No fewer than 10 million school children across the country will be provided with facilities through the Pepsodent School Oral Health Initiative. This is contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Unilever PLC.He said, “New models such as Task shifting and Task sharing must be explored in order to ensure that people suffering from pain and illness caused by oral diseases and conditions are not left without care and treatment.” The Minister further revealed that the federal government is taking a step towards including oral health promotion programme into primary health care system in order to focus on interventions for the Noma disease.
“The rapid intervention programme on Noma is to be funded by development partners and other stake holders with visits to affected states and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps. “The Hilfakstion Noma has also indicated interest to collaborate with the Ministry on the eradication of Noma in the country”, he added.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, Noma is a devastating infectious disease of the mouth, which destroys the soft and hard tissues of the oral and para-oral structures
The disease is said to be common in children from the age of two to 16.
Source: Leadership Online
