The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has advocated for the establishment of primary healthcare services to facilitate the tackling of diseases in the country, News About Nigeria reports.
The Chief of Health for UNICEF Nigeria, Dr. Eduardo Celades, made this call while speaking at a two-day media dialogue and field trip in Jigawa State on Wednesday.
He noted that primary healthcare is important, adding that it is the cornerstone of the health sector.
He also noted that primary healthcare provides preventive services, and called for the strengthening of the system to enable it to become more effective.
He said, “Primary health care is important. So for us, primary health care is the cornerstone of the health sector. 90 percent of the diseases can be treated in primary health care. But the important thing is not just the treatment of the diseases, but also the prevention.
“So, primary health care is the platform to deliver preventive services. For example, vaccination or immunisation. We know that in the last 50 years, immunisation has saved more than 154 million lives. So PHC is the right place, the right platform to deliver those services. The challenge is that PHC is still weak in Nigeria, and what it means when I say weak is that we don’t have enough health workers, sometimes we have poor data, we have insufficient funding, and we have a weak supply chain.
“So this is what, as UNICEF, we are trying to do, to strengthen PHC, especially in the areas that they need it more, so to leave no one behind.”
The dialogue was themed, ‘Strengthening PHC systems: the United Nations Children’s Fund PHC Memorandum of Understanding in Jigawa State,’ organised by UNICEF and the Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information.
The MoU was signed in 2022 between the Jigawa State Government, the Federal Government, the Nigeria Governors Forum, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF to improve routine immunisation and PHC systems, and reduce deaths, particularly among women and children.
