Health: Zamfara decries prevalent of six child killer diseases

Alhaji Yusuf Mafara, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, expressed this concern at a one-day stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting on breastfeeding in Gusau on Tuesday.

The Zamfara State Government has decried the recent increase in the six child killer diseases among children in the state.

Alhaji Yusuf Mafara, the Executive Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, expressed this concern at a one-day stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting on breastfeeding in Gusau on Tuesday.

The meeting, which was organised by the state Ministry of Health in collaboration with UNICEF, was attended by community and religious leaders, local focal persons on health, health educators and the media.

The meeting was part of the activities to mark the 2017 world breastfeeding week in the state.

Mafara said that the State Government was displeased with the increasing cases of the six child killer diseases, despite the efforts of the government and international donor agencies such as UNICEF.

Marafa said: “We have more than 666 primary health care centres and general hospitals in the state, where we give free medication and routine immunisation to prevent such diseases.

“If we are to be scored based on our efforts and performance in tackling such diseases, we should achieve up to 80 per cent of eradicating the diseases in our communities.

“However, it is unfortunate that we have achieved only nine per cent.

“We are developing another measure, which is awareness campaign among our people in the rural communities on how to reduce the prevalent of the diseases.”

Mafara said the meeting was organised to sensitise stakeholders and the public on the importance of exclusive breastfeeding; as one of the measures to reduce the six child killer diseases.

The state Nutrition Officer, Mallam Salihu Bakwai, in a lecture attributed the high rate of such diseases in the state to low level of awareness in the rural communities.

Bakwai said: “Majority of our people in the rural communities has the resources to improve their health but the problem is low level of awareness on how to utilise them for their health benefits.

“The major things we require now are sensitisation and awareness campaign.”

source: theeagleonline.com.ng