Nigeria, Sept. 25 -- Mordecai Jim is the health worker in charge of the Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) in Odorikot, a community in Ikot Inyang Okop in the Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. Every Wednesday morning, Mr Jim takes an hour-long motorcycle ride to Ikot Akpaden, the community that hosts Akwa Ibom State University, to get ice-block-preserved vaccines for immunisation of newborns at his facility, which does not have a refrigerator for the storage of the vaccines.

The situation at the Odorikot PHC reflects what you would find at many PHCs in oil-rich Akwa Ibom State, where many residents are cut off from essential care because PHCs lack essential equipment, drugs, doctors, electricity, pharmacies, or laboratory...