… Wants Government to Establish Health Board
BY ABUCHI IFESINACHI, AWKA
Anambra State Chapter of the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association has raised a public outcry on the non-existence of a facility in the state to control as well as contain the spread of the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease.
The association raised the alarm through the state chairman Dr.Uchenabu Damian Onyeka who bemoaned the fact that there is no place in Anambra state where a disease control facility exist and that the services of veterinary medical practitioners are not recognized judging from the deplorable conditions of some veterinary facilities in the state .
Dr Uchenabu .noted that the control of Ebola disease should have been the exclusive preserve of veterinarians in the state in accordance with the public health function of the profession but he decried the fact that the state ministry of health had hijacked the aforesaid function leading to the non-recognition of the state ministry of agriculture where he said had the solution to the control and containment of the Ebola virus.
He said that the laws guiding the prevention of disease from animal to man are not being implemented in the state even though such laws have been enacted many years ago. Dr.Uchenabu therefore stressed the need for the Anambra state government to establish a health board to advice on modalities for disease prevention and control.
He was however of the opinion that asking people not to eat bush meat was uncomplimentary as he believed that it was not the duty of the state ministry of health to dissuade people from eating bush meats .According to him there is no Animal Diagnostic Laboratory and functional veterinary hospital in the state and that animal disease surveillance was nothing to write home about in Anambra state.
Dr.Uchenabu said Ebola issue was approached from the wrong angle in the state as the ministry of health created more panic rather than solution to the problem. Although he concurred that building quarantine centres and isolation places were in order but he described such measures as short-time stressing that short and long-term measures would have been more appropriate to effectively address the situation.
He also disclosed that the veterinary department of the state ministry of agriculture was in a better position to champion the cause on Ebola control through its veterinary public education so that people would not allow their domestic animals not to stray into the bush to avoid contact with infected animals adding that washing of hands with soap and water as advocated by the federal ministry of health was not enough public health measure to effectively control the spread of Ebola.
The state chairman of the NVMA called for synergy between veterinarians and the state government to combat animal related diseases like the Ebola virus threatening public health stressing that prevention is better than cure.
