Delta bags U.S. award for sustainable healthcare financing

Delta State Government has been conferred with the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC) Award for exemplary leadership in healthcare financing.

Receiving the award at the flag-off of 2022 State Integrated Measles Vaccine Campaign in Asaba, yesterday, the state governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, commended World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and other partners for collaborating with the state government to safeguard the health of children.

The award, Partnership for Sustainable Healthcare Financing (Budgeting, Release and Expenditure), was announced recently at the USCDC Biannual Programme Performance Review Meeting/2022 End of Project Cycle Symposium, held in Abuja.

Okowa explained that the flag-off was a component strategy at sensitising mothers and caregivers on the need to vaccinate their children and wards, between the ages of nine and 59 months, with measles vaccine, which confers immunity against the disease on recipients.

He said that measles outbreak occurs when the child population immunity decreases and a high proportion of children in communities are zero-dosed for routine immunisation.

He said: “The objective is to increase population immunity, thereby, reducing the risk of measles virus transmission and outbreak in our communities.

“This, in addition to poor community and environmental hygiene practices, are risk factors for the disease.

“It is one of the diseases of public health importance, which requires enormous collective efforts of individuals, households, health workers and community-based organisations to ensure its prevention, control and surveillance.”

He restated that the state government, through its policy of clean environment and floods control, is constructing drainages across the landscape of the state.

He stated: “I call on the people of Delta to properly dispose of their refuse, and not dump them in drainages as this has serious health consequences for communities, which, apart from worsening the flood situation in those areas, create breeding sites for disease vectors and vermin.

“I hereby admonish all of us to take responsibility for our personal and communal health, while supporting government health initiatives, interventions and programmes to achieve optimal health in line with this administration’s determination to achieve Universal Health Coverage through the Stronger Delta Agenda.”