Frontpage News (3249)
The World Health Organisation, WHO, says 7 million people die of tobacco use annually even as governments lose US$1.4 trillion to healthcare expenditure due to tobacco-related diseases annually. 
Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has passed the bill for the establishment of the State Health Insurance Agency and Scheme into law, commending Governor Udom Emmanuel for making budgetary provision of N600 million for the scheme. 
The Australian State of New South Wales’ health department announced on Thursday that it would ban sugary soft drinks in all hospitals and care facilities by the end of 2017. This ban is imposed in order to combat the growing problem of obesity.
The move comes as part of NSW Health’s “Make Healthy Normal’’ campaign, which aims to achieve a five per cent reduction in overweight and obesity rates in adults by 2020.
Every year, on 14 June, countries around the world celebrate World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.
Blood is an important resource, both for planned treatments and urgent interventions. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. Blood is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care.
Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire has enjoined the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) to pursue international recognition. He gave the advice at the weekend during the commemoration of the World Accreditation Day organized by the council. 
Prof. Ganiyu Arinola of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, says certain lifestyles including excessive consumption of alcohol may damage the human immune system with high risk of susceptibility to infections and life-threatening conditions such as liver cancer or liver diseases.
"Excessive alcohol may damage the immune system because alcohol reduces white blood cells (cells of defence system) and destroys essential nutrients like vitamins needed by the white blood cells to function well," Arinola, the Chemical Pathology lecturer, told NAN in Ibadan on Sunday, June 11.
Reps summon Minister of Health and others over plastic packaging of food and drinks
The House of Representatives has summoned Prof. Isaac Adewole, the Minister of Health and Yetunde Oni, the Acting Director-General of NAFDAC (National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control) to appear before it.
This summon is in order for the duo to give an explanation on the effect of plastic containers for the packaging of food and drinks. The summon was due to the motion moved by Hon. Sergius Ogun on the need to regulate the use of Bisphenol “A” plastics in the production of bottled water.
Global Health Leaders has reaffirmed their commitment to eradicate polio and provide $1.2 billion to finance efforts to end the disease. A statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja by Mr Geoffrey Njoku, UNICEF Communication Specialist, said the leaders gave the assurance at the Rotary Convention in Atlanta.
The leaders included UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake; Dr Anne Schuchat, Acting Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan.
A disgraced doctor who moonlighted on paid sick leave was today jailed after failing to pay back nearly £100,000 he fiddled from the NHS. Gynaecologist Dr Anthony Madu, 46, secretly carried out well-paid locum work at hospitals while getting sick pay from another hospital. Madu - who was described in court as 'irresponsible and dishonest' - sent £95,000 to a Nigerian bank account.
He nearly collapsed when the news got to him. Still reeling in pains from events of previous days, it wasn’t the type of announcement he wanted to hear.More...
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have commended the 1.2 billion dollars funding initiative to eradicate polio disease in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake, and WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, gave the commendations as global health leaders reaffirmed their commitment to fund the eradication of polio in the countries.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has recommended 223 health facilities for the take-off of Kano State Contributory Healthcare Scheme (KSCHS). The NHIS’s Zonal Coordinator in-charge of Northwest “B”, Alhaji Shu’aibu Ahmed Indabawa, made the disclosure in Kano on Tuesday at a sensitization workshop organized for Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs).
The Federal Government and the Health Maintenance Organisations, on Wednesday, traded blame over the alleged “fraud” in the utilisation of the N381bn spent on the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme since inception in 2005.
The blame game took place before the House of Representatives Committee on Health Services which conducted a public hearing on the ‘Compliance Rate of HMOs to the NHIS Contributions and Utilisation of Funds by Healthcare Providers and Inhuman Treatment of Enrolees’.
No fewer than five people have reportedly been infected with the deadly Lassa fever in Ondo State. According to the Permanent Secretary in the state’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Taye Oni, who spoke with journalists in Akure on Tuesday, the disease had affected two people in Owo Local Government and two people in Akoko North-West Local Government.
Similarly, a student of the Achievers University in Owo has also contracted the disease. Oni said, “Of the cases recorded by the state government, we have a 56-year-old male, a 47- year-old female and another two people in Akoko South-West. This is not the usual time it occurs in Ondo State. It usually occurs during the dry season but limited to Owo and Ose local governments.
