Health Week: Council tasks community on need to stay healthy

THE Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area (AOLG), has advised residents of the area, particularly parents and women, to ensure they always stay healthy and protected against diseases.

The council’s medical officer, Dr Sunday Orebiyi, gave the advice in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Friday in Lagos.

Orebiyi said the people should endeavour to take advantage of the ongoing Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW), to ensure that they improved their lives and wellbeing.

He said that those expected to benefit from the programme were women and children between six months and five years old.

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According to Orebiyi, MNCHW is a federal government-assisted programme aimed at redirecting mothers and clients back to the primary healthcare centres (PHCs), by creating awareness of services they can access there.

“The services have to do with maternal, child, neonatal; in terms of immunisations, minor ailments, delivery, antenatal, postnatal, family planning, nutritional screening and demonstrations.

“It is also aimed at assessing children, to know those who are malnourished and those that are well-fed,” he told NAN.

The Medical Officer explained that the Mid Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) method was adopted to measure the child’s arm that could be used to detect if he was malnourished.

MUAC uses a coding system that indicates the degree of malnourishment; yellow indicates mild or moderate while red shows that the child is severely malnourished.

Orebiyi further explained that the programme was also an avenue to deworm and give supplements such as Vitamin A to the children and offer family planning services.

“We’re using the fixed post and temporarily fixed post; fixed for those who will come to our PHC, some may not be able to.

“So we’ve engaged health workers; mobilisers and implementers, who are on the field giving out these services, particularly to schools where children of zero to five years can be found.

“We give out male and female condoms, intrauterine devices (IUDs), contraceptive pills, injectables and implants; we also counsel them on child spacing,” he said.

Speaking on the programme, AOLG Chairman, Mr Valentine Buraimoh, urged parents to do all they could to ensure their children got the best healthcare services.

The Council boss pledged his commitment to initiatives and policies that would protect the rights of children in the Amuwo Odofin community.

Buraimoh further pledged to ensure that the standard of the PHC grew in line with global best practice.