Kano: PSN-PACFaH advocates prioritizing pneumonia, diarrhea

Nigerian civic organisations under the aegis of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), a member of the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) coalition, has called on the government of Kano state to accord priority attention to the management of Pneumonia and Diarrhoea, by allocating more funds to combat the child killer diseases in the state.

The activists made the demand when they paid an advocacy visit to the management of the state’s hospitals management board on Tuesday.

One in every five children in Kano, Nigeria’s most populous state, die before their fifth birthday and the state has one the highest number of pneumonia-related under-five mortality rate in the country.

“We are advocating for more allocation and releases of funds for the management of childhood pneumonia and diarrhoea in Kano state and the use of Amoxicillin DT in the management of childhood pneumonia. We are also advocating for increase in the state’s budgetary allocation to health, to be able to combat not only Pneumonia and Diarrhoea but also other diseases like Malaria,” says Ibrahim Hassan, the team lead for PSN-PACFaH’s advocacy visit.

Responding to the demands, Sadisu Kanya, an official of the board said the advocacy visit was a wake-up call to them adding that the state would ensure priority is given to the management of child killer diseases including pneumonia and diarrhea.

The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH) Project is an innovative intervention implemented by 7 Nigerian civil society organizations (CSOs) who have adopted advocacy as a key strategy in tackling the challenges of gaps in policy, budgeting and administrative frameworks, with a view to advance child and family health in Nigeria.