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Tag: Ebitimitula Etebu

  • WHO, UNICEF review immunization coverage in Bayelsa

    The World Health Organisation (WHO), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and other health partners have taken a critical review of immunization coverage in Bayelsa State.

    The international health partners took interest in Bayelsa following last reports that showed poor immunization coverage in the state.

    Speaking at the review meeting of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in Yenagoa, the state capital, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, expressed happiness that the intervention was yielding expected results.

    Etebu said the state made quantum leap and improved tremendously in immunization coverage.

    He said reports on poor coverage  led to the establishment of the State Emergency Routine Immunization Coordinating Center (SERICC), in all poor performing state of the federation including Bayelsa.

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    He said the report showed that Bayelsa had a low coverage area of 47 per cent and was the only state in the South-South that was poorly performing.

    Etebu said the development made Bayelsa the only state, where SERICC was established in the region.

    He commended the Bayelsa state team for reversing the trend in a very short time and thanked WHO and UNICEF for their funding and commitment

    He said: “To this end, therefore, the makeover, outfitting and bequeathing of the Bayelsa State Emergency Routine Immunization Coordinating Center, by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a testimonial in itself and also a commitment to ridding the state of the vestiges of negative immunization indices.

    In his remark, Director, Immunization and Disease Control, Bayelsa State Primary Health,  Dr. Tarimobowei Egberipou, acknowledged the success of the state within nine months.

    He said, “So, to improve on this indices , the center was created and since the center was created about a year ago, we made quantum leap of about 15 per cent increment every quarter.

    “Presently, the coverage rate for the state is about 68 per cent and we are looking at the last quarter to make it 80 per cent, which is the coverage rate everywhere in the world.

    “So, for Bayelsa State to get an increase of 15 per cent every quarter shows you the amount of work, funding and strategies that have gone to reverse the trend that took over five years to get into. We have practically reverse it in nine month”.

    The state Coordinator, WHO, Dr. Edmund Egbe, called for more counterpart funding from the state government, saying that funding had been a major issue in the campaign.

     

  • Bayelsa intensifies campaigns against infant, maternal mortality

    The Bayelsa State Government has intensified its efforts to reduce infant and maternal mortality by delivering proper health care services to pregnant women, newborns and children.

    The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, who spoke at the weekend while inaugurating the second round of the 2018 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) at the Ogbia, said the programme was focused at protecting women and children.

    He said the  event was a week-long programme organized to deliver integrated, high impact, low cost, result-oriented, effective, preventive and curative health care services.

    He said the programme was geared towards shoring up maternal and child health indices in the areas of intervention embarked upon by the government.

    Etebu named some of the interventions outlined for the week as Vitamin A supplementation in children, de-worming of children and nutritional assessment of children.

    He said others were Iron/folate supplementation for pregnant women, routine immunization, birth registration and Intermittent treatment of malaria in pregnant women.

    He said the programme would include HIV counseling and testing, counseling on key household practices (KHHP) such as hand washing and provision of reproductive health service especially family planning service.

    Also speaking, the state Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO), who was represented by Bumiegha Suowari enjoined all women to embrace the programme and make Ogbia a healthy place.

    She said WHO and other partners were  always available in the state to support the health programmes technically and financially.

    She said: “I enjoin the chiefs and the entire people of Ogbia LGA to embrace this program. Let me mention that in Ogbia LGA there are a lot places where we go and deliver health care services but a lot of people does not make good use of it.

    Read Also: Father of four drinks poison, dies in Bayelsa

    “A lot of people just ignore. A lot of people said they don’t want it. A lot of people are noncomplying to the health care services. In Emeyal 1, the people that are not taking immunization program are too many. We have gone to the CDC chairman, had several dialogues. We have gone to do several community engagement meetings but it is of no avail.

    “I want to use medium to tell the chiefs to go back there, gather your people, sensitize them and let them embrace every health care program that is coming to them. It is beneficial, it is free so that the entire people will be healthy devoured of all diseases”.

    Speaking further, the Executive Director, Public Enlightenment Project, Mrs. Lilian Ezenwa said: ‘For this round of MNCH week, we have been able to provide 10,000 bottles of vitamin A, multivitamins and prenatals for our women. It is one thing for government to spend money organizing programs like this for us, it is another thing for partners to support with commodities.

    “But the benefits will not come until we the mothers come out and access these commodities for our use and for our children. Therefore, I am appealing to all women here present, the nursing mothers, the pregnant mothers to please make good use of this opportunity.

    “Visit every health care facility closest to you and receive these products for yourselves and for the wellbeing of your children. When we do that, we live healthier lives, our children will grow to be stronger and better and we will all break out of poverty.

