The National Assembly has revealed its readiness to provide budgetary allocation to ensure that Development Partners sustain their support to eradicate Neglected Tropical Diseases(NTDs) in Nigeria.
The Senate Committee on Health noted that these efforts in Nigeria are a determinant in moving Nigeria from being the 2nd highest burden to being the last in the next five years.
The Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe at the High-Level Round-table Discussion to Eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases in Abuja, said the Prevalence of NTDs in Nigeria is not new.
Oloriegbe emphasised that it is now time for the National Assembly to have improved coordination of the efforts at the various levels aimed at eliminating NTDs in Nigeria by increasing oversight on the implementation of NTD programmes and more importantly accelerating the interventions aimed at eliminating the diseases.
Speaking further, Oloriegbe said today’s meeting precedes the “100 per cent Committed Campaign” Scheduled to kick off in Nigeria in January 2022, where President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to join other world leaders in endorsing the Kigali Declaration on NTDs as part of the events to mark the World NTD Day and to commemorate ten (10) years of the London Declaration on NTDs.
Oloriegbe noted that it is also no longer news that NTDs’ are indeed ‘Neglected’, not just globally but within Nigeria and it is time to reverse this trend and pay more attention to the alleviation of the sufferings encountered by people affected by NTDs.
“Everyone has a role to play, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) has to ensure effective and efficient execution of NTD Programmes whilst guaranteeing that the best of the FMOH team in terms of competence and professionalism is deployed to the NTD unit in the Public Health department.
“This also includes efficient data gathering especially for IDM NTDs as well as adequate Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) at State, local government and ward/ grassroot levels- because this is where the work really needs to be done.”
Oloriegbe added that the Ministry must ensure that medical commodities including drugs donated are immediately distributed to the last mile where persons who need them can have access to the items.
“Medical commodities for NTDs expiring in the Ministry’s warehouses will no longer be acceptable, for any reason. Developing NTD national strategic plans must be implemented and not just be an academic exercise for archiving.
“Developmental partners must continue to ensure that their support for Nigeria, being the second-highest burden country for NTDs, is sustained and that these efforts in Nigeria are a determinant in moving Nigeria from being the 2nd highest burden to being the last in the next five years.
“Partners also have a duty to report any anomaly or challenges noticed in their line of duty to the national task team on NTDs or directly to my office, as the Chair of the National Task Team.
“We need the organised private sector and corporate organisations to mobilise its members to urgently contribute towards this elimination drive.
“NTDs affect the quality of life of the citizens and often times causes severe disabilities. The Elimination of NTDs from Nigeria will help to improve the productive capabilities of people living with NTDs as well as those who are at risk of these diseases and this can help sustain economic growth by adding billions to the economy.
“Economic Modeling undertaken by The Economist intelligence unit showed the productivity gains that could be achieved across five African countries from the elimination of just two NTDs.
“It showed that Ethiopia and Kenya could add $3.2 billion and $1.3 billion to their economies respectively. Given that Nigeria’s NTD burden is higher than both these countries, the expected economic gains through reaching the WHO targets would be substantial.
“As a global champion for ending NTDs, I and my colleagues on the NNTT (Nigeria National Task Team) are showing leadership by ensuring that our country Nigeria, takes ownership of its own NTD programme and injects the same level of effort that has been put into other programmes and that Nigeria becomes 100 per cent Committed to fighting all of the fourteen (14 ) NTDs endemic in the country.
“Most importantly collaborating to ensure the prevention of an outbreak of other NTDs in Nigeria.
“As the National assembly, we are committed to ensuring sustained budgeting and release for NTD programmes across the country as well as oversight through the Senate and House of Representative Committees on Health and National Task Team in addition to mobilising the relevant stakeholders, as we have done today, to commit to ending these diseases.
“It is my hope that my colleagues at the National Assembly will be convinced to include the Elimination of NTD’s to the list of their constituency projects.
“This would go a long way to alleviating the sufferings of Nigerians suffering from NTDs and would have a huge impact on the constituents.
“I urge the civil societies here present to please continue to act as the soul of the society while paying increased attention to NTD’s. As I have always maintained, access to good health should indeed be a basic human right.
The Minister of State for Health, Senator Olorunimbe Mamora in his remarks who talked about Universal Health Coverage also said, UHC is all about healthcare delivery and availability and accessibility has always been an issue in the country particularly for vulnerable groups such as the elderly, women, children, physically challenged and the poor.
Mamora also said in the case of NTDs, the case speaks for its self with the word “Neglected” because emerging and remerging diseases may have taken over because to the extent that those diseases are here with us.
“What we are told in medical school is that common things occur commonly and that is why malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality that has killed more than HIV and COVID-19.”
“The good thing is that these NTDs are treatable and some of them can leave very bad complications if not well treated and that is why the issue of rehabilitation in the case of leprosy with the some of the issues that will arise thereof”
He, therefore, admonished all stakeholders to interrogate the issues as he reiterated partnership is critical in the eradication of NTDs.
“Partnership is key because the issue of Health has become National Security as people must be healthy for them to be productive because it also connected to productivity and there’s no way anybody can run away from this.
“We just have to address the issue in a manner that targets efficiency, because it is all about investing in an efficient manner in the health system so that can address priority issues and make people healthy enough to be able to be productive.
One of the people Living with NTDs, Yakubu Ohiare who is a teacher said early detection is the best way to tackle any of the Neglected diseases as he recounted his experience with Lymphatic elephantiasis which he said he has been battling with over 20 years.
He said as a child, he survived the disease because he has an educated person who helped him to go to the general hospital where it was diagnosed, detected and well treated.
He, therefore, is optimistic that if the government can put primary health care facilities all over the country together and manage properly, the NTDs will be totally eradicated because PHCs are the first contact of people living in the villages particularly the poor and vulnerable.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
FALSE! Yoruba Not An Official Language In Brazil
Claim: A national newspaper and multiple online platforms claim Brazil has adopted Yoruba as its official language and that the language would be included in primary and secondary schools curriculum.
Verdict: The claim is false. The content of the article published by these online platforms is not new; it has been recirculated several times and has been debunked.NASS moves to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in five years
NASS moves to eradicate neglected tropical diseases in five years