by crossriverwatch admin
Determined to avoid being caught napping by the dreaded Ebola disease imported into Nigeria by the Late Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian, the Cross River Government has set up an Ebola Response Committee.
Inaugurating the Committee recently at the College of Health Technology, Calabar, the State Commissioner for Health, Professor Angela Oyo-Ita, disclosed that the Committee was part of the deliberate and proactive measure by the Government to prevent the epidemic from spreading into Cross River
The Commissioner for Health who, she is the Chairman of the Committee listed other persons and representatives from government establishments and other bodies to include Health professionals, Gate keepers such as the Commissioner of Information, Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Commissioner for Women Affairs, Heads of Hospitals, Chairman of Hoteliers Association and chairman of Cross River Traditional Rulers Council.
Others are representatives of the armed forces and the para-military organizations such as the Army , Air Force, the Navy, Immigration service, Customs, Ports Health, Federal Air port Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Department of Public Transportation (DOPT), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Forestry Commission and others.
She said that the state is determined to take every necessary measure to protect the people of the state and the image of the state which it has labored over the years to build from being destroyed as a result of Ebola brought into the country by the Late Patrick sawyer, while expressing happiness that the 21 days incubation period of the disease has elapsed and none of the secondary contacts had fallen ill.
Prof, Oyo-Ita explained that the Committee is saddled with the responsibilities of monitoring land, sea and air passengers coming into the state, check lodgers in hotels, including tracing those lodgers who had visited countries hit by the Ebola disease in the past three weeks.
The Committee is also to liaise with the NURTW, DOPT to monitor passengers within the state, carry out enlightenment /sensitization campaigns among communities in the state to dissuade them from continuous eating of their usual delicacies such as bats, bush meat, as well as to ensure basic universal precautionary measures in health facilities and how to improve sanitary conditions within their environments, among others.
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