Frontpage News (3249)
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Monday said the much awaited Health Insurance Scheme of the State would commence in early 2017, expressing readiness to partner with key players in the sector to use insurance to grow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Lagos.
Following a recent Court of Appeal judgment that nullified monthly environmental sanitation in the state, the Lagos State Government on Wednesday officially terminated the exercise hitherto held for three hours on the last Saturday of every month.
The state government decision came on the heels of the re- deployment of the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Akinyemi Ashade by the Lagos state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode to take over as the Commissioner for Finance.
New UNAIDS report shows that people are particularly vulnerable to HIV at certain points in their lives and calls for a life-cycle approach to find solutions for everyone at every stage of life
Ahead of World AIDS Day on December 1, a new report by United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) shows that countries are getting on the Fast-Track, with an additional one million people accessing treatment in just six months (January to June 2016). By June 2016, around 18.2 million [16.1 million–19.0 million] people had access to the life-saving medicines, including 910 000 children, double the number five years earlier. If these efforts are sustained and increased, the world will be on track to achieve the target of 30 million people on treatment by 2020.
The National Agency for Food, Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC) says it has destroyed expired drugs, food, drinks and cosmetics worth N21 million in Nasarawa State. The Acting NAFDAC Director-General, Mrs Yetunde Oni, disclosed this on Thursday, November 24, during the destruction in Lafia.
Oni represented by Alhaji Abubakar Jimoh, Director, Special Duties, said that the periodic destruction exercise was one of NAFDAC’s strategies to prevent the circulation of fake, counterfeit medicines and unwholesome products in the country.
Chinese scientists on Thursday discovered 1,445 new RNA virus species, and this is expected to facilitate future studies in virus evolution and the origins of life. Zhang Yongzhen, researcher with Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, said in Beijing.
Yongzhen said the research was led by a team of scientists at the CDC, with the findings published online in the journal Nature.
Pneumonia Replaces Malaria As Number One Child Killer Disease in Nigeria – Report
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.
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As doctors employed by the Lagos State Government embarked on a 5 -Day Medical mission in Epe area of Lagos, the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has said that early medical checks are essential to the detection and prevention of aliments in order to prevent them from becoming chronic. 
Health ministers from 16 countries in West Africa have pledged to improve their countries level of preparedness during disease outbreaks.
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.
