Frontpage News (3249)
Niger legislators call for state of emergency on state health sector
Following the high maternal and child mortality rate in Niger State, the legislators have called for declaration of State of Emergency on the State Health sector.Improving Health of Nigerians Requires Concerted Efforts of Stakeholders - Minister
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.
A microbiologist and consultant in primary healthcare and immunisation systems, Dr. Benjamin Anyene, has revealed that 70 per cent of diseases in Nigeria can be dealt with at the primary healthcare level if necessary measures were put in place.
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.
2017 Budget: Senate Committee Urges FG To Allocate N96bn For Malnutrition
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.
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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.
3 Nigerian medical laboratories receive international standard certification
Three Nigerian medical laboratories, 445 Nigerian Air Force Hospital Laboratory, Clina Lancet Laboratories and El-lab Laboratories, have received the International Standard Organisation (ISO) accreditation certificates for complying with international standards of services. The certificates were awarded and presented by the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN).
All the laboratories are located in Lagos and they were recognised for satisfying the requirements for ISO 15189: 2012 quality management system standard – an internationally acceptable standards requirement.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) yesterday said malaria killed 429,000 and infected 212 million people in 2015. It noted that millions of Africans still lack tools to prevent and treat the ailment. In its World Malaria Report 2016 released yesterday, the global agency submitted that the marginal progress made in the control of menace was being threatened by the rapid resistance to insecticides and antimalarial drug as well as shortfall in funding.
Many medical workers in Lagos are angry. The aggrieved workers, who claimed they were engaged by the state government under the auspices of the Midwives Service Scheme (MSS), Lagos State chapter, recently held a peaceful demonstration at the Governor’s Office, Alausa, Ikeja, to protest the non-payment of 11-month salary arrears by the authorities.
