The Minister of State for Health, Dr.Osagie Ehanire has said that improving the health of Nigerians required concerted efforts of all stakeholders in the health sector noting that no sacrifice or effort would be too much to undertake to promote health. The minister stated this in Benin, Edo state when he formally declared open the operationalisation workshop of the Saving One Million Lives Program for Result (SOML PforR) organised for South-South and South-East zones.

He said that the present administration would implement a cardinal philosophy of ‘Every life Counts’ adding that the implication of this is that ‘Every death would also count’. ‘‘We shall operate under the guiding principles of Accountability, Transparency and Rule of Law,’’ he said.

Drugs against one type of hepatitis may activate another, sometimes with fatal consequences, Europe’s medicines watchdog warned on Friday. The medicines, which are highly effective against hepatitis C, may trigger latent hepatitis B in patients infected with both types, the European Medicines Agency said in a statement.

It named the antivirals Daklinza, Exviera, Harvoni, Olysio, Sovaldi and Viekirax used to treat chronic hepatitis C, an infectious liver disease. “Cases of the return of previously inactive hepatitis B infection, which can be fatal, have been reported in patients treated,” with this class of drug, the agency said in a statement announcing the findings of a probe.

About 72,000 adolescents are living with HIV in Lagos State, Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State AIDS Control Agency, Oluseyi Temowo, has said. Mr. Temowo made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking in Lagos at a forum on adolescents living with HIV.

An NGO, Positive Action for Treatment, organised the forum in partnership with the AIDS agency to mark 2016 World AIDS Day.

Senate Committee on Health, on Monday, mandated the Federal Ministry of Health to propose N96 billion in 2017 budget for tackling acute malnutrition in the country. It further stated that government might be compelled to declared a state of emergency on malnutrition in the country if adequate funding is not made available for the condition.

Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment has called for speedy pass of the Occupational and Health Bill before the National Assembly. Ngige said this in Abuja on Wednesday at a two-day National Awareness and Sensitisation Workshop on Occupational, Safety and Health (OSH) for major industries and government agencies in Nigeria.

The workshop was organised by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment in partnership with Global Network Monitoring and Development Initiative, its theme is: “Emergency Preparedness and Response for Workplace System Resilience’’.

The Lagos State Government (LASG), on Thursday alerted residents about the activities of some fraudsters now collecting water bills illegally in the state. The state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, who disclosed this in a statement issued by the government to clarify the controversy surrounding the collection of all water abstraction related revenues, said at no time did it authorise any consultant to collect such revenues on its behalf.

The Concerned Members of Association of Water Producers of Lagos State had on Monday published a petition in a national daily on Monday, December 5, 2016 alleging harassment, intimidation, financial deprivation, among others by the State Water Regulatory Commission and the Association of Table Water producers of Lagos State, calling on the Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to look into the matter.

The Federal Government is to sponsor the medical surgeries of no fewer than 10, 000 indigent patients of various ailments within three months across the country. The medical director of Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Katsina, Dr. Umar Farouk Abdulmajid, who made this known to journalists in Katsina, stated that 30 of the patients would undergo harniaropics while 20 others were booked for hysterectomy.

According to him, all federal tertiary hospitals nationwide had been allocated different number of patients that would receive free surgeries in their facilities within the period.

Despite weak infrastructure and poor funding, Nigeria has adequate human resources to reverse brain drain and make the country a medical tourism hub. This was the verdict of participants at the Fourth Annual Meeting of the Nigerian-American Medical Foundation (NAMFI) International in Lagos yesterday.

NAMFI is a non-profit organisation incorporated in Nigeria and the United States of America. It comprises international physicians mostly from America.

The National Assembly Health and Appropriation committees have resolved to push the executive to ensure that budgets passed for all sectors are implemented for the benefit of Nigerians. This is part of the outcome of a three-day retreat by the committees, on ways to improve Nigeria’s health sector.

Also present at the retreat held at the Pan African Parliament in Johannesburg, were lawmakers from Swaziland and Zimbabwe, who shared experiences from their country.