As Lagos State begins preparation for another round of the state wide free hypertension and diabetes screening, the state government says no fewer than 600,000 people have so far benefitted from the first eight rounds of the programme.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, who disclosed this in Lagos at the opening of a Train-the-Trainers Workshop for health workers in the state in preparation of the commencement of the 9th round of the programme, explained that government embarked on the programme in order to combat the two non-communicable diseases in view of the danger to health and economic loss to both individuals and governments.
Idris, who spoke through the ministry’s Director, Disease Control, Dr. Olufemi Taiwo, stressed the importance of the training exercise to the programme, adding that the training will in no small measure help the health workers in the each of the local government that will drive the exercise.
He said: “This training is so essential as there is the need to educate and sensitise our health workers from various local government areas and to refresh their minds.
“It is expected that those trained will cascade the training to other health workers in their local government areas,”
He pointed out that the 9th round of the screening exercise has been scheduled to run from April 10 to 16, 2012 simultaneously in the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas of the state.