    “On behalf of vitamin A angel and Public Enlightenment Project, I pledge our continued support for every time that you need commodities”, she noted.

    UNICEF Technical Resource Person for Bayelsa State, Odo Chikwuemeka said the purpose of the MNCH was to reduce sicknesses and death among women and children.

    “The purpose of it is to reduce what we called malnutrition- child not eating well that is among our children”.

  • Bayelsa, UNICEF roll out fresh programmes to reduce child mortality

    The Bayelsa State Government and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) have rolled out additional programmes to deliver proper health care services to pregnant women, newborns and children to reduce mother and child mortalities in the state.

    The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, who spoke while inaugurating the second round of the 2018 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW) at the Ogbia, said the programme was focused at protecting women and children.

    He said the event was a week-long programme organized to deliver integrated, high impact, low cost, result-oriented, effective, preventive and curative health care services.

    He said the programme was geared towards shoring up maternal and child health indices in the areas of intervention embarked upon by the government.

    Etebu named some of the interventions outlined for the week as Vitamin A supplementation in children, de-worming of children and nutritional assessment of children.

    He said others were Iron/folate supplementation for pregnant women, routine immunization, birth registration and Intermittent treatment of malaria in pregnant women.

    He said the programme would include HIV counseling and testing, counseling on key household practices (KHHP) such as hand washing and provision of reproductive health service especially family planning service.

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    Also speaking, the state Coordinator, World Health Organization (WHO), who was represented by Bumiegha Suowari enjoined all women to embrace the programme and make Ogbia a healthy place.

    She said WHO and other partners were  always available in the state to support the health programmes technically and financially.

    She said: “I enjoin the chiefs and the entire people of Ogbia LGA to embrace this program. Let me mention that in Ogbia LGA there are a lot places where we go and deliver health care services but a lot of people does not make good use of it.

    “A lot of people just ignore. A lot of people said they don’t want it. A lot of people are noncomplying to the health care services. In Emeyal 1, the people that are not taking immunization program are too many. We have gone to the CDC chairman, had several dialogues. We have gone to do several community engagement meetings but it is of no avail.

    “I want to use medium to tell the chiefs to go back there, gather your people, sensitize them and let them embrace every health care program that is coming to them. It is beneficial, it is free so that the entire people will be healthy devoured of all diseases”.

    Speaking further, the Executive Director, Public Enlightenment Project, Mrs. Lilian Ezenwa said: ‘For this round of MNCH week, we have been able to provide 10,000 bottles of vitamin A, multivitamins and prenatal for our women. It is one thing for government to spend money organizing programs like this for us, it is another thing for partners to support with commodities.

    “But the benefits will not come until we the mothers come out and access these commodities for our use and for our children. Therefore, I am appealing to all women here present, the nursing mothers, the pregnant mothers to please make good use of this opportunity.

    “Visit every health care facility closest to you and receive these products for yourselves and for the wellbeing of your children. When we do that, we live healthier lives, our children will grow to be stronger and better and we will all break out of poverty.

    “On behalf of vitamin A angel and Public Enlightenment Project, I pledge our continued support for every time that you need commodities”, she noted.

    UNICEF Technical Resource Person for Bayelsa State, Odo Chikwuemeka said the purpose of the MNCH was to reduce sicknesses and death among women and children.

    “The purpose of it is to reduce what we called malnutrition- child not eating well that is among our children”.

  • UNICEF, Bayelsa train workers to tackle maternal mortality

    The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the Bayelsa State Government have commenced training of health workers to tackle maternal and perinatal death.

    Specifically, the workers will be trained on maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response reporting.

    Speaking in Yenagoa, the state capital, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu said the trained workers would provide evidence-based information in the why, what, where and number of maternal and perinatal deaths in the state.

    He said the training would help the state provide accurate data on birth-related deaths; make available tools and means of reducing maternal and perinatal deaths and introduce best practice in handling such matters.

    Etebu commended UNICEF for its assistance and called on stakeholders in the state to take advantage of the process to institute accurate data in the state.

    The commissioner described the high rate of maternal and perinatal death in the state as a nightmare saying the healthcare system in the country was weak.

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    He said the country accounted for 10 percent of global maternal death following the death of 33,000 women each year.

    He said: “The expected social and medical outcome of every intended pregnancy is to have a healthy mother with a baby that is endowed with full potential for its own existence and survival”.

    He lamented the disparity in birth-relates deaths between developed countries and developing countries in Africa.

    He said: “Whereas evidence-based interventions are employed into preventing maternal and perinatal deaths in developed countries, this is less applicable to their developing counterparts.

