LFrom Francis Nansak ,Lafia
Some tropical diseases that are common among locals suffering neglect as a result of poor or lack of environmental sanitation, poor housing, lack of portable drinking water and personal hygiene,has been given prompt attention.
Nasarawa state said to be endemic for Five (5) of the neglected tropical diseases, is leaving no stone unturned in the fight against these deadly diseases.
This was made known to journalists at a press briefing,organised by the Ministry of Health on Thursday to mark World Neglected Tropical Diseases ( NTDs) in lafia ,the Nasarawa state capital.
Commissioner of Health ,pharmacist Ahmed Bala Yahaya,revealed that Nasarawa state in conjunction with carter center takes seriously the fight against the diseases.
He said the ministry of health provides man power for the programme while the carter center supports the state in capacity building at state,LGA and community levels, saying it also assist in medicine procurement for distribution to the affected population in the state.
According to him ” So far,I would want to state here proudly that nasarawa and it counterpart plateau state are the onlybstates in the country that have made remarkable pace in the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases by interrupting 3 of the diseases, Onchocerciasis ,Lymphatic Filarisis and Trachoma.
He said the record table on achievement made by 2019 shows that the state had created a state programme office ,trained 45 local integrated health team members,225 health facility staff,611 community directed distributors,2,153 teachers ,42 school supervisors and 7 social mobilization officers.
Pharmacist Yahaya also added that the state had received 502,700 tablets of mebendazole and another 194,984 tablets of praziquantel from the federal ministry of health for the treatment of school age children.
He further revealed that in the year 2020 and with the support from the ministry and carter center,the state programme intends to mobilize and train 45 integrated health team,225health facility staff,611 community directed distributors,42 school supervisors, 13 social mobilization officers and 2,824 school teachers.
The commissioner added that the state also targets to treat 720,000 school age children for schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helmininthes.
