The Osun State government has announced that it is collaborating with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in its efforts to eradicate cholera and other illnesses in the state.
This was revealed during a bilateral conversation and incident meeting between a group of Red Cross volunteers and Ministry of Health officials, who were led by Dr. Akindele Adekunle, the governor’s special advisor on public health.
While acknowledging the assistance the organisation will provide the state in eliminating cholera and other diseases, Dr. Akindele stated that the government would be burdened excessively in ensuring the effective eradication of those diseases if humanitarian organisations did not provide such support.
According to him:
“I sincerely want to thank your organisation for coming on board to partner with us in eradicating cholera and other diseases in our state.
“In the recent cholera outbreak we had, we realised we have skilled health workers but bad medical facilities in the remote area of the state to quickly attend to these cases.
“This informs the reason the government is embarking on a comprehensive renovation of over 300 primary healthcare centres with reticulated water systems and 24-hour power service.
“This we believe will help mitigate against the spread of these diseases whenever there is an outbreak as our skilled health workers will be able to work within an equipped medical facility in attending to such cases quickly enough.”
Sanya Olopade, the Chairman of the Red Cross Osun State Branch, stated that his organisation is prepared to collaborate with the state government to end cholera.
“As an organisation, we’re impressed with the government of Osun on various actions in the health sector. We are here today to affirm our readiness to partner with the Osun government in the area of their needs.
“No government can do it alone. With the open arm Osun government has shown, we will do what we can do in our capacity to support Osun in eradicating this disease and other ones,” the Red Cross representative said.
cc: Daily Post Ng
