Apparently disturbed by the unwholesome activities of illegal health facilities and unregistered health practitioners as well as pharmacists and pharmaceutical stores not approved, the Ogun State government has wielded its big sticks on such offenders, shutting down 231 illegal health facilities, 63 pharmaceutical stores across the three senatorial districts of the state.
The state government, through the ministry of health in conjunction with Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) and National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has also confiscated and burnt unwholesome and expired drugs worth over N100.5 million, saying government would soon procure mini-laboratory to enable in-house testing of drugs.
Speaking at the 2014 Ogun State Inter-Ministerial Press Briefing held in Abeokuta, Olaokun Soyinka, commissioner for health, said government swung into action against such illegal and unwholesome health practices, having experienced the “menace of under-qualified and fake healthcare practitioners and businesses that take a terrible toll on the health of Ogun state indigenes.”
Soyinka, who lamented the unwholesome and illegal activities of such practitioners across the state, which he said, might have accountable for the untimely deaths and damages of internal and external organs of unsuspecting members of public, assured the public that government had concluded plans to adopt Geographical Information System (GIS) to tackle the menace.
He said: “Our ongoing plan to combat this includes, computerisation of medical and health-related business registration, integration of records with the State Geographical Information System (GIS) to facilitate identification of premises, purchase of vehicles for regular inspection of premises and closure of illegal operations, sanctioning and prosecution of offenders.”
Similarly, the commissioner said the HIV/AIDS prevalence in the state was now below national average of HIV infections, with the prevalence rate of 0.6 percent, according to National HIV/AIDS Reproductive Health Survey (NARHS), saying that government would upgrade selected health facilities to prevent mother-to-child transmission and provide anti-retroviral therapy.
RAZAQ AYINLA
