FG asks ECOWAS centre to rescue Borno malnourished children

The Federal Government has asked the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Disease Control (RCDC) to dispatch an emergency response team to assist children dying from malnutrition in Borno State.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, gave the directive yesterday to the Acting Executive Director of the centre,  Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi, at the inaugural meeting of the governing board of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Disease Control (RCDC) in Abuja .
He said the government had declared a nutritional emergency in Borno State to save children and assisting them was the first task of the governing board.
The minister said the decision to establish the centre was reached following the impact of the Ebola outbreak which exposed the weakness in the health system and unpreparedness to respond to other serious health security threats.
He said the federal government was committed to providing necessary infrastructure for the operation of the  centre in line with the existing memorandum of understanding on it and the acceptance to use the Nigeria centre as a platform for its take off.
Acting Executive Director of the ECOWAS RCDC, Prof. Abdulsalami Nasidi, said nearly 40 percent of the burden of diseases in the world was borne by Africa, adding that except the continent prepared well to handle the emergencies, it would keep jumping from one problem to the other.
Earlier, the Director-General of the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO) Dr Crespin Xavier,  said the resolutions designating countries to serve on the governing council of ECOWAS RCDC for the next two years was approved at the 17th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Assembly of Health Ministers in Guinea Bissau in April.