The recent reinstatement of the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Usman Yusuf, stirred nationwide controversy and left some staff of the agency bemused.

Some of the staff protested at the premises of the agency Thursday last week when Mr. Yusuf reported back to his office. During the protest, the workers complained about alleged highhandedness of Mr. Yusuf  before his suspension.

No fewer than 447 of the 686 foreign trained doctors who wrote the assessment test of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) failed. The Federal Government decried the poor performance of the foreign trained medical and dental graduates as only 249 were successful in the examination conducted in November 2017. Prof. Isaac Adewole, Minister of Health, said in Abuja on Thursday at the induction of the 243 successful medical doctors and six dental graduates that participated at the remedial course and assessment.

The House of Representatives yesterday passed amendment of the Orthopedic Hospital Management  Board Act through Second reading. The bill which seeks to amend sections 1(1), 2(4), 3, 4, 5, 9, 10 12(1), 13(1), 14(3) and 15, as well as the first schedule of the Principal Act and, change the date of the submission of annual estimates to the Minister and increase some penalties.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has cautioned the media over the advertisement of pharmaceutical products without confirmation from the agency.

The Director General of the agency, Prof. Christianah Mojisola Adeyeye disclosed this at a press briefing, while its arraigned suspected drug peddlers over sales and distribution of falsified pharmaceutical product in Lagos state.

The Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University(NAU), Awka, Prof. Joseph E. Ahanaku has urged the Federal and state government in Nigerian to apply the measures used in eradicating guinea worm disease, to fight other tropical diseases bedevilling the country.

Prof. Ahanaku made the recommendation while speaking at a public lecture yesterday in Awka, organized by department of Parasitology and Entomology, NAU with the titled, ‘Guinea Worm Eradication in Nigeria: lessons for researchers and policy makers’, stressing that the citizenry faces a lot of health challenges in recent times.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has alerted that global deaths of newborn babies remain alarmingly high, particularly among the world’s poorest countries.

UNICEF, in a new report on newborn mortality, noted: “Every year, 2.6 million newborns around the world do not survive their first month of life. One million of them die the day they are born.”

Medical practitioners in the private health sector have decried the dearth of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the country. They opined that the insurance scheme, which was meant to drive the nation towards achieving the universal health coverage, has been the front burner in medical politics.

The private doctors stated this during the Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.

A recent study has shown how substandard drug used to stop post partum haemorrhage (PPH) fuels maternal deaths in Nigeria. Earlier studies had identified PPH as the leading cause of maternal mortality across the country.

To address this menace, the National Agency for Food Drug Administration (NAFDAC) with the support from United States Pharmacopeia (USP), two years ago, conducted a post market surveillance of some maternal and child health products in the country. The study revealed a failure rate of over 70 per cent of the oxytocin injection samples analysed.