    “Secondly, for every maternal and perinatal deaths the occur in the developed countries, a review is carried out to understand and identify gaps in services that may have led to the deaths with a view to preventing future occurrence”.

    Etebu noted that the National Council on Health (NCH) approved the council memo establishing Maternal Death Review (MDR) in all the states in 2011.

  • Bayelsa warns doctors, nurses against mistreating patients

    The Bayelsa State Government on Tuesday urged nurses and doctors in private and public hospitals to change their attitudes towards their patients to enable them save lives.

    The Deputy Governor of the state, Rear Admiral John Jonah (retd.), made the appeal in Yenagoa, the state capital, during a meeting between the government and Christian leaders in the state.

    Jonah lamented that the way some medical experts treat their patients compelled many people to seek other means of attending to their health instead of going to hospitals.

    He said there was an urgent need for them to change their attitude for the good of the health care system in the state.

    Speaking on the meeting with Christian leaders, Jonah said that religious leaders were critical stakeholders adding that churches were found in every nooks and crannies of communities.

    Speaking on the occasion, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Daniel Iworiso-Markson, said that through the sensitisation effort of the government, the message of safe motherhood and childhood would get to every parrt of the state.

    Iworiso-Markson: “Through this programme, we are sending everyone to our communities. You know, in our communities, we have churches there and because of the church the people there can be reached.

    “Pastors play a very critical role; the church plays a very critical role in reaching these people, in reaching our women, so that they can discard those old practices, those traditional and religious practices that they have held on for so long where people take delight in giving birth at home rather than go to the hospital to give birth.

    “Now, government is saying that the hospital is free, we are providing everything free for you, doctors there will cater for you. That is why I gave a remark that we must commend his Excellency, Governor Seriake Dickson, for the support, particularly by ensuring that the 105 wards scattered all over the states have healthcare facilities provided there.”

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    He said that the government had not discarded the services of the traditional birth attendants but had embarked on training them to meet up with contemporary practices in health care delivery.

    He added. “It’s okay these are the things that our people are used to over the years but government is making it possible for them to be trained so that all those in involved in the TBAs are going to be trained. They too are going to go through the kind of orientation that we are giving right now.

    “Where there are complications, don’t hesitate to refer them to hospitals to refer them to doctors who can now provide extra medical care. So that’s the point we are making, so we are not discarding the TBAs, we are only saying that they do it the right way.

    “They must harmonize with the government and at any point in time where there are complications they should feel free to call the doctors to come in and as a government we are ready to do that.”

    Also speaking, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, said the government partnered Christian leaders because of their influence.

    He noted that with their collaboration, some of the Christian leaders, particularly pastors, would know their limitation and the functions of medical practitioners.

    On grants to pregnant women in the state, the health commissioner said that pregnant women captured would benefit from the grant.

    He said: “What I want you to take home is that once a woman is captured, she is assured of the money. Once she has been registered, the biometric is taken, she is assured of the money.

    “It doesn’t matter at what time the money is realeased, the most important thing is let them all register, once they register the money is assured and they will get it.”

    In his remarks, the Special Adviser to Governor of Religious Matters, Samuel Peters, said the church is to carry the message of safe motherhood back to their members.

    He said: “Bayelsa State is over 97 per cent Christians and in one way or the other they attend church and they get the message and our people respond to what they hear from the pulpit.

    “And if the government put it on the table that this is what we want and the church takes it back to the people it will have more effect. In fact, some people believe more in what their pastor say than what the government is saying.

    “And when the pastors key into good policies of the government, we will have a better, healthier and more fruitful society and in this case the government is saying we don’t want to see any mother or woman die in the course of giving birth and we are pastors in the state our duty is to take it back to our people.”

     

  • Monkey pox : Bayelsa allays fear of new outbreak

    Monkey pox : Bayelsa allays fear of new outbreak

    Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, Bayelsa Commissioner for Health, on Monday dispelled the romour that two new cases of monkey pox disease were detected in the state.

    Etebu said on telephone that the two cases were not fresh but old ones.

    According to him, blood samples sent for confirmatory tests at the World Health Organisation reference laboratory in Dakar returned in batches.

    “The additional two positive results, though not a new outbreak, will break the total recorded cases in the state to five.

    “WHO in September confirmed three cases of monkey pox disease in Bayelsa,” he said.

    The official allayed the fear that the disease was spreading further.

    He said that the epidemic had been largely contained following the joint efforts of the state government, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control and international public health partners.

    The commissioner said that most of the 21 patients isolated at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital, Okolobiri, Yenagoa, where the index case was reported, had fully recovered and discharged.

    On the current number of patients under surveillance at the quarantine centre, Etebu said: “I can tell you that many of the patients being monitored and given care at the isolation centre have been discharged.

