The Borno State Government on Sunday said that the state had witnessed a rise in cases of hypertension and heart-related diseases following the prevailing Boko Haram crisis.
Dr. Salma Kolo, the state Commissioner for Health, who disclosed this at a media briefing on the activities of the ministry in Maiduguri, the state capital, said that the ailments were being caused by the psychological trauma created by the crisis.
She said: “We have witnessed a new trend in diseases outbreak in the state, especially in the last two years, due to the current security challenges. “We have recorded increase in hypertension cases and other heart-related diseases partly due to the psychological effects of the crisis on the people.”
Kolo did not give the statistics of the new cases but said that the state had also witnessed rising number of mental disorder among the people.
The Commissioner added that women have been badly affected as the crisis has resulted in high rate of rape and sexual abuses leading to sexually-transmitted diseases.
“Some women were forced into marriages with people they do not know leading to trauma and even mental illness,” she said.
Kolo added that children were also affected as the routine immunisation against polio and other child-killer diseases could not hold on regular basis. She said: “We would have been able to wipe out polio from the state early this year as proposed.
“But the crisis led to setbacks as the exercise could not be carried out effectively due to the crisis.” Kolo, however, said that the state had recorded remarkable successes in health care delivery in spite of the challenges.
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