As part of its charity services, the Yakubu Gowon Foundation has commenced free hepatitis screening and vaccination for 2, 000 residents of Gombe State.
Speaking with newsmen on the exercise, the programme coordinator for viral hepatitis of the foundation, Mr Adeyeye Ajayi, said people who turn up for the exercise would be tested for the virus and be given free vaccines simultaneously by the organisation.
He stated that the gesture which was supported by the North East Development Commission (NEDC) was part of the contribution of the foundation in eliminating hepatitis virus which he pointed out has continued to kill a lot of people in the society due to lack of testing and immunisation.
According to him, they had been providing such health intervention since 2019 in north eastern states of Bauchi, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe and Taraba adding that this was the first phase of the programme in Gombe and more phase would be conducted subsequently.
The coordinator said the screening and vaccination exercise would be done in the three senatorial zones of the state using health facilities like Billiri General Hospital for Gombe south senatorial district, General Hospital, Kumo for Gombe central and the State Specialist Hospital in the state capital for Gombe north respectively.
This is even as he added that the gesture would be extended to the correctional facilities in the state where all inmates would be screened and vaccinated irrespective of their jail terms.
