The Kebbi State government has launched an indigent fund for cancer patients and the state’s cancer control plan.
Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu said he was delighted to present N20 million appropriated by the State House of Assembly, in addition to the N10 million already provided.
A statement yesterday from his wife’s Medicaid Cancer Foundation quoted him as saying that 62 cancer patients had since benefited from the prior fund.
The governor pledged to provide sustained support for the fund to function effectively.
He said the plan was a the result of a painstaking work and commitment by his wife, Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu and her Medicaid Cancer Foundation team with inputs from the World Health Organisation, the Clinton Health Access Initiative and the Union for International Cancer Control.
Mrs Bagudu said the development of the cancer control plan was in cognisance with the 2017 World Health Assembly resolution and gives a measurable and clear road map for the next few years.
She said the plan, when implemented, would significantly reduce cancer deaths as a lot would be picked at early stages.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said the Federal Government had approved the inclusion of the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi and the Kebbi Medical Centre as beneficiaries of the Cancer Access Partnership (CAP) programme.
Represented by the Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Birnin Kebbi, Dr Aliyu Hamza- Balarabe, the minister said the programme would provide cancer medicine at over 50 per cent reduced cost.
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