Boko Haram: Healthcare Services Not Shut Down In Borno – Commissioner

The Borno Government has denied allegation by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) that  healthcare services have collapsed in the North-East, due to the activities of insurgents.
The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Salma Kolo, told newsmen on Saturday in Maiduguri, that the allegation was untrue.
Kolo said that no health facility had been closed down in the state due, to the Boko Haram insurgency.
“I wish to state categorically that no healthcare facility had been closed down in the state, in spite of the insurgency.
“All the four general hospitals at the state capital are working effectively, so also are the public health facilities in the 27 Local Government Areas of the state.’’
The commissioner, however, admitted that although, some health facilities were threatened in the past, they were never closed.
“It is true that some facilities were threatened in the past, especially those involved in the child immunisation programme.
“We have been able to forge ahead without closing them; our efforts have paid off as we have succeeded in preventing the spread of wild polio virus in the state.
“Let me say without fear of contradiction, that Borno State has not witnessed any new case of wild polio since the beginning of the year.’’
She said that the government decided to introduce new methods of distributing immunisation materials after receiving threats of attacks from suspected insurgents.
The commissioner said:  “we decided to decentralise the distribution of materials among areas to make it easier for immunisation workers to get supplies without hitches’’.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that a report by NEMA on Thursday, said that insurgency had brought the health system to a “total collapse’’ in most Local Government Areas of Borno.