Senate
President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has called on communities to
embrace preventive healthcare strategies like immunization, in order to
prevent the outbreak of preventable diseases.
Saraki
gave the charge while speaking to reporters at the National Assembly
Clinic, where he led the Senate leadership to administer Oral Polio
Vaccine (OPV) and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) on babies as part
of activities to mark this year’s World Immunization Day, in Abuja.
The
Senate President, who is a medical doctor by training, stated that in
order to reduce the burden on the nation’s healthcare system, Nigeria
must begin to push for preventive strategies to curb the spread of
diseases and to stop citizens from falling sick.
“Vaccination
is a key strategy to containing many diseases that currently exist in
the country. These include diseases like polio, as well as meningitis
that has killed up to 745 Nigerians in the past few months,” the Senate
President said, “We need to encourage more families and communities to
embrace vaccination against preventable diseases that are experiencing
resurgence. Here in the National Assembly, we are ready to provide
funding for vaccines — meningitis especially.”
The
Senate President also said that greater awareness for immunization must
be undertaken by governments across all levels to ensure that the
nation’s healthcare system is not overburdened.
“In
order to reduce the burden on our healthcare system, Nigeria must begin
to push for preventive strategies to curb the spread of diseases, any
healthcare reform in Nigeria must start with an emphasis on prevention,
rather than cure,” he said.
“And
as you can see from the vaccinations I have just administered here, it
is not something that is too difficult to carry out, the purpose of
being here is to show that we in the National Assembly are already
pushing for this,” the Senate President added.
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