Boko Haram: 20,000 people died of health related issues in the North-east – WHO

The World Health Organisation ( WHO) has said that over 20,000 people have died of health related issues  in the ongoing Boko haram insurgents’ activities in the Northeast geo- political zone.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by Dr. Jerry Pantuvo while presenting paper at a two day workshop organised for journalists in North-east, in Yola Adamawa state.

With a theme ‘Reporting Health issues during emergencies’ the workshop was aimed at reviewing, reintegrating the importance of reporting health issues and reshaping the journalists skills.

Also speaking, Adamawa state Coordinator of WHO Dr. Iyobosa Igbinovia explained that the training is in line with their commitments to partner with media to address the health challenges bedeviling the country.

He further explained that, the feedback they are getting is below expectations hence the need to keep on engaging the media to ensure that the right information is disseminated to the public.

In her opening remarks, the state commissioner of health Dr.Fatima Atiku Abubakar lauded WHO for its various interventions in the health sectors and expressed satisfaction with the cordial relationship between the state government, WHO and media for their collective efforts of educating the people on how to overcome health related issues.

She charged media practitioners in the state and other parts of the country to focus more on educating the public on preventing measures to enable them take precautionary steps before incidences happened that might lead to needless loss of lives.

Even as he also implored media practitioners to utilize the opportunity provided by the workshop to improved their health reporting skills to served humanity better.

The workshop bring together journalists from the 3 North-east states of Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and other parts of the country who are expected to brainstorm on how best to report health related issues.

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