NAN-H-26
Treatment
By Muhammad Nasir Bello
Sokoto, Aug. 9, 2017 (NAN) No fewer than 1,833 persons suffering from various eye problems have received free treatment under the Sen. Aliyu Wamakko eight-day free eye treatment outreach programme.
This was disclosed by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Bashir Mani to newsmen in Sokoto on Wednesday.
Mani in a statement said that the programme which was started at the Palace of the District Head of Balle, Gudu Local Government, on Aug. 1, ended at the Kofar Rini Clinic, in Sokoto North Local Government on Tuesday night.
Mani also said that the outreach was successfully conducted in all the eight local government areas under the Sokoto North Senatorial District.
They are: Gudu, Tangaza, Binji, Wamakko, Silame, Kware, Sokoto North and Sokoto South Local Governments.
He said that the patients received treatments in refractive errors, with eye glasses, infections such as conjunctivitis and other challenges.
Sen. Wamakko, the immediate past governor of the state, said in the statement that the exercise was aimed at alleviating the suffering of his constituents.
He said that the exercise had to accommodate more beneficiaries due to the massive turn out of patients from the local governments in the senatorial district.
Wamakko who is currently the Chairman, Senate Committee on Basic and Secondary Education at the Senate promised to sustain the gesture, to alleviate the sufferings of the people of the state.
Also, Dr Chinemeze Ubani, the leader of the five-man medical team that conducted the outreach, expressed happiness with the orderliness displayed by the beneficiaries.
Ubani added that over 70 per cent of the beneficiaries were suffering from various pathological problems like trachoma, glaucoma, cornea ulcers and allergic conjunctivitis, among others.
According to him, all the patients under this category were treated and issued with drugs.
He said that the remaining 30 per cent of the patients who had refractive errors like myopes, hyperopes and presoyoes, were also given drugs and eye glasses.
Ubani noted that several other patients who required surgeries were referred to the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching and Specialist Hospital in Sokoto.
Ubani called for the recruitment of more eye specialists in the country to tame the increasing menace of eye ailments.
Some of the beneficiaries commended Wamakko for the gesture and urged other wealthy individuals to emulate him.
They included an 80-year-old man, Alhaji Muhammad Namadina, a 40-year old woman, Hajiya Asma’u Abubakar and another 66-year old man, Alhaji Isa Abdullahi. (NAN)
BMN/PAD
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Edited by Peter Dada