The United States Centre for Disease Control (US-CDC) says it partnered Nigeria for decades to provide anti-retroviral treatment to 1.7 million people living with HIV.

The US-CDC Nigeria Country Director, Mary Boyd, disclosed this on the sideline of a world press conference to herald the upcoming Primary Health Care (PHC) Summit. The summit will hold on March 24 to 25 in Abuja.

Ms Boyd said the US-CDC also helped in scaling up immunisations, including COVID-19, malaria and other disease outbreaks.

“For decades, the United States has partnered with Nigeria to invest in the health and well-being of  Nigerians. The U.S.-CDC stands with the Nigerian government and expects that the upcoming PHC summit will be instrumental in enabling the highest quality of care for all by ensuring service integration, equity, accountability and resilience,” she explained.

The U.S. official added, “Primary Health Care saves lives, saves economies, and is foundational to making health systems work better for all people.”

Ms Boyd noted that globally, including in the U.S., COVID-19 exacerbated not only pre-existing weaknesses in the system but also inflicted devastating health and economic costs that many countries are still struggling to emerge from.

She, however, said that it had created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformational change.

“It has highlighted the critical role of PHCs in pandemic response from testing to contact tracing to vaccination response; all these in addition to its primary responsibilities of providing routine immunisation, polio response, the epidemic of chronic diseases and cancers,” she further explained.

Ms Boyd lauded the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the multi-sectoral response for their concerted response in the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I also want to thank the FMOH and NPHCDA for calling all partners together and taking advantage of this opportunity to re-think the PHC delivery in Nigeria,” the country director added.

The NPHCDA will host the private sector, government leaders, and international partners at the summit.

The summit, ‘PHC Re-Imagining: Evolving A Resilient Platform For Achieving The Country’s National And Global Health Goals Via A Peri-COVID Era’, will launch a bold new programme to transform primary health care in Nigeria.

(NAN)