Over 248,000 women offered family planning – LASG

The Lagos State Government revealed. on Thursday, that 248,962 women were accessing Family Planning services from about 257 trained community pharmacists, and patent and proprietary medicine vendors.

The Family Planning Coordinator, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Adeleye Latifat, made this known at the Colossus Hotel, Ikeja.

She also noted that over 11,000 children were treated for Cholera between 2017 and 2024.

She said in six years, 11,475 children under the age of five years were treated with ORS and Zinc while 2,812 children under the age of five who had Pneumonia were given Amoxicillin DT during treatment.

While presenting a report at the Lagos State Integrate Mid Project Dissemination Meeting, she said several families had been accessing family planning services.

Apart from the 248,962 women accessing the services, she said 3900 referrals were made to public facilities from CPs and PPMVs facilities.

Giving an update within the period in view, she said, “759,494 condoms were distributed, 166,079 oral pills given, 10,525 injectables administered, and 3,814 implants inserted.”

On the treatment of children, she added that “19,776 U-5 children with fever (were) tested with RDT and 11,393 (were) treated with ACT.”

She highlighted the challenges of the team to be the high cost of commodities that “has hampered the stocking of FP commodities by some providers and the reduction in service uptake across the board attributed to the high cost of commodities, consumables, and overall business running cost.”

In May, a non-profit organisation, DKT International Nigeria, enlightened residents of the Makoko community in Lagos on the importance of family planning.

The NGO said family planning had been identified as the most cost-effective means to improve the health of mothers in Nigeria.