Wife of Ebonyi State Governor Chief Mary-Maudaline Nwifuru has commended the Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN) and its partners in the State for their support to eradicate and abolish untimely death from a preventable disease like cervical cancer in the State.
According to the governor’s wife, the step taken by MWAN will help to curb in no small measure the menace of cervical cancer with its associated morbidity and mortality in the State.
Mrs Nwifuru represented by the Commissioner for Health in the State Dr Ekuma Moses, gave the commendation at DUFUTH on the occasion of the Grand finale of the mega capacity building program and the commissioning of the Well Woman Centre DUFUTH named after the governor’s wife.
Her words; “I must commend your tenacity in your service delivery precisely in choosing your programs and goals of pursuit. I am glad to see this team working assiduously to support the health indices in improvement and advancement.
“May I Honourable implore you all at this juncture to remain focused on your mission objectives so as not to be deterred on this sojourn to ameliorate human plights knowing full well that every great work of humanity has juicy rewards that await its partakers though sometimes not very immediately but it’s manifestation is definite.
“I do promise to always respond swiftly to your health concerns programmes through the State Ministry of Health to ensure the smooth running of this noble association”.
Mrs Nwifuru further commended the Chief Medical Director of DUFUTH Prof. MaryRose Uzoma and the National President of MWAN and other stakeholders for bringing the program to Ebonyi State. She then promised to double her efforts to better the lives of Ebonyi people home and abroad.
“I promise to henceforth, support all women-related medical programmes,” she said.
Earlier, the CMD DUFUTH Mrs Rosemary Agwu seek for collaborative effort to achieve excellence in healthcare adding that DUFUTH is willing to support any initiatives for manpower training and support for the establishment of Well Woman Centres in numerous general hospitals in the State to enable them have a wider coverage of screening and cover ground in the battle against cervical cancer.
She also solicits support for their social welfare scheme to enable them cater for numerous indigent pregnant women as well as patients who are not able to cater for themselves.
Dr Agwu, however, seeks support in providing a solar (10kva) power supply for the well-woman center to enable the hospital run centre 24hrs a day with constant electricity and adequate cold chain system for the expected vaccines.
“We would need collaboration and support efforts in getting HPV vaccines and all other related vaccines to support the immunization of our women against the causative agent for cervical cancer. We Need strips for HPV testing. This will enable us to properly screen our patients for cervical cancer.
“Year in year out, many women continue to suffer for this malignant disease due to the absence of an organized screening programme targeted against cervical cancer.
“This zeal spurred the MWAN, in collaboration with DUFUTH, NOFIC, AE-FUNAI, and the Ministry of Health to leverage the usefulness of the world cancer awareness month to carry out a widespread cancer screening Programme for all women, and to engage in training and retraining of all health personnel to carry out this daunting task, even in the hinterlands, in order to drastically reduce its incidence among women and females in Ebonyi state and beyond,” she said.
In her speech, the National President Medical Women Association of Nigeria, Prof. Rosemary Ogu, said the Association passionately works towards ensuring that sensitization, information, capacity building, and service delivery of everyone’s good health.
According to her, MWAN focuses on women and children, men by virtue of their being part and parcel of the family.
She, however, noted that the capacity building programme would be stepped down to all general hospitals in Ebonyi state, and seek continued collaboration among relevant partners to curb the malignant disease.
“We ask everyone here to please, support.
“Cervical cancer can be eliminated; cervical cancer is a preventable disease.
“It is heartbreaking to lose women to cervical cancer, something that is preventable,” Ogu lamented.
In their separate goodwill messages, the MWAN state President, Dr. Lilian Nwobashi, and Dr. Chidiebere Osuagwu who represented the NOFIC CMD, Prof. Johnson Obuna, pledged their commitments to the cause of preventing the disease.
The 17day corporate health activity organized by MWAN in partnership with David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital Uburu (DUFUTH), Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki (AE-FUTHA) National Obstetrics Fistula Center Abakaliki (NOFIC ) and ministry of Health in State.