I have witnessed a situation where a patient approach a healthcare centre and the doctor is not there. Anything can happen so I advised them to take … - Cecilia Omaile Ojabo

This issue is not unique to Benue State. There is an Act that allows the marketing of traditional medicine. I’m not suggesting we shut down their businesses, but we will monitor and regulate their activities. Just like in conventional medicine, doctors are prohibited from advertising their practices due to ethical guidelines. We need to educate these producers that advertising is not permitted in health-related matters. It is the quality of their results that should attract patients, not self-promotion.

Simple measures like digging pit toilets will go a long way to control cholera. But you see them defecating in the bush and when rain fall, all the feases will be washed into their water source and they will still fetch it to cook and drink. So why won’t there be cholera. So if there is adequate provision of portable water in the state and simple health education to communities that some habits are injurious to their health, it will curb cholera.

In Benue, almost a whole community of Ikyor in Kwande local government Area of the state was rendered blind because of the Onchocerchiasis. The damage has been done before the Metizan drugs was made available. And for the healthy people in that community, the drugs were supplied to them.