Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki,has disclosed that  the state plans to screen over 500,000 citizens across the 18 Local Government Areas of  the state within the next few weeks. The screening of the citizens is coning on the heels of the securing of  two additional testing facilities at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) and the Stella Obasanjo Hospital, Benin City by the government as part of increased efforts to detect and manage cases of corona virus (COVID-19) in the state.

Services to be scaled up across 18 LGAs

The Edo State Government has set up screening facilities in six Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) and four private hospitals in Benin City, as part of efforts to curtail the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the state. The Edo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Patrick Okundia, who disclosed this to journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital, said modalities to scale up screening services across the 18 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the state is being worked out.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has restated the Federal Government’s commitment to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) goal three and other national health targets in the country. SDG goal 3, which has 13 targets, focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being of people.

Ehanire said this at the opening of the 3rd Annual Conference of Association of Nigerian Health Journalists (ANHEJ) on Thursday in Abuja. The minister said that the country was committed to meeting the targets by implementing policies and programs that would ensure coverage of women and children. 

The Ogun Government, on Thursday, expressed its commitment to ending the scourge of the HIV epidemic by 2030, in line with the vision of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Dr Kehinde Fatungase, the Executive Secretary, Ogun State Agency for the Control of AIDS (OGUNSACA), stated this at a news conference to commemorate the 2019 World AIDS Day, with the theme: “Communities Make the Difference”, in Abeokuta. He noted that communities had major roles to play in the elimination of the epidemic in the state.  According to him, a community has to do with a social group of any size, whose members reside in specific localities and often have a common cultural and historical heritage.

Pregnant women use run-down latrine during an antenatal visit. 

The building and the services it renders are in sharp contrast – The roof of the building is partially ruined, with the walls and the ground floor partly plastered; yet to residents of Low-Cost Housing Estate, Abesan, Ipaja, it is their lifesaver. Akinyele Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC), Abesan, besides being an uncompleted building, lacks the basic facilities of a healthcare centre. Interestingly, the construction of the PHC started in 2013, and it is yet to be completed seven years after.

The process for the construction started with an invitation to tender, advertised on May 20, 2013.

A new study says Anambra, Osun, Ogun, Lagos, and Rivers states have the most efficient healthcare services in Nigeria. The study also rates Sokoto, Kebbi, Yobe, Bauchi and Niger states as the least performing states in healthcare services. 

The study, published by a health technology company in Nigeria — the WellNewMe —added that the coronavirus global pandemic had brought to the fore the importance of having a strong health system, as many countries were faced with a unique challenge on how to best handle a novel disease that kills people around the world at a rapid rate.

There are conflicting reports and statements on different medicines used in the treatment of COVID-19 globally. In this report by SADE OGUNTOLA, experts say, however, it is the cocktail of medicines with promises for treatment which hopefully will be the key to President Trump’s recovery from COVID-19. On Friday, President Donald Trump, who has frequently dismissed the significance of the COVID-19 pandemic and rarely wears masks in public, announced that he had contracted the coronavirus and was quarantine.

Over the weekend, his medical team revealed that he had been put on a course of dexamethasone, which became the first drug scientifically proven in June to benefit people with COVID-19.The steroid is said to only work on severely ill coronavirus patients, who were on the verge of needing mechanical ventilation, sparking confusion about the true nature of the US President's condition.

The association cautioned Nigerians against sharing their eyeglasses, face masks and face shields, as part of the precautionary measures against the spread of COVID-19, reminding that the pandemic was real. In a statement made available to Vanguard, the association’s Public Relations Officer, Dr. Emmanuel Okoye, explained that the WSD was an international day of awareness on avoidable blindness and visual impairment.

However, the optometrist lamented, activities lined up for its celebration were shelved because of the pandemic. The focus on this year’s WSD themed: “Universal Eye Health: Hope in sight, according to him,  was to raise public awareness on eye care in the COVID-19 pandemic, as a major public health issue.

A psychiatrist says about 30 percent of Nigerians are grappling with different mental health challenges. He described mental health as a state of wellbeing in which an individual realises his potential and he is able to cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and make a contribution to his community. 

In an exclusive interview with PUNCH HealthWise, Consultant Psychiatrist, Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Dr. Dapo Adegbaju, said there must be a greater investment in mental health if Nigeria is serious about moving forward as a nation.

Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Roche said on Tuesday it would produce a new antigen test for COVID-19, allowing high-volume and rapid testing for the deadly disease, by the end of the year. The new Elecsys SARS-CoV-2 Antigen test is meant to be administered by healthcare professionals in a lab setting and allows the detection of the virus that causes COVID-19 in as little as 18 minutes, Roche said.

It said the “highly accurate” tests could be run through all so-called Cobas analysing equipment that is available in most labs, and that a single such machine could analyse up to 300 tests per hour.  “Being able to quickly and correctly identify if someone has a SARS-CoV-2 infection is critical to informing patient management decisions and containing the spread of COVID-19,” Thomas Schinecker, who heads Roche’s diagnostics unit, said in a statement.