In line with its mandate of ensuring better health care for its people, the Abia State Ministry of Health in conjunction with the office of the State First Lady, at the weekend, organized a Health Fair in Bende council of the State. The event featured health screening, education and sensitization on Ebola Virus Disease ( EVD ) among others, Addressing the communities before the distribution of the supplements, the governor's wife said that the fair which was planned for all the among the 17 councils in the state, was in line with the State government's continued commitment to extending direct healthcare espercially to the rural populace.

Mrs. Orji stated that it was in furtherance of this objective that necessitated the building of the specialist hospitals in Aba abd Umuahia, the dialysis centre in Umuahia, the dialysis centre in Umuahia, Chest, Ear, and Eye centres also in Umuahia 100 bed hospitals in nine local government area and over 250 primary health care centres in various ward of the state.

She said that the health fair was aimed at educating and sensitizing the people particularly, the aged ones about their health and benefits of maintaing healthy living She also counseled the people on the need to go for routine medical check up, good diets, regular exercise for physical fitness, maintaining plying with the health tips taught them by professionals. 

According to the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Okechukwu Ogah, the health fair was a health awareness campaign aimed at explaning and promoting health information to the people due to recent prevalence of non-communicable diseases unlike in the past.

Ogah who said that diseases like hypertension and diabetes have become an alarming health concern globally and were leading causes of most deaths in the world, attributed it to lack of appropriate knowledge by the people.

He commended Governor Theoadore Orji for making the health of the citizenry his priority and urged the people to make good use of every information provided them at the fair.

 However, it was a most tasking moment for the wife of Abia state Governor, Mercy Odochi Orji as she personally distributed nutritional supplements at the Fair. 

The fair which attracted the rural dwellers, saw both the young and old, who in their thousands thronged the venue of the event as early as zam to benefit from the free exercise. 

However, despite the orderly arrangement to enable beneficiaries get the supplements, many of them afraid that the items may not be enough, surged' forward causing a near stampede. 

It took the intervention ol security personnel to restore order after Ogah and few other top government officials assisted the governor's wife in the distribution of the items.