It's Not Enough to Fight Corruption, Invest Heavily in Health, Resident Doctors Tell Buhari

The Association of Resident Doctors, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) chapter said while it is not against the anti-corruption campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari, but however made a passionate call to him to invest heavily in the health sector in the country, saying that there is urgent need to upgrade the  infrastructure as the ones on ground are over-stretched.

Its President, Dr. Isaac Akerele‎ made the appeal at a press briefing  in Abuja, where he briefed journalists about the forthcoming 2015 Health Week with the theme, "Management of Armed Conflicts Injuries: Challenges of Our Time."

He said the motivating strategy for considering the topic was to develop a critical mass of medical doctors in FCT who are well trained, motivated to respond to emergencies and disasters related to armed conflicts like bomb blast injuries anytime with upmost professionalism.

Akerele‎ noted:" while we are not against the anti-corruption war, we call on President Muhammadu Buhari to invest greatly in health sector. Investment in health is the only way his government can be seeing as working. It is not enough alone to fight corruption."

Continuing he stated that, " there is urgent need to upgrade our facilities, we demand from government a functional trauma centre of the FCTA. With fully equipped intensive care unit that cannot be any different capability to save traumatic patient without infrastructural upgrade."

The president lamented that HIV/AIDS is on the increase in FCT with Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC)  leading with highest number of people living with HIV.

He explained further that three out of the six area councils namely; Kuje, Bwari‎ and AMAC have about 70% of the total number of people living with the virus, stressing that there was need to have a sustainable plan in place to continue free treatment of the people living with the virus since foreign  donors are now withdrawing.

Akerele‎ said that as part of its activities, there would be a HIV/AIDS advocacy Road walk intended to draw the attention of the Nigeria Health Authorities and the citizens to the reality that immediate treatment must be made available to anyone diagnose with HIV infection.

He stressed that‎ that was the only way the country could ensure that people living with HIV enjoy healthy, productive, dignified social life and reduce the chances of infecting their partners or children.

Aside from the road walk, he noted that free medical outreach has been scheduled to take place in Pyakasa‎ community on Wednesday where free testing, treatment of people in the community be carried out.

The president added that Nigeria has gotten the potential to meet the 90:90:90 treatment target to ensure that by 2020, 99 per cent of all people living with HIV receive sustainable anti-retroviral therapy and 90 per cent all people receiving anti-retroviral therapy would have sustainable viral suppression.