Enugu State government has urged residents to be vigilant, following the fresh outbreak of Lassa fever in Ebonyi State.The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Fintan Ekochin, made the appeal yesterday.He said although the disease has not been reported in the state, there were concerns about those who travel to and from Ebonyi.
The crisis in Jos University Teaching Hospital, deepened on Wednesday when about 400 Resident Doctors protest on the streets with a mock coffin. As early as 8:30am, the aggrieved doctors had laid siege to the complex of JUTH complaining about the dictatorial tendencies of its Chief Medical Director, Prof. Edmund Banwat.
The National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC says it will in March this year commence a nationwide campaign against falsified and substandard drugs in Nigeria.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised alarm over imminent ‘deadly’ epidemic of Yellow fever in Nigeria. The WHO, last month, warned that yellow fever cases throughout Nigeria are escalating concerns about the risk of large, costly, and difficult-to-control outbreaks in urban areas requiring huge supplies of life-saving vaccines and increasing the potential for large-scale national and even worldwide spread.
Nigeria’s former Minister of Health, Professor Adenike Grange has blamed the Nigerian governments at all levels for the poor health care delivery system in the country.
The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been in operation for over ten years but it seems to have failed in the realization of the objectives for which it was established. Key among its failures is the non-realization of the objective of making health care available to Nigerians at an affordable cost. As at date many Nigerians still pay out of their pocket for medical expenses; a retrogressive health care funding mechanism. This has continued to drive many families to catastrophic health expenditures and poverty. There is therefore an urgent need to review the scheme with a view to finding out factors responsible for its poor performance and proffer solutions that can lead to improvement in the scheme. This is necessary in order to accelerate the expansion of the scheme to cover many Nigerians within the shortest possible time.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, has urged health workers across the country to strictly adhere to standard Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC) procedures while handling patients at all times and not just when Lassa fever is suspected.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in collaboration with other donor agencies, on Monday, donated 853 motorcycles to the Federal Government to strengthen diseases surveillance across the country.
The National Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on Friday canvassed the establishment of test-laboratories across the 36 states to help in effective monitoring of foods and drugs.
The Union of National African Paediatric Societies and Associations (UNAPSA) and Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) has begun training of doctors and nurses on neonatal resuscitation and anaesthetic.
The Health Management Organisation,(HMOs) under the aegis of Health and Managed Care Association of Nigeria (HMCAN), has urged the National Assembly to revisit and expedite action on the review and the passage of the Health Insurance amendment Bill which has been pending before it since the past eight years.
National Publicity Secretary of HMCAN ),Lekan Ewenla who made the call yesterday in Abuja, said that the law establishing the NHIS is very weak and needs to be strengthened to enable Nigerians access affordable and quality healthcare in the country.
"The Center for Human Virology and Genomics (CHVG) has been listed as a WHO Prequalification Evaluating Laboratory. This happened after a successful audit of the laboratory to ISO 15189:2012standard by WHO Geneva on Monday 22nd January 2018. This therefore makes CHVG the first laboratory in West Africa to attain this feat.
