and manage future occurrences promptly and effectively.

“The EOC is made up of sub-thematic areas of surveillance and laboratory, communication, health education and social mobilisation; case management and infection control as well as logistics and data management. We are going to have a complete narrative of what happened during these past weeks on lessons learnt and how we going to move forward”, the Commissioner said.

Abayomi asserted that the government has been proactive in its response and management of the excess cases of vomiting and diarrhoea since the report was made and investigation commenced.

He revealed that some samples collected in the course of the investigation and sent to the laboratory tested positive to a type of cholera, stressing that further investigation is ongoing to ascertain whether cholera is solely responsible for all identified cases or whether there are other pathogens involved in the cases recorded.

Abayomi added that disease surveillance officers at the State and local government levels are currently carrying out intensive surveillance to stop the spread of the disease, stressing that various strategies are being devised to forestall future occurrences.

While noting that Lagos is prone to seasonal infectious diseases like gastroenteritis because of its demography and low-line megacity nature, the Commissioner assured that the State government will not relent in ensuring that citizens remain safe and healthy, noting that the well-being of residents is paramount to the present administration.

https://lagosstate.gov.ng/blog/2019/11/06/gastroenteritis-lagos-activates-emergency-operation-centre/

Welcomed development