By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
Bauchi State Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in conjunction with State Primary Healthcare Board in collaboration with the
World Health Organization (WHO), Bauchi State Office, on Friday,
commemoratesd World Health Day 2026, with the theme: “Together for Health. Stand with Science.”
The commemoration was marked by a road walk which began from the Palace of the Emir of Bauchi through the ever busy Gwabba – Nassarawa Street ending at the headquarters of the State Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Speaking at the ceremony, the State Commissioner of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Sani Mohammed Dambam, outlined the various achievements recorded by the administration in the health sector.
He also stated that government has concentrated in surveillance in order to detect diseases and design how best to tackle such to prevent outbreaks and out of hand control.
The Commissioner added that the use of data for decision making has been intensified and well funded leading to near accurate interventions across the health sector.
Sani Mohammed Dambam commemded WHO for the various interventions in the State which he said had positively impacted and improved the health sector over the years assuring that the State is open to more collaborations and partnership.
He stressed that the use of science in the health sector cannot be over-emphasized as it is the basis upon which planing of intervention in disease control is hinged.
He then assured that government will continue to lay emphasis on the use of science to promote effective and efficient services delivery in the health sector.
In his remarks, the State Coordinator of World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr. Sani Ibrahim, stated that World Health Day has been happening in the national and other global community each and every year, but this year, it has been trickled down to all states for them to celebrate today.
“So, without wasting much of our time, you need to know that we are commemorating the World Health Day. The theme for this year is, “Together for Health and Standing Science”. This theme underscores the importance of collaboration, evidence-based decision, and the use of innovative technologies, which will enable us to improve our health outcomes,” he added.
According to him,”So, WHO intervention in Bauchi State demonstrate how standing with science translate into stronger disease surveillance, data-driven programme and technology-enabled health solutions.”
Represented by Dr. Yarima Kucici, he further stated that, “So, commitments for the WHO are one, surveillance. In surveillance, it’s an ongoing activity which analyze, report, detect, and interpret data for action. We use surveillance for decision-making. So one of our main activities is surveillance, which enables us to detect diseases and respond to public health threats.”
He added that,”The WHO supported states and strengthened surveillance system through structured reporting, active case search, capacity building of our DSNOs and other surveillance networks. and timely response to other epidemics or diseases and other public health events.”
“So, examples of those are strengthening surveillance is one, acute flaccid paralysis surveillance, which enables us to detect wild polio virus, circulating vaccine type polio virus, and any other AFP, acute flaccid paralysis, using case definitions, scientific protocols, and other laboratory confirmations,” he added.
According to him,”We also enable to have a monthly meeting as well as training of all surveillance and disease notification officers in the state, which enables us to respond to every disease and improve data collection and disease and response.”
Sani Ibrahim added that, “We also propose activities such as active case searching in communities where we have a lot of different diseases now in Bauchi State and through our communities that we have those diseases that are the support of our DSNOs, which enables us to have early identification of this epidemic from diseases such as cholera and measles and any other disease like that which we are endemic in Bauchi State.”
“We also engage community informants. We have 10 community informants per ward which we will increase the number by having a community informant by settlement. Now we are targeting to have each and every settlement community informant where if there is any disease, they can report, such as the data report to our DSNOs and then we go and verify and investigate,” he added.
The WHO Coordinator stated all that,”So, under another evidence-based programme that is to get up for health, we are using data. The data that we are using are through our collaboration and data-driven decision-making accentuate to improve health outcomes.”
According to him, ‘When there is data, we can be able to analyze, interpret, and take a decision on those data. And we taken joint decisions with our stakeholders and partners. Example of such surveillance data, analysis systems, and working data operations.”
Also speaking, the Executive Chairperson of State Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed, assured that efforts are on to ensure that maternal and child health was promoted in order to have a healthy society.
He stressed that the Board is collaborating with various development partners in improving health care services delivery across the health facilities.
There were goodwill messages from other heath related agencies in the State as all of them commemded the celebration of the day in Bauchi State for the first time.
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