Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, says as African countries confirm cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19), the virus ceases to be a threat and becomes a reality on the continent.

Moeti, in a statement posted on the organisation’s website, said Senegal reported its first case of COVID-19 on Monday, becoming the fourth African country to confirm the virus.

The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) on Tuesday pledged to support the current effort by Federal Government against CoronaVirus or Covid-19 with a whooping N200million. The ADF’s intervention is considered the largest single donation by a corporate organisation in the country to contain the spread of coronavirus since a foreigner was tested positive last month in Lagos.

It would be recalled that the Aliko Dangote Foundation also committed about N1 billion to the fight against the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Africa. The foundation directly supported the Nigerian government’s Ebola containment efforts through strategic investments

The Osun State Government has restated its commitment to an improved and affordable health care system for residents, as the National Agency for the Control of AIDS said about 7,115 carriers of the disease are currently receiving treatment in the state.

The state’s Deputy Governor, Benedict Alabi stated this in Osogbo on Wednesday while receiving a delegation from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, led by Cyril Ojeonu, NACA’s Head of Government Resources Division. Alabi said, “We are assuring you that we will stop at nothing to ensure that HIV infection is brought down to a bearest minimum in the state.”

The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has stated that medical laboratory profession is an important part of healthcare provision. 

He urged the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science and the Nigerian Medical Laboratory Scientists to ensure peaceful laboratory environment in the West Africa region in the line of duty. Osinbajo who declared open the 2020 Congress of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science (WAPCMLS) and induction/investiture of its Fellows in Lagos recently, noted the importance of accurate and reliable laboratory diagnosis in the prevention and control of diseases.

Banknotes may be spreading the new coronavirus so people should try to use contactless payments instead, the World Health Organization has said. Customers should wash their hands after touching banknotes because infectious Covid-19 may cling to the surface for a number of days, the United Nations agency said on Tuesday.

To prevent the spread of the disease, people should use contactless technology where possible, a WHO spokesperson added. The Bank of England has acknowledged that banknotes "can carry bacteria or viruses" and urged people to wash their hands regularly.

Head of Human Resources at the Federal Ministry of Health, Shakuri Kadiri, has said that the country has one doctor to 2,753 patients. Kadiri disclosed this in Abuja at the launch of the Nigeria Health Work Force Country Profile 2018 and handover of the Nigeria Health Workforce Registry by the ministry in collaboration with the World Health Organisation and other partners. 

He read the profile, which put the number of medical doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria at 74,543; implying there are 36.3 medical doctors per 100,000 population.

The Chairman, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan chapter of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Dr. Dare Olulana, has raised an alarm that the National Universities Commission (NUC) will collapse the nation’s health sector with its circular on doctorate degree for clinical lecturers in universities.

Olulana who gave the warning while addressing journalists in Ibadan recently, said any attempt to insist on compulsory acquisition of PhD by clinical lecturers in medical schools will sound the death knell of the health care system in Nigeria. Members of the association all over the country last week Wednesday embarked on an indefinite strike action after its ultimatum to the NUC to withdraw the circular on PhD

An anti-inflammation drug, Actemra (tocilizumab), manufactured by the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Roche, has been approved by the Chinese government for the treatment of patients who are developing severe complications from coronavirus.

Actemra is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis who have had an inadequate response to one or more Disease-Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs. Roche was quoted as saying that a third party has initiated the trial independently to explore the efficacy and safety of the drug in coronavirus patients with cytokine release syndrome (CRS). According to the online portal, Pharmaceutical Technology,

Following the ban that Indian government placed on exportation of drugs and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients to Nigeria and other countries last Tuesday, pharmacists have blamed the problem on “the lack of affirmative action on the part of the Federal Government,” even as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has not directly addressed India’s action.

India, the world’s main supplier of generic drugs according to Reuters, had restricted the export of 26 pharmaceutical ingredients, as well as drugs made from them. The BBC reports that India gets almost 70 per cent of its active pharmaceutical ingredients from China

A Medical Imaging Scientist, Mr Livinus Abonyi, has urged Federal Government to take proactive step of investigating and conducting research on if Coronavirus was a tropical and endemic disease that could thrive in Nigeria. 

Abonyi, also a Lecturer in Medical Radiography Department, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos. He said that the government could achieve this through collaboration with the scientists, researchers, stakeholders and all other relevant authorities. Abonyi said that the research was expected to reveal whether Coronavirus was a tropical infectious disease that could thrive