The Chief Medical Director, Prof. Temitope Alonge, has said that the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State has fulfilled its mandate to train the best specialist doctors and health professionals in Nigeria. Alonge spoke on the various achievements of the teaching hospital during a walk organised as part of the activities to celebrate its 60th anniversary in Ibadan on Monday.

The CMD also said the hospital was set to improve on its achievements and reverse medical tourism in the areas of neurosurgery, nuclear medicine, cardiac and orthopaedic surgery so as to encourage more Nigerians and Africans to seek medical treatment at the premier hospital.

Nigerians will soon have more access to HIV self-test kits, which will allow them know their HIV status from the comfort of their homes, the minister of health, Isaac Adewole, has said. The minister said this while receiving the Amethyst HIV 1 and 2 self-test kits, and 10 ‘Anti-body based HIV rapid Test Kits 2016 evaluation reports’ at the ministry of health secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday.

The minister said the government is trying to encourage more people to get tested and know their HIV status so as to reduce the prevalence rate in the country.

The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has stressed the need for harmony among the various professional bodies and associations in the health sector.

Speaking at the opening of the 53rd annual scientific conference and workshop of the association in Kaduna, the President of the association, Alhaji Toyosi Raheem lamented that there is inter-professional rivalry between the pathologists and medical laboratory scientists.

Experts have called for the adoption of newer technologies in Nigeria such as mass serialization and blockchain to reduce the incidence of fake and counterfeit medicines. In blockchain, the company’s strategy is to assign each product as an asset and add them to the blockchain. Each item will be given a unique number (hash) that will be verified through the company’s blockchain technology.

Mass serialization is the process of assigning a unique number to a unit of production (which can be a whole batch or an individual pack) such that it can be identified later.

Following the presentation of the 2018 budget, the Minster of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, and the 36 states commissioners for health have said the health sector should be given due priority in the economic development plan.

Adewole, at the 60th National Council on Health (NCH) held in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said Nigeria has been bedevilled with several challenges that need to be addressed, such as giving due priority to the health sector, attracting more resources, collective workforce with the various investors and minimizing strike actions among others.

Patients, doctors, nurses and other staff of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Monday morning were stranded for several hours when security men and cleaners working in the hospital locked the gates to the premises of the hospital to protest non-payment of their 11-month salaries.

The protesting workers blocked all entrances of the hospital during the action that lasted for over two hours Monday morning. This made patients, their relatives and other staff of the hospital to experience difficulty in gaining entry into the hospital premises.

Zouera Youssoufou, Aliko Dangote Foundation’s Managing Director and CEO, has observed that Nigeria’s high malnutrition rate is undermining progress towards improving child health and survival and putting the brakes on economic development. By investing in nutrition, Youssoufou said the foundation aim to directly improve the lives of Nigerian families and to empower citizens to reach their full potential.

Youssoufou was commenting on the USD100 million pledge by the foundation to tackle malnutrition in Nigeria that was announced at the Global Nutrition Summit 2017 held in Milan, Italy. 

About 100 Nigerian children with cleft lips and palate congenital deformity will over the next 12 months get free medical correction surgery at the National Hospital, Abuja.

Charles Ononiwu, a consultant facial surgeon and Coordinator of the national Hospital Cleft Care Team announced this at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, as part of the 2017 Cleft Week.