#Nigeria: Healthcare Services Collapse As Doctors, Nurses Flee Borno Healthcare services have collapsed in the northern part of Nigerias Borno State as doctors, nurses and pharmacists flee for their lives from brutal violence unleashed by Islamist Boko Haram militants. Medical professionals say health services in the region have largely shut down, with mortality rates and vaccination programmes severely hit and pressure heaped on the skeleton staff that remain, according to AFP report. The whole healthcare system in northern Borno has collapsed and healthcare delivery is nil, said Musa Babakura, a surgeon at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). Babakura said the situation was a growing health crisis, with the sick forced to trek long distances to receive medical attention and vaccination programmes for children compromised. Violence by Boko Haram militants has raged since 2009, but has been particularly ferocious in recent weeks, with some 500 people killed in suspected attacks since the start of the year. Worst hit by militant attacks are villages in remote, rural areas near Bornos border with Cameroun, despite an increased military presence in the state. The AFP report said that hospitals and clinics have not escaped raids, even after Nigerias government imposed emergency rule on Borno and two other north-eastern states last May. Medical personnel have been kidnapped, either for ransom or to treat wounded fighters in Boko Harams ranks, while pharmacies - mostly run by Christians - have faced armed robberies and looting. The insecurity has forced local people to cross into neighbouring Cameroun in search of treatment, with pregnant women and the infirm using donkeys and auto-rickshaws to negotiate the difficult terrain. The gruelling trek takes its toll, said Modu Faltaye, a local chief in Wulgo, on the shores of Lake Chad. By the time the sick reach the hospital (in Cameroun), they are in a worse state, which is why we lose a lot of our sick. Naturally, the rate of maternal and infant mortality is bound to rise in the area as a result of complications arising from poor transportation facilities to hospitals, added Babakura. Nigeria is one of only three countries in the world - along with Afghanistan and Pakistan - where polio is endemic, but violence against immunisation workers have affected programmes. At least, nine people were killed in February last year, when gunmen stormed two vaccination clinics in the northern city of Kano, hampering efforts to inoculate children against the virus. (Y) Hope for Africa ********************* Like Comment Share
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 09:00:00 +0000
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