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- 3 million Benue residents risk river blindness –FG
3 million Benue residents risk river blindness –FG
- By Site Admin
- Published 08/21/2008
- Newsday Weekly
- Unrated
By Kajo Martins, Makurdi
About three million residents of Benue State may contract river blindness if the state government failed to put in place preventive measures urgently.
The national director of river blindness control programme in the federal ministry of health, Mrs. Patricia Pearce raised the alarm in Makurdi, the state capital while exchanging views with the state deputy governor, Chief Steven Lawani.
The national director said the team was in Makurdi to inform the state government about the prevalence of the disease in the state saying the control programme had already started treating individual infected by the disease in Benue since the year 1998.
She pointed out that the disease when contracted could decrease life expectancy by 13 years for about 40 percent of adults in the endemic areas.
Mrs. Pearce therefore, called on the state government to intervene by ensuring the distribution of drugs to the rural areas, pointing out that "very soon the donor agencies would withdraw their services to the state", hence the need for Benue State government to release the sum of N32m to be expended in combating the disease for the period of four years.
Reacting, the deputy governor, Chief Steven Lawani assured of government’s commitment to the eradication of river blindness from the state in collaboration with the national programme on river blindness of the federal government.
The deputy governor now expressed worry over the high rate of the disease in the state said this year’s budget has taken care of the health sector to stamp out most of the diseases including river blindness. It would be recalled that about 12 people died of cholera outbreak recently in Makurdi, Guma and Otukpo local government areas owing to poor sanitation and lack of portable water as confirmed by the state commissioner for health, Dr. Jailus Erube.
Investigation revealed that river blindness was most prevalent in Ushogo, Kwande, Oju as well as part of Agatu local government areas to poor sanitation and lack of portable water as well as heavy presence of Tsetse flies.
