Gov’s wife calls for sanitation to prevent yellow fever outbreak

yellow-fever

Yellow fever spread by mosquitoes

Yellow fever spread by mosquitoes in Bauchi

The wife of the Governor of Gombe State, Hajiya Asma’u Yahaya has urged residents to keep their environment clean to prevent the outbreak of yellow fever in the state.

Yahaya made the call in Gombe on Tuesday during the inauguration of a two-day medical outreach for women and children in the state.

The medical outreach is organised by Jewel Care Foundation in collaboration with Fidelity Bank.

She said the call was necessitated by the recent outbreak of the disease in neighbouring Bauchi state which according to her has already claimed the lives of eight persons.

According to her, the disease can kill its victim within 10 days if symptoms become severe, hence the need for residents to be proactive to issues of environmental hygiene as a way of preventing the disease.

She said that yellow fever was not different from malaria as the symptoms included high fever, headache, body pain, discolouration of the eyes and dark urine.

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“Yellow fever is caused by mosquitoes. I am urging residents to sanitise their environment to help prevent an outbreak,” she said.

While appealing to residents to report cases of fever to health facilities immediately for examination and treatment, Yahaya said “do not wait until you start bleeding or the eyes become yellow, yellow fever is a vaccine-preventable disease.”

She appealed to residents to take advantage of the outreach in the interest of their health, stressing that the medical outreach was intended to provide quality and broad medical care to women and children in the state.

“The outreach covers different medical needs like cervical and breast cancer screening, cryotherapy treatment, free malaria test, blood pressure test, diabetes screening, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) test and counselling.

“It also covers mass de-worming, as well as the provision of free eyeglasses among others.’’

While appreciating Fidelity Bank for the efforts at improving health of residents of the state, Yahaya commended the administration of Gov. Inuwa Yahaya for prioritising the health sector in efforts toward improving the well-being of indigenes of the state.

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