12th October, 2017
The Oyo State House of Assembly on Thursday summoned the Commissioner for Health, Mr Azeez Adeduntan, over the recent outbreak of monkey pox in some parts of the country.
The resolution was taken as the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), declared that 31 suspected cases of monkey pox had so far been reported in seven states excluding Oyo.
The unanimous decision was to ascertain the level of preparedness of the state against an outbreak of the disease.
The House also resolved to call on relevant agencies to sensitise the public especially those in the rural areas to the menace of the disease.
Earlier, Mr Solomon Akande, (LP-Ogbomoso South) raised the need to prevent an outbreak of the viral disease within the state as a matter of urgent public importance at the plenary session.
“Healthy citizens are the greatest asset to a country’s economic growth and the outbreak of monkey pox in some states constitutes a public health burden.
“The House notes the impact of the recent outbreak of deadly diseases like Lassa fever which claimed a number of lives.
“We need to take proactive measures against monkey pox disease which has been confirmed in some South-West states during the week,’’ he said.
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The Minority Leader, Mr Joshua Olagunju, said that sensitisation exercise should be taken to schools in the rural communities.
“When the students are educated on preventive measures to be taken and what symptoms to look out for, the information will easily spread to their parents,’’ he said.
The Speaker, Mr Michael Adeyemo (APC- Ibarapa East), urged the residents of the state to immediately report any suspicious symptoms within the community.
According to him good hygiene habit is the best way to fight monkey pox virus.
He called on the state government to expand its surveillance and awareness campaign programmes against monkey pox to rural areas of the state.