The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) in Jigawa on Sunday said that it confiscated fake and unregistered drugs worth four million naira in the last two years. The NAFDAC State Coordinator, Mr Olaniran Olakunle, disclosed this in Dutse while presenting to newsmen some suspects allegedly arested with fake drugs in Gwaram and Malammadori Local Government areas. Olakunle said that most of the suspects arrested with fake and counterfeit drugs during the period were in rural communities across the state. He said that fake drugs such as mixacrip tablet, herogra, busaka, polycid and tramadol capsule were seized from some patent medicine vendors in Gwaram and Malammadori last week.

According to him, the value of drugs seized from them is about N250,000. coordinator said that the suspects were being investigated to ascertain the sources of the products in order to bring the entire chain to justice. Olakunle said that the suspects would soon be charged to court. He urged members of the public to be vigilant and patronise only registered pharmacies in their localities. (NAN)

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New eye popping medical technology provides earlier diagnosis, reduces cost and a breakthrough range of other benefits for both patients and health care professionals. Victor Okeke writes. Current health system technologies promise delivery of affordable healthcare to rural communities. This promise makes more meaning because rural clinics in Nigeria face a peculiar problem of the unwillingness of healthcare practitioners to work in remote communities and has negatively affected the quality of care provided in such communities. Many times the high fixed costs associated with bringing specialists in-house is cost prohibitive for smaller medical facilities. There is also the challenge of non-availability of medical equipment. Many community health centres are clinics by name with medical equipment or consumables to attend to patients’ need. Ultimately, the result is diminished patient care and lost revenue for these medical facilities.

A technology firm, Springville Consulting in recognition of this immense developmental gap has teamed up with an international technology company Ktwo of India, to bring next- generation healthcare solutions to Nigeria. The Chief Executive Officer of the firm, Chuks Melville Chibundu said the telemedicine is not new but that this technology is a special diagnostic solution that is targeted at rural community health centres in the country. “It is a solution that imbeds diagnostic equipment and is analysed by a computer that will give you a real-time result of basic diagnostic test that a patient will normally take,” he said. For instance, the solution will analyse in real-time, malaria, typhoid, tuberculosis, do some heart test through electrocardiography (ECG), blood sugar test and all those test that we can programme within our programme. It will give you immediate results as soon as the samples are put on the chambers. He explained that the technology comes in set alongside other diagnostic equipment as it has a small ECG attached to it, microscope, the computer itself which is embedded with the necessary software to analyse all the samples that you have, a bed where the patient can lie-down on, an ECG strap and other equipment.

14 years after the Abuja Declaration, Nigeria is yet to fulfill its pledge of allotting 15 per cent of its annual budget to health. In April 2001 at a meeting of African leaders in Abuja, Nigeria had pledged to support the Abuja Declaration and that at least 15 per cent of the government’s annual budget will be used to improve the health sector. Last year, the country only allotted 6.3 per cent of budget to health down from 8.2 per cent the previous year. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-five year olds and 145 women of childbearing age which makes the country the second largest contributor to the under–five and maternal mortality rate in the world. There are many of such un-redeemed pledges in health like the Maputo Plan of Action to ensure universal access to reproductive health, the UN Every Woman Every Child- a commitment to save lives of women and children by 2015, the London Family Planning Summit- to mobilise contraceptive information, services and supplies and others. But stakeholders are optimistic that President Muhammadu Buhari will address this challenge.

Speaking at an advocacy workshop yesterday, the national coordinator of Civil Society for Family Planning in Nigeria (CiSFP), Wale Adeleye said, “We now have a new government that is committed and talking about change.” He said, “We now feel that if approach this government with information about these commitment; we can really get the change that we are clamouring for.” On whether the Buhari government would redeem pledges made by the Jonathan government, he said that Jonathan made commitments in the area of security which Buhari came in and redeemed and they are towing same line.“The president himself is a father and has wife and children and I know that if he understands what the commitment are all about, I don’t see him declining to support these commitments.”

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) on Friday advised the Nigerian Government to withdraw its reservation on the global reproductive health programme to enable citizens benefit from the policy. Ms Ratidzai Ndhlovu, the UNFPA Country Representative in Nigeria, gave the advice at the 2nd 2015 Population Technical Working Group (PTWG) meeting in Abuja. Represented by Mr Dasogot Dashe, the UNFPA Programme Analyst on Demography and Statistics, she advocated for the withdrawal of Nigeria’s objection to two targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UN official noted that Nigeria had expressed reservation on targets 3.7 and 5.6 of the the SDGs. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the SDGs target 3.7 is seeking to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services, including family planning and reproductive health integration in all member states.

