Management of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nasarawa State inaugurates Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers medical outreach for first quarter of 2022.

The Management of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nasarawa State has inaugurated its Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (HIRD) medical outreach for the first quarter of 2022 in the state.

The coordinator of the scheme in the state, Mr Abdullahi Jikamshi, inaugurated the medical outreach in Loko community in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state.

According to Jikamshi, HIRD is a medical outreach on the platform of the NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) designed to reach out to rural communities, in most cases isolated communities, to review their medical conditions and provide medical care for the sick in the communities at no cost.

In a remark, Emir of Loko, Alhaji Abubakar Sani, expressed joy with the scheme for choosing his domain to inaugurate the first quarter of 2022 HIRD medical outreach which he said would go a long way to assist his people evaluate their health situation.

He then called on the people to come out en masse to receive medical consultation, treatment and referral for whatever ailment they are suffering from.

Speaking in an interview, Dr Ado Sanusi, the head of the NYSC Corps medical team saddled with carrying out the medical outreach, said that the team’s focus was to offer basic primary care ranging from consultation, ordering basic medical investigation such as malarial tests, blood sugar levels and blood pressure checks, among others.

In another interview, Mr Salihu Mohammed, a patient and indigene of the community lauded the initiative and said if the federal, state and local governments would carry out such medical outreach, medical challenges or cases would reduce drastically.

In the meantime, Poverty, taboos, child diseases and absence of immunisation have been identified as factors responsible for retardation of growth in children in some parts of Nigeria.

A study conducted by Global Exemplars in Stunting Reduction and Countdown to 2030 – Nigeria Country Case Study, came up with the observation. It called for renewed political will by governments to reverse the trend.

The study was led by Prof. Adebola Orimadegun of the Institute of Child Health, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan and Prof. Ayodele Jegede of the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan.

Orimadegun noted that increased wealth, education and improved sanitation were the drivers of stunting reduction in Nigeria and called for sustained government intervention to achieve significant reduction by 2030.

In his contribution, Jegede noted that distant factors contributing to stunting are politics, poverty, conflict, and migration adding that urbanisation, women empowerment and education could reverse the trend.

Vincent David