By Sunday Donats,  Lafia
Nasarawa state government has said that it is committing the sum of N40,000,000 as seed fund to combat the spread of Hepatitis C in the state.
Governor  Abdullahi Sule  made this known on Thursday in Lavia during the flag-off ceremony of the 5-Year Hepatitis ‘C’ Elimination Plan and inauguration of the Technical Working Group (TWG) for the elimination of the scourge in Nasarawa State.
Sule, who commend the state’s development partners for this laudable collaboration aimed at eliminating Hepatitis ‘C’ within the next five years, said it was in line with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Elimination Goal of 2023.
He said: “This is aimed at facilitating the screening of over 2.4 Million persons and providing treatment for over 124,000 persons”.
“We have also embarked on several other Interventions in the healthcare sector to improve the quality of healthcare services in our Primary, Secondary and Tertiary health institutions which include infrastructural upgrade, provision of various equipment, drugs and improvement in the health manpower, among others” he explained further.
The governor said currentlt this intervention has been expanded to over 10 facilities in the state and no fewer than 85,000 persons have been screened, out of which 1,300 infected individuals were treated through these preliminary efforts.
He, however,  stressed that this is but a drop in the ocean when compared with the estimated State’s burden, saying that ‘as a demonstration of our commitment to fight this viral disease, this administration is committing the sum of forty million Naira as seed fund to combat the disease’.