Abuja — The Chairman, Kuje Area Council, Hon Danladi Etsu Zhin, has revealed that over 100 villages are denied access to free medical services for pregnant women in Rubochi due to the absence of secondary health care facilities.

Thus he requested the FCT administration to help ensure the general hospital commences a 24-hour service before the end of this year.Zhin made the disclosure during the official flag off of the FCT mass de-worming of school children by the wife of the FCT minister, Hajiya Zainab Aliero, at the Science Primary School, Kuje.

According to him, "As grassroots leaders, we have put in much effort by delivering dividends of democracy to the residents in the area of health care services by building clinics and completing the existing health centres abandoned for years by the previous administration.

"Free medical services were carried out in three centres namely, Kuje General Hospital, Gaube and Rubochi. Over 200 people benefitted from free eye treatment with free eye glasses distributed to them," he noted.

He assured that government policies and programmes of the FCT administration will be carried out at the grassroots promptly.

In her response, Hajiya Zainab Aliero said the present FCT administration accorded priority attention to the health of children living in FCT saying de-worming widens the physical and mental development of the children who are the leaders of tomorrow.

She enjoined all the six area councils to sustain the exercise especially in all FCT schools, promising that the FCT Minister, Senator Adamu Aliero would deploy the necessary machineries to Rubochi General Hospital soonest.

Also speaking, the Secretary, Health and Human Services FCT, Dr Precious Gbeneol, noted that worms live as parasite in the human body being the fundamental cause of diseases associated with health and nutrition problems beyond gastrointestinal tract disturbances.

Gbeneol stated that one- third population globally is infected with intestinal worms of which two billion are facing the adverse effects of worm infestation which she attributed as the hallmark of poverty and underdevelopment.

The scribe admitted that FCT administration is planning to widen the exercise by collaborating with other development partners to introduce School Sanitation and Hygiene Education (SSHE) programme that could enhance behavioural change in children.