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Tuesday, 29 November 2016 10:30

FG, Unilever Sign MoU On Oral Health

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Isaac Adewole1No 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.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said, “These school health programmes are aimed at increasing the child’s responsibility for oral health and promote positive self-esteem as well as to promote proper habits for oral hygiene and to encourage schools and families to play a role in their children’s oral health.”

 
According to the minister, while oral health is paramount to achieving general health, oral diseases and disorders not only affect the victim’s quality of life, but also the well being of the community at large. Adewole also noted that the inadequate availability of specialised hands in oral health service delivery has made it unrealistic to rely on provision of such services at all healthcare levels.

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

Read 608 times Last modified on Monday, 26 July 2021 08:41
Published in Frontpage News

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