The Civil Society Platform on Health (CSPH) has called on the Federal Government to move healthcare to a first line charge and concentrate on indigenous funding as vaccine-preventable disease continue to claim many lives.According to Former Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange, who is President of CSHP, she noted in a telephone conversation that: “A lot can be done by the media because whatever we do will always remain at the grassroot level until the media takes the awareness to the world”. On falsification of figures of immunisation data gathering in Nigeria, Grange said: “Nigeria is still young, we dont have a robust system for gathering data so its in our plan to collect data and report it at community level.
“Data collection on polio is authenti and we hope to use that mechanism to work on vaccines,” she said. On production of local vaccines in Nigeria instead of importation, Grange said “We definitely need it but at this stage of planning as it will boost economic development.
“We are hoping that it will cheaper because most things produce locally dont come cheap especially at the beginning, we hope to produce and even export as partnership is the key to improving planning and implementation of any health programme” she added.
According to Ayo Ipinmole of the Civil Society in Malaria Control, Immunization and Nutrition: “Our government needs to take full ownership of the health system in the country, and that ownership includes largely funding. What you dont pay for you dont own, the people who pay for our health system invariably own our health system”.
Source:Vanguard
