The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the first tests of Zika vaccines on humans are expected to start only at the end of the year. 

The health agency noted that it would therefore not be able to help fight the current outbreak in Brazil. 

WHO’s Chief Innovation Officer, Marie-Paule Kieny, said the agency convened international experts in Geneva to discuss strategies to develop the right vaccine and diagnostic tools, as well as methods to fight mosquitoes.

Bauchi—No fewer than three persons have died from a fresh outbreak of Lassa Fever, while 10 members of a family are currently infected with the virus in Bauchi State.

The Executive Chairman Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Ibrahim Gamawa, who said this yesterday in Bauchi, added that the 10 new cases were recorded in a single family at Jaye village in Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state.

He said the outbreak started after a 78-year-old man died of the disease without seeking professional medical treatment.

 Stakeholders in the Health Sector have converged in the ancient city of Sokoto for the 58th National Council on Health (NCH). The Permanent Secretary Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Amina Shamaki said that the purpose of NCH meeting was to discuss issues on health policy making nationwide.

According to her, “the theme of the conference is Universal Health Coverage, an agenda for change. We are going to discuss on how to ensure availability of healthcare services at the Primary level, where majority of Nigerians resides”

 “If we have functional healthcare centres at the grass root level, reporting system would be very effective and any outbreak of disease would be nip in the bud, there would be no room for epidemics” she added

No fewer than 30 children have so far died in Imo State as a result of fresh outbreak of diarrhea which is said to be relatively common in the 637 autonomous communities in the state due to absence of potable water. 

The development it was gathered compel the residents to resort to the use of water from streams and uncertified boreholes for consumption. 

Speaking when she received a delegation from the Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited, the commissioner for Health, Ngozi Njoku, said that the death toll from the outbreak of the deadly disease had risen to 30 in the last few weeks, while several others affected by the scourge were receiving treatment in various hospitals in the state.

Over the weekend, matriculation ceremony was held for 234 pioneering students of Nigeria’s first and Africa’s second medical university, the University of Medical Sciences Ondo state.

The ceremony also marked the inauguration of the institution. Speaking at the event, Olusegun Mimiko, governor of Ondo state, said the establishment of the university was the state’s strategic response to reverse the brain drain in Nigeria’s medical industry. 

Vanguard reported that the governor said the institution would also create an institutional base for the production of proficient health care manpower to service the nation.

Once every year, the Ministers of Health, leaders of all the health parastatals, and the commissioners of health and their teams gather to agree and harmonise health policy for the Federal Republic. It is the highest policy making body in the health sector for the country.

So between the 7th and 11th of March 2016, public health sector leaders congregated in Sokoto, (the State of the Caliphate as it is called), to deliberate on the progress in the Nigerian health sector and to chart a way forward. 

It was the first National Council of Health meeting for the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, his Minister of State Dr. Osagie Ehanire, the Permanent Secretary Dr. Amina Shamaki and most of the Commissioners of Health (this is not counting the emergency meeting called in the wake of the Lassa Fever outbreak late in 2015).