The Kano State Ministry of Health has completely refuted the earlier announced outbreak of measles in the Kano Municipal local government area.
The Public Relations Unit of the ministry, the Director, Public Health and Disease Control, Dr Imam Wada Bello, in a statement, denied the outbreak of the disease in the area.
Recall that the Primary Health Care Coordinator of the area, Aliyu Jinjiri Kiru, had, during a meeting of the Emergency Preparedness Response Committee at the local government secretariat, confirmed an outbreak of measles in some parts of the local government area.
But Imam, while denying the report on Wednesday, explained that before a disease could be declared an outbreak, there were certain procedures and indexes to be considered, including laboratory investigations and examinations as well as assessing its gravity and number of people affected.
In the case of Kano Municipal LGA, according to him, none of the procedures were conducted to warrant the declaration of a measles outbreak, advising people to disregard the story because it lacks empirical and clinical evidence to substantiate it.
The director said, “The ministry was vigilant on all public diseases by taking all necessary measures to contain the effect of such diseases.”
He pointed out that the ministry and its 44 LGA’s Emergency Preparedness Response (EPR) were on the alert to timely respond to outbreaks in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders.
He said the Surveillance Outbreak Response and Management System (SORMAS), a national dashboard that showcased a summary of the Kano State measles report from January to March 2024, indicated that there were 697 suspected cases in 23 LGAs in which Kano Municipal has the highest number of 647, and five samples were taken for a laboratory test and none confirmed positive.
The director said that Kano Municipal became the LGA with a high number of suspected cases as the presence of Hasiya Bayero Paediatric Hospital served as centralized facility for diagnosing and managing paediatrics cases, including measles across the state, stressing that it was that centralization that made the facility lead in high reporting incidence of cases in the LG compared to others.
The Kano Municipal Primary Healthcare Coordinator, Aliyu Jinjiri Kiru, when contacted, denied ever making such a declaration, saying it was the report of the emergency preparedness response meeting that the information ua nit of the LGA wrongly perceived that there was an outbreak of measles in the locality.
Kiru said the agency reported that it received suspected measles and diphtheria cases from the health facilities within the LGA, including secondary facilities with the intent of alerting the stakeholders to support the PHC department to curtail the situation in case it was confirmed.
Kano Ministry of Health denies outbreak of measles in municipal council
