Meningitis Outbreak: Adewole Tasks Yari on Poor State of PHC, Vaccine Racketeers
• Says Zamfara govt can handle any outbreak if PHC system is in place
Senator Iroegbu in Abuja
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has called on the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, to improve the state of the Primary Health Care in his state as a long-term solution and effective measures of tackling the Cerospinal Meningitis (CSM) outbreak in the country.
Adewole in a statement signed yesterday by the Director, Media /Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola, urged Yari to focus on strengthening the PHC system in the state.
According to him, this is the only way to prevent outbreaks and most of the common cases affecting the people.
The minister said any single case could have been easily reported at the PHC level and a response would have been activated and this scale of outbreak would have been avoided.
He said: “Once the PHC system is in place we can tackle not just this outbreak but 70-80 per cent of the cases of our people.
“Next year dry season is coming again. We need to make sure that we are prepared to tackle the next outbreak.
“We need to educate our people that this infection is so easy to treat and diagnose. We must put a lot of effort into active case finding. We are recommending a house to house search,” he added.
Adewole further called on the state government to clampdown on booming black market for the CSM vaccines thereby creating scarcity in the system
He urged the government to “deal decisively with people selling vaccines and life saving commodities provided by the federal government for free.
“There are people selling these drugs. We must apprehend them.”
The minister also called on Nigerians to remain confident in the response of the federal government coordinated by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) saying that the agency is equipped to tame the epidemic.
Earlier, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shauib, called on the state government and traditional rulers to continue to educate and mobilise the people on social distancing and to intensify case finding efforts.
He said the NPHCDA is willing to work with the state government to revitalise one PHC in each of the 147 wards in line with the vision of the honourable minister.
Responding, Yari commended the federal government for their timely intervention.
He acknowledged that the outbreak is being effectively controlled by the FG team and admitted the state was taken by surprise.
The governor also assured to provide leadership by doing all he can to ensure the protection of the lives and property of his people and pledged to get on board with the PHC agenda of Professor Adewole.
“For the past 72 hours we have been seeing fewer cases and positive response. On behalf of Zamfara State government and people, we thank you and we are willing to work with you on PHC,” he said.
Yari also said the state would revisit the structure of the polio programme, boasting that the state has not witnessed any outbreak since 2012.
He said he would take the issues of the PHC agenda to the Nigerian Governors Forum which he chairs and promised to invite the minister to make a presentation before the members.