The SDGs target 5.6 is seeking to promote universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights for citizens of the member countries. Ndhlovu therefore urged the federal government to adapt the targets as a means to delivering improved healthcare services. She explained the SDGs were adopted by UN member nations after a wide consultation to impact on the lives of citizens through a 17-goal mechanism. According to her, some of the goals include ending of poverty and hunger, improving and provision of quality healthcare and education, water and sanitation, sustainable energy and resilient infrastructure. Others were gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, safe cities and settlements, sustainable production and consumption, combating climate change, conservation of marine, oceans and sea resources, promotion of ecosystems, biodiversity and halt degradation. Besides, the envoy said that a strong partnership was being evolved to ensure that the goals were effectively implemented, monitored and evaluated. “If Nigeria withdraws her reservation on the two targets, the country will get maximum value for Naira,’’ said Ndhlovu. (NAN)

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The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has trained more than 14 million people in Nigeria on first-aid in 2012, according to a statement issued in Abuja on Friday. The statement, signed by Mr Mohammed Bashir-Illela, National Training Officer, Nigerian Red Cross Society in Abuja, said the organisation had remained the world’s leading first-aid trainer and provider for more than 150 years. “While the marketplace has changed, our belief that performing first-aid is an act of humanity – not just a series of techniques – has not,’’ it stated. It stated that the World First Aid Day (WFAD), to be celebrated on Saturday (Sept. 12), was a time to promote first aid knowledge and skills around the globe. The association said it would bring about the change needed to enhance, expand and improve first-aid training worldwide as an act of humanitarian empowerment and a key component of a wider resilience approach.

The theme of the celebration is “First aid and ageing population’’ with the aim of building a positive image of ageing and recognise older people as an important resource for society, the statement said. “We also want to encourage older people self-empowerment, strengthening their resilience and capacity to be autonomous while promoting their inclusion in society as actors and not only as beneficiaries. “Indeed, we believe that older people can be transformed from being `cared for’ into `people providing quality integrated care,’’ it said. The society said the 2014 theme highlighted the need for “first-aid heroes” in daily emergencies and disasters. “The message was that neither a cape nor superpower is needed to be a hero; first aid saves lives, everyone, everywhere can be a hero. “This same message and slogan, “Be a hero. Save lives. First aid is for everyone, everywhere, remains relevant to the theme,’’ it said. It stated that older people could be heroes and support their peers, their grand-children and other people in several ways. “Therefore, the visual identity, slogan and theme are a continuation from last year’s WFAD campaign,’’ it said. (NAN)

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A former member of the National Assembly, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Friday decried the inability of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to assent to the Disability Bill inspite of its passage by the two houses of the National Assembly. Dabiri-Erewa, who was the Chairperson, House Committee on Diaspora during the 7th session, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan. NAN reports that the former lawmaker spoke against the backdrop of the implication of non-assent to the bill for persons with disability in Nigeria. Dabiri-Erewa, who was the sole sponsor of the bill, said that it was a shame that Nigeria currently had no law in place for persons with disability. “We did a lot of work on that bill both at the Senate and the House of Representatives and it was one of those bills sent to the president to sign into law. “Despite lawmakers’ early passage of the bill considering the hardship faced by our fellow citizens living with disability, I am particularly sad that our effort was not rewarded by the last government.

“I sincerely hope that the 8th National Assembly would make it a priority bill because we are dealing with over four million Nigerians who happen to be physically challenged. “We are saying that the government must put them into consideration in everything we do. “For instance, there is the area of construction of public buildings, banks, hospitals, schools and other work places because the bill is all encompassing,” Dabiri-Erewa said. In his own submission, Mr Paul Adelabu, a former Special Adviser to the Oyo State Governor on Disability, said that it was Jonathan’s personal decision not to sign the bill into law. According to Adelabu, Jonathan felt that meeting the conditions cited in some sections of the bill might be too demanding for the country. “However, the lawmakers that passed the bill are very kind Nigerians. Jonathan also promised to establish a National Commission for People with Disability. “This, he said, at a town hall meeting with Buhari at Nasarawa and I was physically present there. “Buhari also agreed with us to include persons with disability in his government,” Adelabu said.

