By Stephen Adeleye.
An NGO, the Center for Integrated Health Programs (CIHP), has donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to hospitals across the 21 local government areas of Kogi as measures against Covid-19 pandemic in the state.
Pharm. Akpa Bernard Patrick, the State Programme Director of CIHP, handed over the PPE to Dr Usman Zakari, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) Kogi Hospitals Management Board (KHMB) on Monday in Lokoja.
According to Patrick, CIHP is a United States (US) funded NGO, through the Centre for Disease Control Atlanta, which has been supporting the provision of comprehensive high-quality, family focused HIV/AIDS services to patients including adults and children.
”We are currently in about four States in Nigeria including Kogi State. We have been on ground since 2007 supporting the state to cater for the treatment care and support HIV/AIDS patients.”
He noted that the NGO had earlier donated PPEs such as overalls’ wears, spraying machines to hospitals including Isolation Centers in April, saying this was the second tranche of the donation.
“We did the first donation in April and we are donating the second tranche today in our bid to prevent infections among healthcare workers especially those at the front line in the fight against Covid-19 pandemic.
“These are the people we are also working with to ensure that HIV/AIDS is taking care of in the state.
”The Covid-19 pandemic is no more history, it has become a new normal with us and across the world,” Patrick said.
The CIHP’s state program director noted that aside supporting the primary, secondary and tertiary public healthcare facilities, the NGO had also been given support to Private and Faith-Based Hospitals in Kogi.
”We are hoping that as soon as the these PPEs are exhausted, we will supply more to the hospitals,” said.
In his short remarks, Zakari commended the NGO for the gesture in assisting the state in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying, ”every where in the world, health care workers are those in the frontline for the fight against the deadly virus”.
He stressed that CIHP had been supporting hospitals in Kogi with logistics, medical equipment and everything around HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and sometimes malaria.
”They have brought many PPE to hospitals in Kogi for front line health workers; they have donated before, and they are donating again.
”The management of KHMB is receiving the equipment on behalf of the State Government for onward distribution to various hospitals across the 21 local government areas”’, Zakari said.
Items donated included: hand gloves, N-95 respirators, surgical face masks, hand sanitisers, sodium hypochloride used as disinfectants, among others.
