Senate urges Ministry of Health to investigate unidentified ailment in Benue

The upper chamber of the National Assembly also urged the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to promptly put up surveillance to contain the disease and see to the treatment of victims, while protecting others from further contracting it.

The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Sen. Abba Moro (PDP-Benue) during plenary on Wednesday.

The motion is tagged: ‘Urgent need to deal with the outbreak of a strange ailment said to be Yellow Fever ravaging Okpeilo-Otukpa and Itabano-Owukpa communities in Ogbadibo Local Government Area of Benue’.

Moving the motion, Moro said that the ailment had not yet been effectively diagnosed by health authorities.

He, however, said that the Benue State Ministry of Health and Human Services had been able to intervene to some extent, having collected samples and sent same to National Reference Laboratory.

The lawmaker said this was to establish the kind of organism that was causing the ailment.

He said that the death toll was increasing, adding that the disease was spreading to other communities.

The resolutions were unanimously adopted by the lawmakers after a voice vote pronounced by the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Benue state government had said no fewer than 17 lives were lost in the communities in November.

Some of the symptoms of the illness include fever, abdominal pain, and general body weakness, while some stool and vomit with traces of blood.