The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reaffirmed its commitment to provide the needed humanitarian support toward reducing morbidity and mortality in North East Nigeria.
The WHO Country Representative to Nigeria, Wondimagegnehu Alemu, gave the commitment in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.
Alemu said the organisation had the requisite technical, human and material resources to support the states in the Boko Haram ravaged region.
According to the statement, Alemu gave the commitment at a meeting with Dr Haruna Mshelia, the Borno Commissioner for Health.
He said: “WHO is well positioned to support the government to coordinate other partners towards providing life-saving and life-sustaining humanitarian health assistance to internally displaced persons and host communities.’’
He said the organisation’s top priority was to help save lives and prevent illnesses among the estimated six million people who needed health assistance in the eight-year-old crisis in the North East.
“In response to the humanitarian situation in Borno state, WHO has so far provided technical and financial support for the vaccination of 2.6 million children against measles and 1.9 million children against polio.
“It has established 160 Early Warning, Alert and Response System (EWARS) reporting sites, covering around 85 per cent of IDPs which is about 1.3 million people, living in 13 Local Government Areas.
“EWARS reported a confirmed case of Lassa fever in February 2017 and more than 1,500 suspected measles cases between September and December 2016.
“In addition to training of thousands of healthcare workers in different fields, including surveillance, nutrition and service delivery, WHO has conducted initial assessment of Health Resource Availability Monitoring System (HeRAMS) in all LGAs.
“This is to enable it establish baseline indicators on the capacity of health facilities to deliver primary health care services to IDPs and host communities,” Alemu said.
Mshelia requested WHO’s technical support in building the capacity of Borno health work force by reviewing and expanding the curriculum of the existing schools of health in the state.
He commended WHO’s leadership role in coordinating the health sector partners, adding that this had resulted in complementary of roles, concerted approach to health issues and reduced friction.
He said that in spite of the security situation in the state, WHO had scaled-up and strengthened disease surveillance networks across the state.
He said that the organisation had also provided life-saving interventions to millions of people including those in hard-to-reach areas, IDPs and their host communities.
