The Community Health Promoters Group (CHPG) has initiated an extensive door-to-door public campaign to combat the diphtheria outbreak and prevent its spread across various regions of Jigawa State.
This coalition aims to enhance awareness and educate communities on disease prevention, control, and management.
During a specialized training held in Hadejia to enhance the capabilities of its members in delivering high-quality health information, Comrade Idris Haruna Kalli, the executive director of ILE and the workshop’s chief convener, emphasized that participants would convey the campaign’s significance to their respective communities after the training.
Kalli emphasized the critical need for intensifying public campaigns, focusing on immunization, promoting accessible healthcare services, and advocating for personal and environmental hygiene to effectively combat the outbreak.
Participants from eight local government areas within the state were urged to attentively engage in the training, as they play a pivotal role in disseminating knowledge to others, working collectively to significantly reduce preventable child deaths in the state.
Representing the state Primary Healthcare Agency, Malam Abdullahi, the health promoter officer of Hadejia local government area, expressed gratitude to the CSOs for their collaboration with the government in combating diphtheria and other diseases affecting children.
He emphasized the importance of immunization, which can provide a child with up to 90 percent immunity against these diseases, and encouraged civil society to intensify their efforts in disseminating health information, especially at the grassroots level, to address various health challenges like child and maternal mortality, malnutrition, and stunting rates.