Ekiti Prepares 200,000 Persons To Benefit From FG’s Health Intervention

By Ayodele Oni

Ekiti State Governor, Biodun Oyebanji, has announced that not less than 200,000 residents of the State will benefit from the Federal Government’s powered project 10m Campaign against hypertension and diabetes tagged: “know your number, control your number.”

The Governor expressed readiness to tackle increase in the number of hypertension and diabetes patients in the State, saying this accounted for reason the state keyed into the project.

Oyebanji lamented that over 70% of mortality being suffered by people between ages 30 and 70 were caused by the duo of hypertension and diabetes, which he said make them the most notorious killers of the Nigerian productive population.

The governor made the remarks on Monday, while flagging off the federal government’s powered project 10m Campaign against hypertension and diabetes tagged: “know your number, control your number”, in Ado Ekiti.

Oyebanji, represented by the Deputy Governor,  Monisade Afuye, said the project 10m, is a national initiative by the forum of health commissioners in the country, to tackle increasing prevalence of hypertension and diabetes.

He said Ekiti was combining the ‘project 10 Million initiative’ with an innovative state intervention to rapidly increase demand for primary health care services in Ekiti State, which is key to achieving universal health coverage for the people.

“There is a 70 percent chance of dying from hypertension and diabetes between the ages of 30 and 70 years in Nigeria.

“Despite this alarming statistics, a lot of people are not aware of their status as far as these health conditions are concerned making them a silent threat to their health and wellbeing.

“We hope to conduct free screening for about 200,000 people in Ekiti State for hypertension and diabetes within the week long campaign in 161 screening centres across the state from Monday 28 October to Sunday 3″ November 2024 with a focus on adult from age 18 years.”

The governor stated that counseling will be organized for  participants on non-communicable diseases and newly diagnosed people will be linked to a hospital closest to them for care, saying there will also be opportunity for short term refill for known hypertension patients during the exercise.

Oyebanji appealed to traditional leaders, religious organizations, market women, local government leaders, health workers, and civil society organizations, to support this intervention and ensure its success in their various jurisdictions.

In his submission, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, said the rationale behind the free screening was to checkmate the frightening and spiraling level of hypertension and diabetes across the country, Ekiti inclusive.

Filani revealed that statistics confirmed that about 27 percent of morbidity rate in the country was due to the scourges of hypertension and diabetes, which he said makes it imperative for the citizens to participate in the free health programme.

“Our mission in Ekiti State is to spread this campaign to as many people as possible, to know the number of victims and to be able to control it.

“With the Primary Healthcare programme, we are planning to ensure that children of less than five years have access to immunisation and pregnant women are made to have access to pregnancy kits and strong ante natal care to reduce in fact and maternal mortality rates.”