the programme was also organised as an advocacy and sensitisation workshop for health commissioners from the CSM affected states, on enhanced meningitis control, epidemics preparedness and response. Idi-Hong said: ``we must be proactive in strengthening our health care delivery services to the people.``It is unpardonable for us to wait for casualties before combating epidemics. If 90 per cent of the cases are being recycled, then there is a serious case at hand.'' The minister called for a collaborative and sustained effort at providing health care services for the people, and commended WHO and other stakeholders for their support in that direction.He said 1.6 million doses of vaccines had been ordered by the Federal Government out of the six million to be produced by the manufacturers this year, adding that another 300 million immunisation vaccines would be procured and distributed to states with high risk of epidemics. Idi-Hong stressed the need for aggressive public enlightenment to forestall occurrences, and charged the participants to be proactive, as policy implementers.Dr Muhammad Pate, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Primary Heath Care Development Agency, had earlier said that CSM claimed some 2,000 lives in the country in 2008. He said the Federal Government was intensifying efforts in the areas of public education, training of personnel, disease surveillance and control as well as enhanced funding and provision of laboratories and equipment to halt epidemics.The WHO representative in West Africa, Prof. Peter Kande, decried the increasing rate of CSM outbreaks in the region, and called for concerted efforts to redress the situation. He pledged WHO's continued support to Nigeria, through funding, provision of technical assistance, training and vaccines to enable the country to rid CSM and other related epidemics.The state Commissioners for Health promised to ensure that all decisions taken at the occasion were implemented by their various governments. Dr Jonathan Jiya, the Director of Public Health in the Federal Ministry of Health, listed the 29 high-risk states to include the entire Northern region, Oyo in the South West, and Cross River in the South South.Others are Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Anambra states in the South East. He said reports indicated that most local government areas in some states had exceeded ``alert thresholds,'' while others had exceeded ``epidemic thresholds''.
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