The Lagos State Government is set to commence the first round of the year 2021 Maternal ,Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health week with a special focus on those living in riverine and hard-to reach communities.
The commissioner for health, Prof. Akin Abayomi who made this known at a news briefing in Lagos, said the program would commence at all Primary Healthcare Centers on Monday 12th to Friday 16th July.
Professor Abayomi said that the population of people residing in riverine and hard-to-reach communities especially pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants and adolescents would be among the major targets of the weeklong free family health services and interventions to be delivered.
He noted that there are a lot of areas that are inaccessible because of the riverine nature of the State, and Government is now working with other agencies to be able to bridge the gap, take services to those communities and also bring people from those communities to access emergency services and attention.
The commissioner said it became necessary to eliminate delays associated with accessing health care services and also increase access to care particularly as it relates to maternal and child health services in riverine and hard-to-reach communities.
He explained that over four thousand trained health workers have been engaged to carry out Routine immunization, Vitamin A supplementation, De-worming of children between the ages of 12 to 59 months, Malnutrition screening, HIV and Tuberculosis Screening, Counselling of caregivers on Infant and Young Child Feeding, Food demonstration classes for nursing mothers and caregivers and Family planning services.
Prof. Abayomi stated that the week long activity would be implemented in three hundred and ten fixed posts and three hundred and seventeen Temporary Fixed Posts, while over seven hundred mobile teams would be deployed to schools to administer deworming tablets and vitamin A to children.
He however urged mothers, caregivers and the entire family to seize the opportunity provided by the week to benefit from the health interventions by visiting designated centres between the hours of 8am – 4pm daily.
