Frontpage News (3249)
Al-Makura Gov says 700 primary health centres lack qualified manpower
Most of the over 700 Primary Health Centres in Nasarawa State are ineffectual due to lack of qualified manpower, Governor Tanko Al-makura has said. Al-makura stated this when Mr Carlos Sosa, the Ambassador of Cuba to Nigeria visited him in Lafia on Tuesday.
He said this had brought with it attendant negative consequences on the public health service delivery especially in the rural communities.
Abuja — As the National Assembly begins work on the 2017 budget, civil society organisations (CSOs) have asked the Federal Government to dedicate one per cent of the fiscal plan as consolidated revenue fund to health as it previously promised.
CSOs in Nigeria under the Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC), which vigorously advocated the passage of the National Health Act (NHAct), are worried about what they described as the unfavourable signals from the Federal Ministry of Health.
Consider enlightenment about malaria important, stakeholders urge media
Media practioners in the country have been advised to consider enlightening the populace about malaria a critical responsibility.
Coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Program of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Audu Bala Mohammed, and the Managing Director of the Society for Family Health, Mr Bright Ekweremadu, gave the advise in Lagos during the dinner organized by the two organizations for health editors.
In the war between humanity and disease, perhaps the greatest victory of recent years took place in Africa. At the turn of the millennium, serious analysts expected HIV/AIDS to kill up to half the people in some southern African countries. But then the price of anti-retroviral drugs fell from $10,000 a year to as little as $100, thanks to a loud campaign for access to treatment, some technical advances and a dollop of aid.
Suddenly, millions of HIV-positive Africans started taking pills that kept them alive. Also, by reducing the viral load in their bloodstream, the drugs made them less likely to infect other people, and thereby slowed the spread of the epidemic. AIDS is still deadly, but it is being brought under control. That’s something to celebrate.
The Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole has said that the Federal Government has the capacity to provide quality medical care to the 21 released Chibok girls, and those to be released later. The Minister was speaking on Sunday 16th October, 2016 when he visited the released Chibok girls in Abuja, to assess their wellbeing.
Scientists have raised the alarm over the spread of hospital bed infection, saying when a hospital patient is taking antibiotics, the next person to use the same bed may face an elevated risk of infection with the dangerous germ Clostridium difficile.
The Vice President, Commonwealth Medical Association, Dr. Osahon Enabulele has decried the current state of the country’s health sector, saying that 56 years after, the sector is still struggling to meet the World Health Organisation, WHO, set standards for health. 
A team of physicians and laboratory scientists has taken a key step toward a cure for sickle cell disease, using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing to fix the mutated gene responsible for the disease in stem cells from the blood of affected patients. For the first time, they have corrected the mutation in a proportion of stem cells that is high enough to produce a substantial benefit in sickle cell patients.
The Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), says it is working to address the growing shortage of anti retro-viral drugs in various health facilities in Nigeria. Dr Bilali Camara, the Country Director, UNAIDS, described the situation as an emergency.
He said that UNAIDS was discussing with the Federal Ministry of Health, Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (NEPHWAN) and some major donors over the issue.
The Oyo State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the Health Insurance Agency Bill 2016, after it scaled through the third reading.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bill, which was passed into law, was aimed at allowing residents to have financial protection, physical access to quality and affordable healthcare services.
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Gov. Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State on Wednesday tasked the medical practitioners in the country to create more public awareness on hypertension.
Mimiko gave the charge in Akure at the 3rd Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Ondo State chapter 2016 Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference.
In Imo Workers shut down Federal Medical Centre, demand removal of CMD
Workers at the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, on Wednesday, October 19, paralysed all activities following the reinstatement of the suspended Chief Medical Director, Dr Angela Uwakwem.
The Federal Ministry of Health had on Wednesday reinstated Uwakwem, saying her appointment was a presidential issue that can only be reversed through the same channel.
Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Dr. Jide Idris, has said that financial and human resources are inadequate in both primary, second-ary and tertiary health care in the country because government at all levels are not investing enough in the sector. 
There was little drama at the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control(NAFDAC), Tuesday, when some of the agency ‘s aggrieved workers, locked up its headquarters in abuja, while forbidding others to work.
It was learnt that, continued protests by the workers, had been on for the past two weeks, which had also climaxed in shutting down of the agency’s premises.
