From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has said it is working closely and effectively with northern traditional leaders, under the umbrella of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC) on Primary Health Care (PHC) delivery to strengthen basic health care services in the region.
Both parties renewed the commitment at the fourth quarterly meeting of the NTLC, in Abuja, yesterday, where they agreed there was need for improved advocacy and sensitisation programmes for the people particularly at the rural communities.
Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, asked the traditional leaders to leverage on the loyalty and respect they enjoy from their people to promote good health practices in their communities.
He was concerned with the issues of vaccination, antenatal, postnatal, and other basic health care services that are provided at the PHC level vis-a-vis the quality of the services being provided as well as acceptance.
He thus challenged the traditional leaders to assist in breaking the myths associated with vaccines, restrategise on ways to reach out to the communities and individuals with information on the efficacy of vaccines.
He made reference to the recently introduced Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which has proven to be efficient and effective in fighting the virus that causes cervical cancer. “Type 2 polio is still spreading in the North West and North East, and that could be linked to complacency in our responses,” he said.
Minister of Health, Ali Pate, admitted that significant improvement has been made over the years that culminated in the defeat of wild polio virus, but highlighted that the region is still being ravaged by several communicable and non-communicable diseases that could have been tackled with vaccines and other preventive measures.
He maintained that vaccines are safe and effective against many of the communicable diseases that are causing the death of children, hence they should up their beat to promote vaccination among the people.
“During my recent visit to Maiduguri, I discovered that 80 per cent of children with diphtheria were unvaccinated. That shouldn’t be,” the minister said.
The Executive Director, NPHCDA, Muyi Aina, said the agency has set a target for itself which is to expand access to PHC services in Nigeria and strengthen them to be able to mount and detect outbreak of epidemics and pandemics.
“So far, we have vaccinated over 4.7 million adolescent girls with the HPV vaccine. This has surpassed our target for the period. These adolescent girls have, undoubtedly, received protection from future risk of cervical cancer.
“We count on you to let the people know that the HPV vaccine is safe and effective against cervical cancer, especially as we plan to expand the services to the rest of the states in the new year. There are challenges but we will conquer them through your help.”
He maintained that NTLC is a beacon of hope for the nation in its quest to provide quality and affordable health care services.
“I am committed to working closely with you to ensure we improve our health care services,” he said.