The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, says it will intensify preventive medicine and health promotion as alternatives to curative medicine in the treatment of breast cancer. Its Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Temitope Alonge, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on the sideline of a scientific lecture series organised by the college to mark the 2018 World Cancer Day.

According to the CMD, rather than waste resources on treatment and preparing for patient’s end of life’ treatment in palliative medicine, it has become expedient to also channel efforts and resources at prevention. The CMD said that breast cancer had become the leading cause of death in females in Nigeria and in the African sub-region.

In an effort to provide seamless coverage for emergency services, the federal government has launched the National Policy on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and National Guidelines for Ambulance Services. The EMS entails database development, information on capacity and capabilities including assets of all registered health facilities and agencies providing emergency services in the States and FCT.

According to a press statement, the minister of state for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, while launching the programme in Abuja recently, said that the ministry had started the mapping of emergency medical facilities and resources along main highway corridors in the country, beginning with Abuja/Kaduna, Abuja/ Lokoja/Benin corridors. He further said that gaps would be noted and closed for the purpose of providing seamless coverage for emergency services.

Stakeholders in the health sector, led by the Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN), have condemned the reinstatement of suspended Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Prof. Usman Yusuf.They accused President Muhammadu Buhari of preferring ethnicity to competence and ignoring the report of a panel that indicted and suspended Yusuf over an alleged N919 million fraud.

As the industrial action embarked upon by medical doctors in Kogi state hits one month on Wednesday, the Nigeria Medical Association, has urged the State Government to do the needful by meeting their demands to avoid brain drain that has already started in the health sector.

NMA in Kogi had on Sunday, Jan. 7, directed its members to resume strike over an alleged failure by the state government to meet their demands.

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has called on the National Assembly to pass into law the bill establishing the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC. “This will go a long way in fighting the rapid spread of disease outbreaks in the country, especially Lassa fever,” the NMA President, Mike Ogirima, told us in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Last November, the Chairman, Senate committee on primary health care and communicable diseases, Mao Ohuabunwa, said a bill for an Act to establish NCDC will be passed by the National Assembly before the end of 2017.

The World Health Organization, ( WHO ) has provided medicines for students of Primary and Junior Secondary schools in Oyo State to cure tropical diseases like worms that are endemic in the country.

The distribution of the medicines were made available during a flag off of School based deworming exercise in Ibadan on Wednesday by the Ministry of Health and Education, Science and Technology in conjunction with Evidence Action, the facilitator and partner of WHO.

Medical professionas in the private health sector have decried lack of government support as well as exclusion from its reform plans. This was disclosed at the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), Annual State Executive Council Workshop, in partnership with developmental partners.

The medical professional stated that despite the huge contribution of about 60 to 70 percent from the private sector organisations to the health system in Nigeria, government has refused to render its support or create an enabling environment for the sector to thrive.

As part of efforts to contain an outbreak of Lassa fever in Nigeria that has infected up to 450 people in 17 states within five weeks, the World Health Organisation (WHO), on Tuesday, announced it is scaling up its response to the outbreak.

The WHO, in a statement, said between January 1 and February 4, nearly 450 suspected cases were reported, of which 132 are laboratory confirmed Lassa fever. Of these, 43 deaths were reported, including 37 that were lab confirmed.

The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria has inducted 249 foreign trained medical and dental graduates. A total of 686 medical and 10 dental candidates registered for the MDCN assessment examination, out of which 243 medical and six dental surgeons passed.

This represents 35 percent success for the medical and 60 percent success for the dental, making the overall success rate 35.7 percent.

The Lagos State Government on Wednesday handed over a Mobile Cancer Centre for the diagnosis and treatment of residents afflicted with cancer-related diseases as well as increase advocacy to prevent the spread of the scourge.

Governor Akinwumi Ambode, who spoke while handing over the facility to the representatives of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), a nongovernmental organisation in the forefront of cancer awareness, at the Lagos House in Alausa, Ikeja, said it was in fulfillment of a promise he made in June 2016 to join the fight against cancer.