From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
The Jigawa State Eye health Committee has called for more recruitment of eye health personnel as the State owned only one Ophthalmologist against the entire population of over seven million.
This was announced by the Acting Chairman eye health committee Jigawa state chapter, Dr Usman Muhammad while delivering his speech during the review meeting of Jigawa State Inclusive Eye health Project – BMZ organized by HANDS with support From CBM, and German Cooperation, held at education Resource Centre Conference hall, Dutse.
“Jigawa state have only one Ophthalmologist staff with additional of two Ophthalmologists at Rasheed Shekoni Teaching Hospital of Federal University Dutse and another one Ophthalmologist working with Federal Medical Centre FMC Birnin Kudu while the State have no P”, he said.
Dr Muhammad lamented serious shortages of Eye health personnel in Jigawa, confirmed that there is no single Pediatric Ophthalmologist in the state.
According to him, the eye challenges continue increasing in the state (Glaucoma and Cataract), added that in most circumstances 15-20 eye patients turn to blind.
“Despite all these challenges, in Jigawa four ophthalmologists are currently serving a population of over eight million people in the state, which is below the World Health Organisation’s recommendation, that requires at least four ophthalmologists and ten optometrists for every one million people”, he said.
While delivering his speech the eye health manager of Health and Development Support Program, Abalis Darat, explained that the purpose of the meeting is to engage journalist as part of major stakeholders in promoting health issues in the state.
According to him, under the project, about 540 primary eye care providers were trained across the 27 local government areas, while 90 community health ambassadors were supported.
“We are trying to strengthen the eye health system in Jigawa, and it can only be achieve with your support as media, so that to address the challenges”, Darat said.
He then commended the participants and urged all the stakeholders to cooperate for better eye health of Jigawa citizens.
