NAN-HG-4
Immunisation
By Amen Gajira
Minna, Nov. 10, 2017 (NAN) The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Niger state chapter, has decried the poor immunisation coverage in the state.
Dr Mustapha Yahaya, Chairman of the association, stated this in Minna on Friday when he led members on a courtesy call on the leadership of the State House of Assembly.
Yahaya said that the National Immunisation Coverage Survey 2017 conducted by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, showed Niger’s coverage at a dismal 20 percent.
“The implication of this is that only one out of five children aged 12 to 24 months received all prescribed vaccines.
“This is a disaster and threat to national development.
‘‘We call on our legislators to urgently review our laws to strengthen our routine immunisation to secure the future of our children,” he said.
He urged the state government to fully implement the National Health Bill passed into law in 2014, saying that it would guarantee universal health access to all.
Yahaya further advocated 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the health sector in line with WHO’s recommendations, so as to reverse the poor health indices in the state.
According to him, there are currently 469 doctors in the state, adding that they needed improved welfare packages to keep them in the civil service and also attract more doctors to the state.
He said the ratio of doctors to people in the state was one doctor to 8,000 people as against one to 600 as recommended by the WHO, while the national average is one to 4,000.
In his response, the Speaker of the House, Alhaji Ahmed Marafa, promised improved budgetary allocation to the health sector in 2018.
“We took a big leap from single to double digits in 2017. From five percent in previous years we moved to 11 percent last year.
“In 2018, if at all we do not hit 15 percent, I want to assure you that we will be much closer to it,” he said.
Marafa noted that he was close to floating a personal health insurance scheme that would capture 22, 000 people in the informal sector as part of his own efforts to improve the sector.
He pledged the Assembly’s commitment to enacting laws that would strengthen the state’s health care system for efficient service delivery. (NAN)
AMEN/MOL/EAL
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Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Ekemini Ladejobi