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Kogi boosts newborn survival with free distribution of medications

By John Akubo, Lokoja
06 July 2017   |   4:04 am
The Kogi Government in its bit to boost the survival of newborn babies has distributed of 24000 chlorhxidine-gel for umbilical cord care in 120 public health facilities in the 21 local Government Areas of the state.

Primary Health Care

The Kogi Government in its bit to boost the survival of newborn babies has distributed of 24000 chlorhxidine-gel for umbilical cord care in 120 public health facilities in the 21 local Government Areas of the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Saka Audu, at the ceremony in Lokoja, said that the governor had made free donations of the chlorhexidine gel to all public health facilities in the State for cord care and prevention of newborn infections. He charged the facilities to ensure that the commodity is given to all mothers that delivered in the hospitals free of charge, warning that it should not be sold to patients under any guise

“Since the inception of the new direction administration led by Gov Yahaya Bello, we have made health sector a priority and committed to reducing newborn mortality to less than 10 per 1000 live births by 2019.

“I must categorically state that chlorhexidine gel is the adopted antiseptic for cord care in Kogi in compliance with the Federal Ministry of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO)’s directive.

He indicated that the ministry will be rolling out other health intervention programs that will help in reducing maternal newborn and child mortality.

Kogi State Coordinator of Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP), USAID, Dr Gabriel Alobo, described the chlorhexidine gel as an antiseptic sort of chemical that has been proven to disinfect and reduce bacteria burden.

According to him, studies had shown that when a woman delivered and one applied the gel to the umbilical cord, the rate of infection is reduced by over 53 per cent.

We thank the governor and the state ministry of health for doing a great job, because the chlorhexidine uptake in the state has increased from about 25 to 68 per cent in just 15 months of this administration,” Alobo said.

Chief Medical Director (CMD), Kogi State Hospital Management Board, Dr Omale Wada, appealed to health officers not to take any money, and the beneficiaries not to be tempted to pay any amount.

“Government is giving them free to patients; if we receive any report that any officer is selling the drug, such officer will be thrown out of service.

He expressed the optimism that the incidence of umbilical cord infection will be reduced drastically with the use of the very potent gel that is more effective more compared to the previous ones.

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