The Oyo state government on Thursday confirmed two suspected cases of cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) in Ojoo, Akinyele local government area of the state.
The Director of Public Health, Oyo State Ministry of Health, Dr Oyewole Lawal, confirmed the news in Ibadan.
Lawal said the State Surveillance Committee reported two patients in the Hausa Community of Ojoo area of Ibadan, who manifested some symptoms of CSM.
He disclosed that the two suspects arrived Ibadan from the Northern part of the country and they manifested some symptoms of CSM.
Lawal further said the ministry has beefed-up tracking and increased surveillance efforts in all primary health care centres at the local government levels, secondary healthcare level and all the private hospitals around Ojoo.
He said: “As soon as we get the alert from the state office, we will immediately alert the Disease Notification and Surveillance officers in the 33 local government areas of the state.
“I can say that Oyo State is fully equipped and ready to prevent the scourge of any outbreak of meningitis in the state.”
Lawal explained that there was a collaboration between the state Ministry of Health, Disease Control Unit, all the 33 local government health offices and the Federal Ministry of Health.
According to him, the type of meningitis recorded in Oyo in 2014 is different from this year’s.
He also noted that the state government has requested for vaccines from the Federal Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
