Flood: Adamawa to recruit 600 medical staff as health workers move on canoes

The Adamawa State Primary Health Care Agency (ADSPHCA) has stated that it will recruit about 600 healthcare workers. The executive chairman of the agency, Dr Sulaiman Saidu, stated that it got the approval to recruit 600 additional staff to cope with the challenges of manpower while raising the alarm that flooded communities stand the risk of an outbreak of the cholera epidemic.

Moreso, the agency decried that the current flood situation in the state is making it difficult for health workers to access submerged communities.

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It was gathered that the flood has claimed at least 17 lives and displaced thousands of people in the state.

Speaking to Daily Trust in Yola, the executive chairman of the agency, Dr Sulaiman Saidu said that they have got approval to recruit 600 additional staff to cope with the challenges of manpower while raising the alarm that flooded communities risks the outbreak of the cholera epidemic.

Saidu revealed that the agency upon a directive from the state governor, Ahmadu Fintiri had to fix boreholes in some of the affected communities where people drank from water contaminated with human faeces to prevent the outbreak of water-borne diseases.

“You are paying people for four days and the activity had to stop (due to flood) until near normalcy returns after three or four days. For example, the people that cover some of these areas in Mburu have to hire canoes and we did not plan for that,” he said.

Dr Saidu noted that the Maternal Neonatal Tetanus Elimination (MNTE) campaign targeting 28,000 women in the Numan area in the state had achieved 62% success in just three days.

Other campaigns include the just concluded Seasonal Malaria Chemo-prevention and the Outbreak Response (OBR) due this month.

He commended the dedication of the health workers; some of whom risked their lives to travel on canoes across flooded areas, saying more than 600 of them were promoted in February and those due for promotion would be placed on their right levels in December.