Pneumonia has overtaken malaria as the number one killer disease among children under the age of five in Nigeria.  A report by the International Vaccines Access Centre (IVAC) revealed that the disease was responsible for 127,000 child deaths in the country last year.

This was disclosed on Monday in Abuja at an event held to mark the World Pneumonia Day

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported a 47.4 per cent rise in blood pressure measurements, from nearly 20 million people all over the world, in 40 years.

The results of the largest ever study of its kind, which involved the WHO and hundreds of scientists throughout the world, found that the number of adults with raised blood pressure increased from 594 million in 1975 to 1·13 billion in 2015, with the increase largely in low-income and middle-income countries.

It is not going to be business as usual for health professionals engaged in  the practice of referring patients for  treatment abroad if latest signals from the Federal government are anything to go by.

Good Health Weekly gathered that the habit of recommending overseas medical treatment  for all kinds of ailments, particularly those that can be adequately treated in the country, will no longer be tolerated .

No fewer than 10 million school children across the country will be provided with facilities through the Pepsodent School Oral Health Initiative. This is contained in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Federal Ministry of Health and the Unilever PLC.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja yesterday, the minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said, “These school health programmes are aimed at increasing the child’s responsibility for oral health and promote positive self-esteem as well as to promote proper habits for oral hygiene and to encourage schools and families to play a role in their children’s oral health.”

Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has urged the federal government to sustain the policy which grants access to free healthcare to people living with albinism who suffer from skin cancer.   The policy was started in 2013 during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Chief Obasanjo who said he was alarmed by the rate at which albinos become affected with cancer, explained that it was the lack of knowledge and information about albinism that make albinos particularly vulnerable to the disease.

The Federal Government on Wednesday said the battle to eliminate HIV/Aids by 2030 is possible particularly with help of donors from both local and international partners.

Responding to questions by Journalists at the event of the National HIV prevention conference, the Director General, National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), Dr. Sani Aliyu said his agency intends to work in collaboration with the Ministry of health and other necessary stakeholders like National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) including state governments to step up funds for HIV/Aids intervention.

In a bid to ensure that  Benue State achieves the target for Sustainable Health Financing, towards achieving Universal Health Coverage which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals and also increase its Health  budget from the current 3.5 to 15 per cent in 2017, the White Ribbon Alliance Nigeria, has commenced the training of CSOs and NGOs in the state , on effective advocacy.

The training, tagged, Advocacy For Community Health Insurance and Enabling Environment For Health Financing and Evidence (ACHIEVE project) was in collaboration with the West African Advocacy for public Health (WAAPH) to ensure that all Nigerians have access to qualityHealth products and services at a minimal cost.