Coronavirus

As part of combined efforts to combat the Coronavirus pandemic, medical items including Personal Protective Equipment, PPE were Monday donated to hospitals in Kogi State. The items were donated by a Non Governmental Organization, NGO, the Centre for Integrated Health Programs, CIHP.

The items were delivered to the Kogi State Health Management Board, KHMB for onward distribution to hospitals in all 21 Local Government Areas of the State.

Pharm. Akpa Bernard Patrick, the State Programme Director of CIHP, handed over the equipment to Dr Usman Zakari, the Chief Medical Director CMD of KHMB.

Items donated included: Hand gloves, N-95 Respirators, Surgical face masks, Hand sanitisers, Sodium hypochloride used as disinfectants, among others.

Patrick explained that CIHP is a United States (US) funded NGO, through the Centre for Disease Control Atlanta, which has been supporting the provision of comprehensive high-quality, family focused HIV/AIDS services to patients including adults and children.

”We are currently in about four States in Nigeria including Kogi State. We have been on ground since 2007 supporting the state to cater for the treatment, care and support of HIV/AIDS patients.

”We did the first donation in April and we are donating the second tranche today in our bid to prevent infections among healthcare workers especially those at the front line in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.

‘These are the people we are also working with to ensure that HIV/AIDS is taking care of in the state.

”The Covid-19 pandemic is no more history, it has become a new normal with us and across the world,” Patrick said.

The CIHP’s state program director noted that aside supporting the primary, secondary and tertiary public healthcare facilities, the NGO had also been given support to Private and Faith-Based Hospitals in Kogi.

In his respinse the CMD expressed profound gratitude to the donor NGO assuring that the items will be delivered to the intended beneficiaries noting that ”every where in the world, health care workers are those in the frontline for the fight against the deadly virus”.

He stressed that CIHP had been supporting hospitals in Kogi with logistics, medical equipment and everything around HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and sometimes malaria.

”They have brought many PPE to hospitals in Kogi for front line health workers; they have donated before, and they are donating again.

”The management of KHMB is receiving the equipment on behalf of the State Government for onward distribution to various hospitals across the 21 local government areas”’, Zakari said.