In a bid to reduce the number of fatalities among children caused by pneumonia in Lagos State, Save Children International (SCI) in partnership with Glasgow Smithkline (GSK) are stepping in to help the government fight the health challenge among children.
Various stakeholders in the state’s health sector, community members, the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media on Monday in Ikeja, the state capital were present to witness the handing over of health equipment worth over N50 million to 30 health centres in Ikorodu Local Government Area (LGA) made possible by Save The Children International and its donor partner, GSK.
The gesture was motivated after a health facility assessment was carried out in Ikorodu, the pilot LGA in 2019 by representatives from the University College London (UCL) where it was discovered that there is a huge gap in health care delivery in the diagnosis and treatment of pneumonia among children in primary health centres in the area.
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Dr. Adamu Isa, Chief of Party, INSPIRING Project at Save the Children International, who spoke to journalists, said having discovered the gaps there is need to help the state in providing the needed assistance towards the fight against pneumonia among children as well as strengthening the state’s health care delivery.
According to him, a major component of the assessment was the training of health workers on how to administer oxygen to children down with the ailment.
He said, “I want to thank the GSK which is our donor because everything we do is with their funding, we have decided to do three major set of activities. Trying to strengthen the health care facility, build their capacity, how do they recognise pneumonia, how do they treat it or refer to higher centres if it is above their capacity.
“Other component is oxygen. Training health workers how to recognise that this child needs oxygen, how do you give the oxygen itself, when do you stop giving oxygen so that’s the training they call pulse oximetry and oxygen therapy we have been doing that here in Lagos and that is very useful.
“The other component which is important is the advocacy dealings with people who have power people that can make change – the so-called policy makers. That is why we are supporting, what we are donating today is hospital equipment worth about N50 million and we are contributing this item because we understood this is a gap when we did our analysis, we are not to say we can address all of the problems because the government has a primary responsibility to do that, our responsibility is to support and address those gaps that are within our means that is why you see us today giving this items to the hospitals in Ikorodu local government,” he said.
Dr Adamu, however explained that the ailment which is prevalent in a dusty and windy environment can be triggered as a result of low immunity status among children.
“If you are in a place where it is windy and dusty environment you’re likely going to get pneumonia, is not cold that matters, what matters is the harmattan condition, the wind blowing and the status when the immunity of the child is low and this is why we say immunization is important with nutrition.
“It is hazy condition, it is the allergy anything that weakens a child and makes him vulnerable to attacks by these bacterium and viruses,” he added.
Omolara Dahunsi, representative from the Lagos State Primary Healthcare Board commended the organisation and GSK for the equipment saying that healthcare delivery in the state is a collective effort of concerned stakeholders.
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