ABIA STATE GOVT MOBILIZES FOR FREE FOREIGN MEDICAL OUTREACH

REPORTER: PEACE AGBO

Over five thousand indigent persons in Abia State are to benefit from a ten day free medical outreach to be organized by the Abia State Government in collaboration with sixty-five Nigerian doctors based abroad.

Also to benefit are over 200 persons with surgical cases across the state.

Briefing newsmen on the outcome of this week’s Executive Council meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti, the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Prince Okey Kanu, called on prospective beneficiaries of the free medical outreach to register early for the surgery.

Prince Kanu further announced that the commencement of this year’s polio eradication campaign in the state would be at Isialangwa South Local Government and called on mothers and caregivers to take advantage of the opportunity to immunize their children against polio.

The Commissioner, who said there were health related activities lined up, noted that the aim of the exercise was to ensure that the residents were provided with easy access to free and quality health care.

Contributing, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ngozi Okoronkwo, explained that the members of the foreign medical mission would arrive in the state in less than a month to conduct rare surgeries, including Colon Cancer prostrate among other surgerical cases.

She advised adults from forty years and above to visit designated centres across the three Senatorial Zones of the State for test before the arrival of the team.

Also, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Special duties, Dr. Betty Emeka-Obasi said that the focus of the Governor Otti’s administration is to revolutionize the health sector, describing the theme for the Glaucoma week “Uniting for a Glaucoma free World” as commendable.

On the 2024 International Women’s Day celebration with the theme, “Inspire Inclusion,” the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Bekky Ogechi-Oguama, said the event, which is celebrated annually on the 8th of March, would be marked in the State on the 7th of this month in Umuahia.

Mrs. Oguama, who said opportunities would be offered to people with Disabilities in the state, listed activities lined up for the event, including road walk, lectures amongst others.

EDITED BY CHUKWUBUIKE MADU