The Marcelle Ruth Cancer Centre and Specialist Hospital (MRCC), the country’s first fullyequipped private oncology centre, has been inaugurated in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Founded by renowned physician Dr. Modupe Elebute-odunsi and her financier husband, Bolaji Odunsi, MRCC combines the highest standard of care with the latest treatments and technology in comfortable surroundings designed to promote healing. Dr. Elebute-odunsi said MRCC is out to help Nigeria close the gaps in cancer diagnosis and treatment services.

A Sociologist, Prof. Onipede Wusu, says sexual and reproductive wellbeing are critical to health and life expectancy rate in any society. Wusu, of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lagos State University, Ojo, made the call while delivering the institution’s 77th inaugural lecture on Tuesday in Lagos.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the theme of the lecture was: “Gifts of Nature: The Soft Underbelly of Wellbeing in Society”. He called on Nigerians to embrace honest planning for their sexual and reproductive gifts toward self-progress and family’s advancement.

The WHO, Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Tuesday issued an urgent call for increased funding for the health sector in Nigeria. The ministry and the NCDC, supported by Resolve to Save Lives, an NGO, made the call to host a multisectoral workshop on ”Health Security and Health Financing’.   

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that in 2018, Nigeria launched a five year comprehensive multi-sectoral National Action Plan on Health Security (NAPHS). Speaking, the Director-General, Budget Office of Federation (BoF), Mr Ben Akabueze, said the workshop was an advocacy call to increase funding for implementation of the NAPHS and explore opportunities to cascade it to the sub-national level.

The Abia State Police Command has confirmed the assassination of a retired nurse with the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Mrs Queeneth Alozie. The victim was killed last Sunday in Umuahia. According to the command’s Public Relations Officer, Jeoffrey Ogbonna, investigation is on to unravel the circumstances that led to the death of the widow.

Until her death, Queeneth was the widow of one Dr Alozie from Umuda Isingwu, who owned the Obioma Hospital in Umuahia, which she took over the management of before her untimely death. 

In recognition of impact and patriotism in Nigeria’s healthcare sector, a healthcare giant PharmAccess is partnering Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award, NHEA, to host and honour healthcare professionals and organisations with Healthcare Excellence Award 2021.

According to both organisations the award has been running and this is the 5th year of it, which is basically a platform to encourage healthcare practitioners in the public and private sectors towards improving healthcare delivery across the country. 

Africa risks being overrun by coronavirus infections if urgent measures are not taken to avert a similar disaster to the “very concerning” crisis in India, the continent’s disease control body said Thursday. 

India, a vast subcontinent with a population similar to that of Africa, is fighting an explosion of infections, with jarring scenes of citizens desperately seeking oxygen and medicines. This has prompted fears that as new variants spread, Africa’s fragile healthcare systems could crash. “We are watching in total disbelief what is happening in India. The situation in India is very, very concerning to us as a continent.

Medical experts in maternal health say addressing the challenge of blood loss during and after delivery remains crucial to reducing the high maternal mortality rate in Nigeria. Blood loss during and after delivery, they said, is still a major cause of maternal mortality, noting that efforts to reduce the death of women from childbirth complications must address issues of blood loss.

 Blood loss during delivery, called intrapartum haemorrhage, according to Medscape – an online open-access health journal – is sometimes a serious, life-threatening occurrence. Its causes include placental abruption, genital tract lacerations, uterine atony, and placenta accrete.

A general practitioner, Dr. Olalekan Adelakun, discusses the risk factors and the management of hypertension in this interview with TOBI AWORINDE. What is hypertension? General hypertension we know is what is called systemic hypertension and that is an increase in the pressure with which the heart is working. The heart is a strong muscular pump and it pumps blood to every cell in our body.

We have trillions of cells and every cell in our body is kept alive by blood coming from the heart, carrying oxygen and energy. Any part of the body that is not supplied with blood after some time will die. What are the symptoms of hypertension?

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the Federal Government is determined to strengthen the secondary healthcare sector and reform the tertiary health institutions across the country. He commended the resilience of Nigerian doctors, despite the country’s fragile healthcare system, noting that they continued to rise to the challenge during disease outbreaks as witnessed in the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

A sexual health educator, Dr. Opeyemi Adeyemi, says exposure to high temperatures for a long time can kill the sperm and lower sperm count. According to her, exposure to high temperatures like hot tubs, hot baths, or saunas even placing a laptop on the laps can cause the temperature of the testes to become too hot and can lead to a lower sperm count. 

Speaking in an interview with PUNCH HealthWise, Adeyemi said the testicles are designed to remain at four degrees Celcius cooler than other tissues in the body. “To keep the testicles cool, the scrotum is deliberately loosened up so that the testes are held away from the body.