Nigeria assures of Polio Eradication by 2019
Nigeria’s Minister of health, Isaac Adewole has assured that the nation will be polio free come August 2019.
The Minister made this statement at the inauguration of a Primary Health Care Revitalization Supply Chain Committee in Abuja.
Nigeria had not recorded any polio case for almost two years before several cases were discovered in Maiduguri.
The country was one of three countries left to completely tackle Poliomyelitis scourge.The two other countries are Pakistan and Afghanistan.
To strengthen the health care system, the Minister also commissioned Health Centre Power kits.
He said the Ministry of health and its sister agencies are working towards achieving a comprehensive data on routine immunization coverage in the country.
Professor Adewole emphasized that the objective of primary healthcare revitalization is to ensure provision of quality basic health services targeting diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, maternal and new born care, nutrition and non communicable diseases.
The executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) maintained that the overall goal is to revamp and revitalize up to ten thousand primary health centres across the country.
He explained this is principally to improve the provision of basic healthcare package for over 100 million Nigerians.
He added that this will help to eradicate infectious diseases such as polio and achieve the laudable goal of universal health coverage in the country.
With the provision of the health centre kits, the health authorities concluded that to achieve universal health coverage, there is need for a functioning primary Health Care System and a mandatory Universal Health Insurance scheme.
