PATHS Final programme report: "Togetherness in Health" the Enugu ...

are managed by an Administrator rather than an appointed Chairman and have reverted to beingaccountable to their parent LGA.At the time of the introduction of the PATHS programme the state was under the Governorship ofPeople’s Democratic Party (PDP) Governor, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani. In April 2003 he was re-electedfor a further term of office completing in March 2007. Sullivan Chime, the previous Enugu StateGovernment Attorney General, was elected as Governor in April 2007 also under the banner of PDP.EmploymentThe state is predominantly agrarian but is regarded as an “educational state” since it has apreponderance of primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions.The major mineral for which Enugu is known worldwide is coal and this gives the state the sobriquet“Coal City State”. The major employer of labour in the state is government (local and state), althoughthere is a vibrant private sector made up of mainly small and medium scale enterprises. In health,some 1,330 staff are employed by the Ministry of Health with a further estimated 3,000 employed bylocal government .Health StatusEnugu State has a disease burden similar to other parts of tropical Africa. The most prevalent diseasesin the state are malaria and typhoid fever. However, pregnant women and children are vulnerable to amultitude of health problems, including in the case of women, to high levels of maternal mortality andmorbidity. Except for HIV/AIDS, the health indices in Enugu are better than the national indices.Whilst the uptake of routine immunisation in Enugu is better than many states in the north of Nigeriait remains below an acceptable level. By 1990, Nigeria had attained globally acceptable immunizationcoverage standards, but these standards were seriously undermined throughout the 1990s by politicaland administrative problems and vaccine shortages. In 1999 the national coverage for key antigensfor under one year old children were as low as 43% (BCG), 23.4% (DPT3), 18.3% (Polio3) and 35%(measles). However, the trend is currently being reversed. In 2005, the following coverage estimateswere obtained for the same key antigens in Enugu – 68.6% (BCG), 53.5% (DPT3), 60.7% (polio3) and62.4% (measles) for under 1 year olds (NICS 2006).10 PATHS Final Programme Report