By Haruna Gimba
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has donated health equipment worth $290, 000 to Federal Government to address the outbreak of Lassa fever and other current health challenges in the country.
The equipment, which includes two ambulances, 30 Bajaj motorcycles, 34 safety boxes and other items, were procured by the World Health Organisation (WHO) with funding from AfDB.
According to a statement from Director Media and Public Relations in the Ministry of Health, Mrs. Boade Akinola, the WHO Country Director, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz, presented the equipment to the Ministry of Health in Abuja.
Dr. Vaz said the equipment was initially to curtail the spread of Ebola epidemic, but with the successful curtailing of Ebola, it can be used to address other epidemic.
Country Director of AfDB, Mr. Ousmane Dore, commended the Federal Government for the way and manner it handled the Ebola virus epidemic.
“AfDB commended the way in which Nigerian Government was able to arrest the spread of the Ebola disease for which the Bank had earmarked some resources to help you in the fight,” Mr. Dore said.
Receiving the equipment, Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole said world must be prepared for eventualities as global warming is bringing quite a number of challenges in the health sector.
He said the equipment would help Nigeria to prepare against any eventuality that may occur, saying the country does not know what would happen tomorrow and thereafter.
“But the most important thing is that we must be prepare at all time, these would help us to stay prepared and we still look forward to support our laboratories facilities and build the human system that would make the country ready for any epidemic,” he said.
