As the World Health Organization (WHO) mapped out the year 2020 to appreciate and celebrate nurses and midwives across the globe, it’s imperative for Nigeria and Nigerians to follow suit. With the theme; “Nurses: A Voice to Lead; Nursing the World to Health,” one would concur to the indisputable fact that the health of a nation is basis for its wealth. 

In Nigeria, the health sector has received little or nothing in terms of finance and budget meant to boost both human resources and facilities needed to improve health care delivery in the country. In April 2001, the African Union countries (Nigeria been the host) met and pledged to set a target of allocating at least 15 per cent of their annual budget to improve the health care delivery for citizens, called “Abuja Declaration,”

The United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organisation have started an awareness campaign on the need to immunise the residents of Ekiti State against yellow fever.

WHO’s Technical Officer in the state, Mr Ayomide Aibinuomo, said there would be immunisation across the 16 council areas of the state between January 24 and February 2 to ensure that residents are free from the killer disease.

Lassa fever has killed 14 persons, infected 82 others in seven states and 13 councils in the country. The states include Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi and Ogun.

According to latest figures from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), tagged Lassa fever Situation Report Epi Week 02: 06 – 12 January 2020, the number of new confirmed cases for the same period in 2019 was 60. The NCDC report released yesterday showed the number of deaths decreased from 16 for the same period in 2019  

Nigeria is applying for 890 million dollars grant from Global Fund to reduce the burden of HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria from 2021 to 2023. Mr Dozie Ezechukwu, the Executive Secretary, Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) Global Fund Nigeria, disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

CCM Nigeria, the custodian of Global Fund (GF) grant, is a body of representatives of government, bilateral and multilateral organisations, Civil Society Organisations, patients, communities, private sector and academia.The mandate of CCM is to oversee the delivery of Global Fund HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Resilient Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) grant.

Smokers who quit smoking at least four weeks or more before their surgical operation are more likely to have lower post-surgical complications, a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report has shown.

The UN health agency, in a statement released on its website on Monday, said tobacco smokers are at a significantly higher risk of post-surgical complications than their non-smoking counterparts. Evidence from the new report revealed that smokers who quit approximately four weeks or more before surgery have a lower risk of complications and “better results six months afterwards”.

The World Health Organisation said on Monday that the German government had expressed satisfaction with the progress of polio eradication in Nigeria.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, had on August 21, 2019 said Nigeria had begun the process of documentation towards the final stages of being declared a polio-free society. He said by June 2020, the country could achieve the status.

The Nigeria Medical Association has called on the Federal Government to treat the deadly coronavirus like the Ebola virus to stop its transmission to Nigeria from China and other countries where it has reached.

The call came on the backdrop of the fact that a sizeable number of Nigerians involved in business transactions between Nigeria and China, as well as other Asian countries, fear that a traveller infected with the virus could transmit it to Nigeria from any of the affected countries in Asia. The earliest cases of Coronavirus were reported a few weeks ago in Wuhan, China and it was believed that they were transmitted from animals to humans.

As Nigeria battles with brain drain in the health sector with a ratio of one doctor to 6,000 patients, medical doctors have urged the government to look beyond the minimum wage and come up with a proper welfare package to end the migration of health professionals abroad.

Speaking at the Good Health Weekly on Vanguard Live the experts maintained that while the minimum wage is good, it is not the ultimate now that an estimated eight out of every 10 doctors are contemplating leaving the country for a greener pasture and about four leave every

The Federal Government says it has developed pneumonia control strategy and implementation plan as part of renewed efforts to ensure the survival and well-being of Nigerian children. Minister of Health, Prof Osagie Ehanire disclosed this at the opening of the 51st Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) in Kano on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference was organised by PAN in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The minister, who was represented by the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Prof Abdurrahman Abba-Sheshe, said the ministry had concluded all necessary arrangements for the launching of the scheme.