By Ahmed Rufa’i, Dutse
THE federal government had been called upon to speed up the establishment and completion of the medical oxygen plants it pledged to establish in each State of the federation to ensure effective management of pneumonia disease in the country.
This was contained in a communique issued at the end of two day Media Roundtable organized for Jigawa and Lagos media working groups under the INSPIRING project in the two States.
In June 2021, as part of efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the establishment 38 oxygen plants across the country. One of each plant will be set up in all the States while Abuja and Lagos will have two plants each.
The communique from the Roundtable commended the efforts of the federal government in this direction, describing it as a welcome development in tackling the high rate of child mortality in the country
The meeting was organized by the Save the Children International (SCI) attended by official from Federal Ministry of Health, representatives from Jigawa and Lagos Ministries of Health, representative from Pediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Save the Children International (SCI).
According to the communique “The enlightenment tempo in raising awareness on pneumonia prevention and control should be sustained by the Media Working Groups.”
The communique further expressed the need for the encouragement for the health seeking behaviors among mothers and care-givers towards reducing pneumonia, adding: “Statistics should be made available to the media by Government, health professionals to enhance their reportage of issues on Pneumonia. Media working groups to facilitate and support the airing of pneumonia video songs with special discount across Television and Radio stations.”