William Attah, Gombe
Authorities of the Ministry of Health in Gombe State have assured Filiya Community in Shongom Local Government Area that their Primary Health Care (PHC) facility will soon be upgraded to a cottage hospital.
According to the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, the State Governor, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya had earlier this year directed that the facility be considered for upgrade to a cottage hospital which the ministry is following all procedures to make it a reality.
A recent visit to Filiya by our correspondent showed that in the past few years the rural town has been bedevilled with an upsurge of cases of hepatitis, tuberculosis and HIV.
Filiya is a border town with Karim Lamido LGA of Taraba State and Alkaleri LGA of Bauchi State and both have witnessed high business and mining activities in the past few years making the people from there to troop into Filiya for medical attention.
This has also made the PHC in Filiya to be overstretched.
During the visit to the community and the facility, our correspondent also learnt that an NGO which used to run free hepatitis tests in the facility, had stopped since last year.
It was gathered that within a month, they used to carry out 50 to 100 tests with a high number of positive cases.
Our correspondent also learnt that there was an increase in the number of tuberculosis cases.
According to the discovery, for December 2020 alone, six cases of tuberculosis were recorded while 261 cases were recorded from January to June, 2021.
For cases that were assumed, our correspondent gathered that there were 281 cases for 2020 while 308 cases had so far been assumed for 2021 already.
In the case of HIV, investigation revealed that as at the time of the visit (Tuesday 6th July, 2021), the facility was managing 1,801 cases and majority of the people come from border villages of Karim Lamido LGA in Taraba State as well as boarder villages from Alkaleri LGA of Bauchi State.
However, speaking with the Gombe State Health Commissioner over the issue and what the ministry was doing, Dr. Habu said the ministry was not aware that such outbreaks were in alarming numbers.
He said the ministry has an official system of getting weekly and monthly records of incidences of diseases through its DSNO.
According to him, “I will set up an investigative team to visit the community and the facility immediately. When we discover these diseases are in a proportion that is not normal through taking of samples and verification and have a report,” action will be taken immediately.
He stated also that the State Government was doing its best to give the people of the State the best in terms of healthcare delivery which is the reason why it was able to reactivate at least one PHC facility in all the 214 wards of the State adding that more reforms in the health sector are on the way.
