*Minister wants state of emergency declared on health sector
By; JULIANA KATUNG, Kaduna
Governors of North West states of Zamfara and Sokoto, mostly affected by the meningitis outbreak have vowed to tackle the disease the way they fought the polio virus to a standstill.
This was expressed on Tuesday in Kaduna after an emergency meeting held at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim Government House, Kaduna which also attracted governor of Kebbi State, deputy governor of Kogi State, host, Governor Nasir el-Rufai and several traditional rulers from the north in attendance.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting, Governors of Zamfara and Sokoto states, Abdulazeez Yari and Aminu Waziri Tambuwal respectively assured that the meeting extensively dealt with the issue and ways were suggested on how to end the spread.
The Governor of Zamfara State Alhaji Alhaji Abdul’azir Abdulazeez Yari said in the bid to fight the meningitis outbreak in Zamfara State which has recorded the highest rate of cases, a committee was set and has been able to reduce cases to its barest minimum, with no new case reported for now.
He said a bigger has been set up comprising of some governors, traditional rulers, some doctors as well as the Minister of Health.
He explained that they would be charged with the responsibility of presenting the outcome of the meeting to President Mohammadu Buhari.
The Governor who is also the chairman Nigeria Governors Forum added that in the area of conductive living environment in the North, the governors will meet to see how they can come up with a new plan to ensure people in the north live in good conditions.
Alhaji Yari who spoke on behalf of the state governors, commended the Minister of Health for quick response by providing vaccines and ways that reduced impact of the situation in the five affected states.
In his remarks at the meeting, Minister of Health, Professor I.F Adewole that there was the need to declare state of emergency in healthcare delivery system in Nigeria.
He said that the level of professionalism in healthcare was zero in the North West.
According to him, if there is a strong healthcare system as well surveillance the delay of alert of outbreak of prevention diseases will stop thereby saving lives from dying from such cases.
He said that the vaccine is very expensive and scarce and Nigeria as a nation depends mostly on the donation from international organizations and others for vaccine hence the need for more fund to be invest on routine immunization to stop emergency responses during the outbreak.
Professor Adewole added that Nigeria doesn’t need delays in alerting of any diseases that can be prevented.
He stressed the need for both state and local government to support healthcare sector by providing good facilities and employed professional staff that can easily recognize the symptom of such diseases before it become epidemic.
Also speaking, the Executive Director Primary Health care Dr. Faisal Shuaibu said that Nigeria has a weak health system, whereby the primary healthcare centers are not strong enough to alert the health workers on the outbreak of epidemic.
According to him, 100 pregnant women and 2,200 children die almost on daily basis from related cases of meningitis because Nigeria does not have a strong health care system.
He added that before 2016, vaccine forecast for 634,394 doses of meningitis A+C were made for outbreak response in 2017 but was not purchase because the budget was not pass into law.
According to him, there is mass vaccination going on in 14 local government areas of Zamfara State which recorded the highest case of meningitis and the centre has received 500,000 vaccines.
According to him, the ministry was working hard with all relevant stakeholders to ensure charging fees for vaccine by some centers were stopped and the vaccines are available to prevent the repeat of what happened.
Responding, the chairman of Northern Traditional Rulers, Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar (III) said the traditional ruler in their own part will intensify efforts in educating their citizens on meningitis preventing measures in order to ensure that the outbreak does not repeat itself in the region.
The Sultan who was represented by the Emir of Zazau, Alhaji Shehu Idris, assured their committed to support government’s programmes that will ensure complete elimination of the outbreak of meningitis and other related diseases in the north.
He however, called on the federal, states, and local government areas to from now, budget enough money to the health sector to prevent meningitis and related diseases.
