Kano State government has appreciated the efforts of Bill and Melinda Gates and Dangote Foundations for supporting the state in the eradication of polio and poverty among its citizens.
Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso said this Tuesday, when Chris Elias, president of global development programme, Gates Foundation, paid him a courtesy call at the Government House in Kano.
“As we all know Polio virus has relationship with poverty. Before now many of us never knew that Polio has relationship with personal hygiene and other areas of health, but now we know better,” Kwankwaso stated.
The governor recalled that when he met Bill Gates recently they discussed on other areas of possible intervention by the Gates Foundation in Kano, especially on agriculture and education, which are among the priority areas of the state government.
“This state is the most populous state in Nigeria, and I believe with these two foundations, a lot can be achieved in the area of eradication of poverty,” the governor assured.
Governor Kwankwaso applauded Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, his deputy, for leading other public health officials to work round the clock in the anti-polio campaign, pointing out that people of the state also deserve tribute for cooperating with the government in realising the set goals.
Earlier, Elias said that the programme’s leadership team oversees the foundation’s work in developing countries like Nigeria on agricultural development, family health, vaccine delivery, sanitation and special initiatives among others.
He, therefore, stated that his visit to the state was to strengthen the partnership with state government on some projects in the state, explaining happily, that within the last 18 months, there has been significant improvement on polio eradication in the state.
Elias noted that the achievement was recorded due to the support of government, health workers and people of the state, hoping the spirit would remain alive.
On what could be described as a major setback to several efforts by the relevant stakeholders in health sector both national and international communities to end the spread of polio virus in Nigeria, Kano state government has again discovered new polio case in Sumaila Local government area of the state.
The new case put the number of Wide Polio Virus (WPB) discovered this year in Kano to three as the state government had in its first quarter review announced the discovery of two cases of polio disease in Gaya and Tarauni Local Government Areas.
Disturbed by the development, the state government tagged some of the troubled local governments including Sumaila, Tarauni, Gaya, Minjibir, Tudunwada, Fagge, Bichi and Rogo among others as high risk areas needed special attentions.
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