    “But the situation is dynamic and the number keeps changing; I have not looked at the data for yesterday and may not give you information that is accurate,” he said.

    A family of three reportedly ate monkey meat at Agbura area of Yenagoa, Bayelsa, and had suspected cases monkey pox disease on Sept. 12.

    NAN

  • Bayelsa investigates suspected outbreak of monkeypox virus

    Bayelsa investigates suspected outbreak of monkeypox virus

    The Bayelsa Government is investigating suspected cases of monkeypox outbreak in its communities, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, has said.

    Etebu spoke in Yenagoa on Wednesday following reports that some 11 persons, including a medical doctor, had been placed on surveillance in Yenagoa.

    Those with the suspected cases had been quarantined at the Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital ( NDUTH ) , Okolobiri,  Yenagoa Local Government Area.

    The centre was established by Nigerian Centre for Disease Control ( NCDC ) and the epidemiological team of the state Ministry of Health to control the spread of the virus.

    NAN also learnt that NCDC and the epidemiological team were tracing 49 persons, who were in contact with persons suspected to have been infected.

    Etebu said that samples of the virus had been sent to the World Health Organisation laboratory in Dakar for confirmation.

    He described monkeypox as a viral illness caused by a group of viruses that include chickenpox and smallpox.

    The commissioner said the first case was noticed in the Democratic Republic of Congo and subsequent outbreaks in West Africa.

    He said the virus had the Central African and the West African types but that the West African type was  milder and had no records of mortality.

    “Recently in Bayelsa, we noticed a suspected outbreak of monkeypox.

    “It has not been confirmed. We have sent samples to the World Health Organisation reference laboratory in Dakar.

    “When that comes out we will be sure that it is confirmed. But from all indications, it points towards it.

    “As the name implies, the virus was first seen in monkeys but can also be found in all bush animals, such as rats, squirrels and antelopes.

    “The source is usually all animals. It was first seen in monkeys and that is why it is called monkey pox.

    “But every bush animal, such as rats, squirrels, antelopes are involved. So, the secretions from particularly dead animals are highly contagious.. Etebu said.

    He listed the symptoms of monkeypox as severe headache, fever, back pain, among others.

    Etebu said that most worrisome of all the signs were rashes bigger than those caused by chickenpox.

    The commissioner said the rashes were usually very discomforting and spread to the whole body of an infected person.

    “We noticed the first index case from Agbura where somebody was purported to have killed and eaten a monkey and after that the people who are neighbours and families started developing the rashes.

    “We have seen cases from as far as Biseni. We invited the NCDC together with our own epidemiological team from the Bayelsa Ministry of Health.

    “We have been able to trace most of the people who have come in contact with the patients.

    “So far, we have 10 patients and we have created an isolation centre at the NDUTH and most of them are on admission and we are following up the 49 cases that we are suspecting might come down with the illness.

    “As a state we are taking care of all the expenses of all the isolated cases.

    “The disease has an incubation period and it is also self-limiting in the sense that within two to four weeks, you get healed and it confers you with immunity for life.

    “We have mobilised virtually every arsenal at our disposal in terms of sensitising the general public and making them aware by radio programmes, jingles and fliers.

    “So the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control has mobilised fully to Bayelsa State. We are on top the situation.” Etebu said.

    NAN

  • Bayelsa urges hospitals to key into its Health Insurance Scheme

    Bayelsa urges hospitals to key into its Health Insurance Scheme

    Bayelsa Government has urged health institutions in the state to key into the Health Insurance Scheme being packaged for workers and people of the state.

    The Commissioner for Health, Prof. Ebitimitula Etebu, spoke on Wednesday in Yenagoa at a one-day sensitisation and interactive session with doctors on the implementation of the scheme.

    The commissioner enjoined medical doctors to deploy their wealth of experience to ensure that the scheme succeeds, noting that the state government places high premium on its implementation.

    Dr Zuoboemi Agadah, Executive Secretary of the Bayelsa State Health Insurance Scheme, explained the workings of the scheme.

    He said that the scheme was not meant to maximise profit, but to ensure equitable distribution of health care cost among low and high income earners.

    Agadah noted that the level of contributions to the scheme by enrollees was not determined by the health risk of individuals, but their ability to pay.

    He said though the scheme was compulsory for all public servants in the state, corporate organisations with not less than 10 employees and voluntary contributors could key into the scheme.

    The executive secretary added that registration of health facilities for the scheme had commenced, and urged interested health care providers to collect registration forms.

    He explained that the forms were available at the Bayelsa Health Insurance Schemes office, near Government House, Yenagoa.