The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, says the Federal Government is committed to ensuring there is a functional primary healthcare centre in each political ward in the country, lamenting that the nation currently has barely one-third of the required PHCs.

In a series of tweets posted on the official Twitter handle of the Federal Ministry of Health @Fmohnigeria on Monday, Ehanire said the Federal Government was committed to addressing the challenge of PHC and bring healthcare closer to the people.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has revealed that the agency had pre-ordered Two Billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines from global manufacturers for Nigeria alone.

UNICEF Communications Specialist, Dr. Geoffrey Njoku gave this revelation at the 4th Annual Health Conference of the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ), held in Goshen Nasarawa State. He hinted that, the reason for the request of such amount of doses was to ensure every Nigerian have access to the COVID-19 vaccine when it is satisfied usable.

Physicians across the world have stressed the need for countries to begin to recognise COVID-19 as an occupational disease even as they advocate compensation for physicians, who have died or fallen ill from the pandemic.

The physicians under the auspices of the World Medical Association.WMA, said the past few months physicians had received applause and recognition.

A biotech startup with minimal research and development operations in Nigeria, Eurekan Biotechnologies, says its technically-optimised simple Nucleic Acid Amplification Test with an average run time of 30 minutes for COVID-19 has been validated by the World Health Organisation, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases.

Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, confirmed the validation, warning, however, that validation is not the same thing as approval.

The Federal Government says it will be introducing second dose of measles vaccination into the routine immunisation schedule. The second dose measles vaccination is for children aged 15 months. The first dose is administered at nine months.

According to the FG, the new immunisation schedule is to commence in 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory. The Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, disclosed this in a press statement released on Tuesday.

British health officials on Wednesday warned that anyone with a history of significant allergic reactions should not have the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 jab for the time being.

The warning came after two members of the state-run National Health Service who were among the first to receive the vaccine on Tuesday suffered allergic reactions and needed treatment. NHS England medical director Stephen Powis said both people, who had a history of reactions, were now recovering well.

Amnesty International has warned that nine out of 10 people in poor countries are going to miss out on a COVID-19 vaccine next year. 

The international organisation said COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers — Pfizer, Moderna, BioNTech and AstraZeneca — must share their science, technology and know-how. “Otherwise, billions could miss out,” Amnesty warned. It added, “We need a people’s vaccine, not a profit vaccine.”

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says there is a need for COVID-19 vaccines to be subsidised so that low-income countries can easily get them. This is just as the foundation approved the release of $250m to accelerate development and equitable distribution of COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines to end the pandemic.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, said this during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.

Researchers ESEARCHERS have raised alarm over rising cases of hypertension among teenagers and adolescents especially those in secondary schools across the nation. 

In fact, several studies concluded that the prevalence of hypertension in Nigerian children is high and appears to be increasing and there is need for routine Blood Pressure (BP) and urinalysis check for all children in especially those in clinics and wards.

The World Health Organisation has estimated that over 40 per cent of the health facilities in Borno State have been damaged and not functional. The organisation said this in an article it published on ‘How community engagement prevents and protects health care from attacks in north-east Nigeria’ on Wednesday.

It said every attack has a dramatic impact on communities. The article published on the organisation’s website quoted WHO representative to Nigeria, Dr Kazadi Mulombo, as also saying that over 50, 000 are facing the risk of losing access to all essential services.