Frontpage News (3254)
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.
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.
Health minister Isaac Adewole says prevalence of obstetric fistula, despite a declining trend, is “still high and unacceptable”. Up to 148,000 women get fistulas—a tear in the vaginal wall, which occurs during obstructed labour, allowing faeces or urine to leak through without control.Governor calls for support to curb activities of quack medical personnel
Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Monday urged doctors to support the government in curbing the activities of quack medical personnel to save lives and revive the healthcare system. Ambode made the plea at the Induction Ceremony for the 11th Set of Medical Doctors and the Unveiling of the Roll of Honour, Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) in Lagos.
The governor, who was represented by his Deputy, Dr Idiat Adebule, said the quacks had done more than enough damage to the people and the nation’s healthcare system. “Our administration places high premium on healthcare and wellness of our people and this is reflective in our decision to develop a Medical Park of global standard and fight quackery. “We cannot achieve this without the support of our medical personnel, ‘’ the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) quotes him as saying.
In Delta Govt will rehabilitate, re-equip health centres in 2017 - Commissioner
The Delta Commissioner for Health, Dr Nicholas Azinge, has said that the state government would commence rehabilitation and re-equipping of the 132 non functional health centres in the state in 2017.
Azinge, who stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba, said government needed to do this for the people to access primary healthcare. Azinge said that the state government had proposed N400 million for the primary health sector in the 2017 budget in its determination to tackle the problem.
To mark this year’s Universal Health Coverage Day, WHO has launched a new data portal to track progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) around the world. The portal which is available here shows where countries need to improve access to services, and where they need to improve information.
According to a statement, WHO said the portal features the latest data on access to health services globally and in each of WHO’s 194 Member States, along with information about equity of access. Next year WHO will add data on the impact that paying for health services has on household finances.
The United States Agency for International Development, USAID, has disclosed that approximately 100,000 children die from diarrhoea in Nigeria annually. USAID Chief of Party, Dr. Ayodele Iroko, made this known at the Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector, SHOPS, project in Makurdi.
Iroko said to address the situation, “the project trained over 350 clinic level private providers in Lagos State; 500 officers-in-charge of public Primary Health Care facilities, and 4,500 Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors, PPMVs, in Abia, Benue and Nasarawa states to recommend zinc and ORS for diarrhoea treatment.
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Two Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), Connected Development (CODE) and ONE Campaign, have commended the Federal Government for increasing funding for the healthcare sector in 2017.
The organisations expressed their satisfaction in separate statements made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Abuja by their respective chief executives. Mr Hamzat Lawal, Chief Executive Officer, signed for CODE, while Mr Edwin Ikhuoria, the Country Representative, signed for ONE Campaign.
Global progress on controlling malaria risks stalling due to an urgent need for more funding, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in its annual report on Tuesday.Overall, the number of new cases fell by 21 percent between 2010 and 2015, and mortality rates fell by 29 percent 31 percent in the African region.
But globally there were still 212 million new cases and 429,000 deaths last year which could be prevented.
For example, 43 percent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa was not protected by treated nets or indoor spraying. The unprecedented progress in malaria is one of the biggest successes in healthcare history, Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, told reporters in London.
Some medical experts in Nigeria are asking the government to empower the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to enable people at the rural areas have access to affordable medical treatment.
They expressed concern about the rising incidence at the Wellington Foundation's fourth annual continuing medical education course in Abuja, where they introduced a neuro-navigation system machine.
