BENIN CITY – As Nigeria joined other nations to celebrate the World Pharmaceutical Day yesterday , Edo State Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon Comrade Philip Shaibu took out time to inspect Lassa Fever kits and medications donated to the state by the Niger Delta Development Commission, (NDDC).
In the course of the inspection, at the state’s Medical Stores, Benin, Shaibu called for collaboration with the commission at to set up an isolation centre in the state.
The Deputy Governor noted that government was a continuum, adding that there was no need replicating things instead of forging ahead. He frowned at the shelf life span of the batch of medical consumables donated, stating that some of them are to expire next month (October, 2019) . He said it does not comply with the international standard of eight months expiration shelf life span for drugs by donor agencies.
Speaking further on the shelf life span of donated drugs, he stated, ” Medical standards stipulate that drugs must have a shelf life span of at least eight months (before expiration) to meet the medical needs of people at curing identified ailments.”
Still speaking on the donated drugs and the need to work more in collaboration instead of the present replication tendencies at different levels of government, he stated, “This is not what we need. We need one isolation centre in Benin and other centres in the state.”
Shaibu therefor directed members of the Edo State Health Management Board to help distribute the drugs and kits equitably between the Irrua Specialist Hospital and the Specialist Hospital in Benin.
After inspecting the four thousand, nine hundred and fourty-three (4,943), units of Lassa Fever protective kits and other routine drugs warehoused in the stores, the Deputy Governor was informed of the collaborative effort to train medical personnel on the use of medical kits at combating Lassa Fever in the State by the World Health Organization (WHO).
He was later taken round the WHO facility by the State Coordinator, Mrs Faith Ireye, especially on medical progress made in the state through charted maps on routine immunization.
She stated that progress made so far was impressive as pie charts showed there were only seven confirmed cases of Measles in the state, the lowest in the South South Region.
She maintained that routine immunization was working in the state as indicated on the charts for Lassa Fever and NNT cases.
