Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
Coalition of Civil Society Networks on AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM Networks), has called on the Anambra State Government to invest in disease control, eradication, and other evidence-based intervention programmes to boost healthcare delivery in the state.
The group urged the government to turn around and key into some of the relevant programmes in the state rather than rely on foreign donors and partners to drive away diseases and other healthcare burdens of the people.
The group made the call while briefing Journalists on the ATM C19 Anambra State Global Fund, GC-27 C18RM/RSSH project in the state. The project is aimed at reducing factors that result in the disruption of essential health services due to the COVID-19 pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics and epidemics.
Public Health expert and parasitologist, Prof. Dennis Aribodor, said the unpredictable nature of foreign aid most times affects the continuation and effective implementation of models designed to lift the health burdens of the people.
He urged the government to key into such opportunities as disease control by interacting with stakeholders in interventions to ensure the accommodation of more communities in the project.
Aribodor, who is the South-East Zonal Coordinator of the Civil Society Network in Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition said, “The external supports we get for this project are mere sporadic and tangential and does not last, neither is it sustainable. We implore the state government to key into this model and make sure this goes round the state. It will only cost them just small money.”
He urged the government to budget and ensure the release of the money budgeted for interventions. According to him, the over-reliance on foreign donors and partners cannot always sustain programmes of disease control in the state.
Aribodor urged the state government to intensify the fight for the elimination of malaria by declaring free treatment of the disease especially for vulnerable children and pregnant women in the state.
He said: “There is also the need to make treatment of these diseases free, not just affordable. For instance, is malaria; I don’t think there is any public facility in the state whether primary or secondary where we have free Malaria treatment.”
“Anambra State can treat every child free from malaria. Every child especially the most vulnerable described as under five and of course, pregnant mothers are very important to us.”
Speaking further, the professor decried the negative impacts of delays mostly experienced on the part of funders, calling on the government to key in, fill the gap, and catalyse the process.
“Government can come in and drive this because the results are crystal clear. It is expected that government should be doing this for sustainability,” he said.
Addressing journalists, the State Coordinator, TB Network, Anambra State, Ifeyinwa Unachukwu, disclosed that the project has already achieved tremendous results in the focal five local government areas it covered this year including Awka North, Idemmili North, Njikoka, Onitsha North, and Orumba North, respectively.
According to her, the intervention has improved community engagement and ownership, resources mobilisation for facilities, improved water and sanitation as well as HIV testing and malaria treatment. She also said it has led to a decrease in healthcare incidence and an increase in treatment adherence.
To address TB, HIV, Malaria, and gender-based violence in the state, she called for the extension of the national health insurance programme to the poor, proper utilisation of primary health funds, and strengthening of primary health infrastructures.
She also said securing financial resources, renewing political leadership, fostering collaborations and community-led monitoring should be scaled up to eliminate diseases and the rising cases of gender-based violence in the state.
Earlier, Programme Officer, C19 RSSH for the project in Anambra, Onyekachi Ololo, said the project was implemented through National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), with the support of the ATM Networks and other community-based partners in the state.
