Prominent African business and healthcare sector leader, Dr. Awele Elumelu has been appointed as a Champion for Immunisation in Africa by the Global Vaccine Alliance, Gavi. Dr. Elumelu is the wife of frontline businessman and philanthropist, Mr. Tony Elumelu.
Accepting the appointment, she expressed interest in Gavi’s childhood immunisation initiative in Africa. “Childhood immunisation is a critical intervention and I am honoured to play a role in this important programme, targeting almost 10 million African children, who are not fully immunised,” said Dr. Elumelu during the announcement at the Gavi-hosted breakfast meeting at WEF-Davos 2018.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has opened its Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC) office in Abuja. The technical opening of the centre on Wednesday was attended by members of the West African Health Organisation, two ministers from ECOWAS and development partners.

The centre will work with ECOWAS to promote health security in the region and will begin operation with 11 staff recruited from across the region.

The Nigerian government and the Nigerian Medical Association have disagreed over the status of the National Health Act, a law that came into effect in 2016 to improve the access of Nigerians to health care delivery.

While the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, in an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said the Act had been substantially implemented, the NMA President, Mike Ogirima, said that was far from the truth.

The National Hospital in Abuja has received a new radiotherapy machine. The new machine, when installed, is expected to enable the hospital attend to more cancer patients in the country, officials say.

With the new addition, the hospital can now boast of three radiotherapy machines. One was recently installed and commissioned in December 2017. The third one is an old machine which breaks down from time to time.

The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) has urged its members to boycott today’s re-sit examination for foreign-trained medical and dental graduates. The examination is to be conducted by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).

The NMA President, Prof. Mike O. Ogirima, and Secretary General, Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, disclosed this in a statement yesterday. MDCN is the professional health regulatory agency for medicine, dentistry and alternative medicine professions in the country.

Nigerian private medical doctors have raised the alarm over the state of healthcare in Nigeria, saying “the promised Eldorado of Universal Health Coverage by the Federal Government has remained a mirage.” doctors The doctors observed that apart from  ineffectiveness of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, budgetary allocation to healthcare  has become thinner and reduced disposable out of pocket income of patients.

Nurses under the aegis of University Graduates of Nursing Science Association (UGONSA) have called for the establishment of more Neuropsychiatric hospitals across Nigeria. The Association observed that existing Neuropsychiatric facilities are stretched beyond their capacities due to increasing incidence of mental health challenges among Nigerians.

In a statement on Monday by the National Secretary of UGONSA, Nur. G.I. Nshi, the association said it observed that depression, anxiety disorders, suicidal ideation and post-traumatic stress disorders are on the rise in the country, owing to unbearable level of stress probably orchestrated by the harsh economic reality in the land.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has said the reason the federal government is unable to successfully plan and coordinate health service delivery has to do with its weak governance structures, poor human resource capacity and inefficient core processes.

He also expressed sadness at the inability of the Health Ministry to demonstrate expected results and ensure value for money in the delivery of health services.

A medical doctor and field Epidemiologist with the African Field Epidemiology Network, Dr. Adebayo Fashola, on Monday revealed that research had confirmed that no fewer than 9.7m children annually die of measles across the globe.

Fashola said this was why the governments in Nigeria were stepping up efforts to maintain the 95 per cent benchmark set for immunization spread among children between the ages of nine months and five years across the 36 states of the federation.