Gombe Records 11 Cases Of Meningitisis

Gombe State has so far recorded two confirmed and nine suspected cases of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM), Dr Ishaya Kennedy, the State Commissioner for Health, has said.

Kennedy said in Gombe on Friday that the two patients were currently receiving treatment, while the remaining nine were still undergoing investigation.

He said that those infected did not receive the CSM vaccine during an exercise conducted in December 2011.

The commissioner said the vaccines were still available and advised the people to get themselves immunized for protection and to ensure proper ventilation in their homes.

The vaccination against CSM, conducted in the state three months ago, targeted 1,928,711 population of the vulnerable group of people below the age of 29.

Of this figure, 1, 824,765 were successfully immunized, representing 95 per cent coverage of the state.

Meanwhile, Kennedy had said that the state did not record any fresh case of wild polio in the past two years.

He told the Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar, when he paid him a courtsy visit, that this feat was attained because of the commitment of traditional rulers in the state.

Kennedy said that royal fathers had not relented in sensitizing their subjects on the importance of vaccinating their children against the wild polio virus.

He, however, lamented that most of those rejecting the vaccine were not Gombe indigenes but settlers, and therefore called on the Emir to intervene by sensitizing them.

In his remarks, the Emir promised that traditional rulers in the state had been doing their best and would not relent until Gombe became a polio virus free state.

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