By Aisha Mohammed
Primary Healthcare System in Adamawa State has significantly improved access to routine services, including immunization, maternal and child health, antenatal care, family planning, and child welfare clinics.
However, challenges such as inadequate utilization of available services and health misinformation, attributed to poverty of knowledge, have led to low health seeking behavior in some communities in the state.
In the aftermath of the recent flash flood incident that displaced families and disrupted lives in some parts of Adamawa State, the Primary Healthcare teams swiftly provided emergency services in the camps.
The Executive Chairman, Adamawa State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Suleiman Bashir, said flooding is not an environmental issue but a public health emergency that increases the risk of disease outbreaks, poor hygiene, and malnutrition.
Dr. Bashir emphasized the need for social behavioral change as a tool for an urgent call to action in addressing poverty of knowledge through deep collaboration with the media in promoting Primary Healthcare utilization across Adamawa State.
Highlighting the vaccination success achieved in the recent National Immunization Plus-Days Vaccination campaign, Director of Disease Control and Immunization at the Agency, Dr. Jacob Vasumu, said the exercise initially targeted over one point three million children but ended up vaccinating over one point four million children.
Vasumu added that the health of mothers and newborns is a collective responsibility.
On her part, the United Nations Children’s Fund UNICEF Bauchi Chief of Field Office, Nuzhat Rafique, said UNICEF is concerned with supporting children’s needs and urged the media to encourage mothers to breastfeed their newborns with breast milk for the first six months without water to protect them from malnutrition and enhance brain development.
Rafique emphasized the importance of breast milk in the life of a newborn, noting that the theme for the 2025 World Breastfeeding Week, Prioritizing Breastfeeding,Create Sustainable Support System, is apt and will go a long way in producing a healthy generation.
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