N/Assembly members tasked on elimination of tropical diseases

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, has urged his colleagues to include the elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on the lists of their constituency projects.

This, he said, would go a long way to alleviating the sufferings of Nigerians from NTDs.

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The lawmaker spoke Monday in Abuja at a roundtable on eliminating NTDs in the country.

He said the meeting preceded the “100 per cent Committed Campaign” scheduled to kick off in Nigeria in January 2022.

He added that President Muhammadu Buhari was expected to join other world leaders in endorsing the Kigali Declaration on NTDs as part of the events to mark World NTD Day and to commemorate 10 years of the London Declaration on NTDs.

Oloriegbe, who is chairman of the National Task Team, said the prevalence of NTDs in the country was not new but it is important that Nigerians were involved in efforts to eliminate the diseases in the country.

“NTDs affect the quality of life of the citizens and oftentimes cause severe disabilities.

“It is now time for us to have improved coordination of the efforts at the various levels aimed at eliminating NTDs in Nigeria.

“This will be by increasing oversight on the implementation of NTD programmes and more importantly accelerating the interventions aimed at eliminating the diseases.

“It is also no longer news that NTDs’ are indeed ‘neglected,’ not just globally but within Nigeria.

“It is time to reverse this trend and pay more attention to the alleviation of the sufferings encountered by people affected by NTDs,” he said.

He said medical commodities for NTDs expiring at the ministry’s warehouses would no longer be acceptable.

The Minister of State Health, Adeleke Mamora, reiterated the federal government’s commitment to eliminating tropical diseases in the country.

He said the ministry would ensure effective execution of NTD programmes, while guaranteeing that the best of the ministry’s team was deployed to the NTD unit in the Public Health department.