Save the Children, an international NGO, said on Friday that it would train 5,000 health care workers in Kaduna, Lagos and Gombe states to improve the quality of health care delivery. The NGO’s Coordinator in Kaduna State, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar, made this known in Kaduna during the inaugural meeting of the project tagged; “Improving Health Workers Capacity in Nigeria”. Abubakar explained that out of the figure, 1,900 beneficiaries would be selected from Lagos while 1,550 each would benefit in Kaduna and Gombe states. According to her, the aim is to improve access to life saving health care by building capacity of frontline health workers to deliver quality services to address infant and child mortality. She said that the training would be conducted with funds from Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK), with focus on improving the skills of health care workers in areas with highest skilled gaps.

“Save the children, an international NGO with presence in Nigeria since 2001, has recently access funds from Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) to support the government of Kaduna, Lagos and Gombe states. “The GSK-funded training was designed to contribute towards an overall goal of improving the quality of health service and reducing maternal newborn and child mortality in the benefiting states. “The project, a three-year grant, was aimed to collaboratively build the capacity of health workers and support the presence of an enabling environment for health workforce development,” she said. The coordinator said that available records indicated that Kaduna state with a population of over seven million people had a density of 10.9 doctors, 29.3 nurses and midwives per 100,000 people. “As in Lagos and Gombe, the distribution of the health workforce in Kaduna is heavily weighted in favour of urban areas and tertiary facilities.

In the spirit of Corporate Social Responsibility, Swiss health-care giant, Roche Products Limited has launched Nigeria’s first-ever Health Journalists Academy. The Academy, which was officially opened on Thursday, September 3, 2015, will serve the purpose of boosting health reportage and coverage in the country. Participants at the launch of the Roche Health Journalists Academy on September 3, 2015. 15 journalists from print, broadcast and new media have been chosen as the first beneficiaries of the Academy which was established in partnership with the School of Media and Communication (SMC) at the Pan-Atlantic University to provide top-notch reporting skills and bring increased awareness to health issues in Nigeria. According to Roche’s Country Manager for Nigeria, Herman Addae: “We are convinced that our duty as a responsible corporate citizen goes beyond manufacturing and selling medication and medical devices. We have therefore decided to explore a new way to improve healthcare delivery in Nigeria.”

The Director-General of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr Joseph Odumodu, has said that the agency has seized substandard products worth four billion naira since the beginning of the year. Odumodu made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday, adding that in September, the agency seized substandard telephone sets worth N350 million. “In the last three days, we have confiscated over N350 million worth of telephone sets that are substandard. “If I add that to the number I have earlier, we have a number of about four billion naira this year alone. “I tell you that is not a thing of joy because all these products were imported, paid for with genuine dollars and would be destroyed and they are Nigerian money,’’ he said. Odumodu called for a law to jail people involved in the importation of substandard products into the country. According to him, the organisation now has a new act that confers additional power to prosecute offenders on it.

“I promise you that before the end of this year we may be celebrating the jailing of, at least, one major substandard kingpin in Nigeria,’’ Odumodu said. He said the organisation was doing everything possible to ensure that the importation of substandard products into the country was reduced to 10 per cent by the end of the year. “My target is before the end of this year, the organisation will reduce substandard products from its current 40 per cent level to 10 per cent. “We have killed our industries because they are competing with substandard products. “ We need to do things that will make a lot of difference to us. “When I started the journey in 2011 we had a level of substandard products with over 80 per cent in all the sectors. “Today we are around 40 per cent to 45 per cent; in this new dispensation we will reduce it further by 90 per cent,’’ Odumodu said.

The Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria has appealed to the Federal Government to disregard calls by experts in the health sector to privatise public health care delivery services, describing it as unnecessary. The union accused those calling for the privatisation of hospitals of destroying health sector and then hiding under the pretext of privatisation to cover up their corrupt deeds. 

The President of MHWUN, Biobelemoye Josiah, stated this in Abuja, during the commissioning of ‘Ayuba Wabba House’, the union’s permanent secretariat, named after its former President and President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Dr. Ayuba Wabba. According to him, the privatisation of public health institutions would cause untold hardship for millions of poor Nigerians. 

Biobelemoye said, “We are constrained to raise our voice against the incipient push to consolidate a neoliberal agenda in the health sector by some experts who have never borne the burden of want and deprivation confronting tens of millions of Nigerians.