By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON
Yobe State Government has commended the World Health Organisation (WHO) for donating assorted emergency malnourished drugs for distribution across its health facilities.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Abdullahi Jawa who received the drugs at the State University Teaching Hospital Damaturu, revealed that the items would support the government’s drive towards providing free medical healthcare especially for children under the age of five years.
“In Yobe we have a population of over four million people and looking at the scarcity of resources, the government cannot cater for most of the needs of its people for we have numerous challenges. With this support, every resident that comes to our facilities would benefit from it at free cost. We really commend the WHO and this gesture cannot be forgotten” he said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Northeast Emergency Manager, Dr Beatrice Muraguri, and Yobe State Coordinator, Dr Nuhu Barau-Ningi who handed over the essential drugs says they were acquired with the funding support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the government of Germany and are meant to treat severe acute malnourished children in the state including those living in the hard-to-reach areas.
“The WHO is looking into all issues of emergency, including malnutrition, and WHO comes in when we have severe acute malnourished children admitted in the treatment centers. We come in terms of stabilization centres, in terms of case management and part of the case management is to ensure we have essential drugs available.”
“We are supporting not just as the WHO, but also as the health cluster lead agency. The drugs would not be used by the state alone but other partners who are part of the health cluster. These medical consumables are 14 kits in number and each of the kits is made up of about 14 cartons” they said.
WHO further explained, each kit is expected to treat at least 100 children including the vulnerable ones in the rural areas, victims of insurgency, underserved population, low income earners and hard-to-reach areas.
