I am a retired pharmacist from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS). My job presently is to see that health delivery services reach the farthest communities in the Moyamba District.
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| Councilor Benson Cobba, Chair, Health and Sanitation Committee, Moyamba District Council |
We currently have over eighty functioning PHUs and a District referral Hospital in Moyamba town.
The health situation in the District I can say is fairly good.
Since the devolution of some of the functions of the MOHS to Council, Council has been working with the DHMT in a cordial atmosphere.
Recently, Council in collaboration with the DHMT recently undertook the registration of births; about 11,000 children who had never been registered before were captured in the exercise.
The DHMT also collaborated with Council in undertaking devolved activities under the Rapid Result Approach (RRA), which takes into its fold the immunization of children and women in which we achieved a record high of 85% from 50% low.
During the exercise, non-pregnant women also had the opportusty of having Tetanus Toxide (TT).
Another activity undertaken was the training of water well owners in the use of chlorine in their wells for water purification.
We have in fact just received fresh supplies of drugs with Atesunate Amodiaquine and Fancidar, for treatment of malaria, as Chloroquine is no longer effective.
The DMHT and Council also administrated Ivermectin for treatment of ONCHO, Moyamba being Oncho endemic.
This month, we shall distribute insecticide-treated bed nets to Under-5s and pregnant women.
We also recently undertook the micro-nutrient exercise from June 16th to 20th 2006,
in which we administered Vitamin A, iron and Mebendazole to all children 0-5 years.
To round it up so far, the technical staff of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation devolved to Council has been working hand-in-hand with Council towards the advancement of the health system in the district.
We are asking donor agencies to help with more drugs as the population is increasing, while Council lacks the funds and does not want to put the burden on the MOHS.
The district is greatly understaffed in the health sector; the lack of trained personnel no doubt hiders the effective delivery of health services.
The final thing I want to mention is the public refuse disposal vehicle donated to us by World Bank; as you can see, the town is clean and the environment safe.
We have two Medical Officers, one for public Health and one for Clinical. Both of them are coping with the demands and challenges of the Moyamba Community made up of 14 chiefdoms.
