Frontpage News (3259)
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has said that at least 992 people died of cholera, Lassa fever, yellow fever and monkeypox in 2018. The center made the data available on its website and stated that Cholera caused 830 deaths, Lassa fever caused 149 deaths, yellow fever killed 13 persons, while there was one confirmed death caused by monkeypox.
On cholera, the NCDC said, “As at October 29, 2018, a total of 42,466 suspected cases including 830 deaths have been reported from 20 States. The affected states were, Adamawa, Anambra, Bauchi, Borno, Ebonyi, FCT, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Yobe, Sokoto, and Zamfara.
Akwa Ibom State Government has purchased medical equipment worth N5 billion for Ibom Specialist Hospital to boost healthcare delivery in the state.
Dominic Ukpong, the state Commissioner for Health, disclosed this when members of the Divine Mandate Campaign Team visited the Paramount Ruler of Eket, Edidem Etim Abia, in Eket recently.
The Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN) has called on governments to ensure Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) is completely free, accessible and without user fee in 2019.
Peter Obialor, Lagos State Coordinator of the group, made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recently in Lagos.
FG, W’Bank, BMGF Commit $180 million to Fund Universal Health Coverage
As a collective effort to address Nigeria’s poor healthcare indices and improve human capital development, the federal government, the World Bank Group, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have jointly committed $180 million to fund Universal Health Coverage through the Basic Healthcare Provisions Fund (BHCPF).
This is even as the Chairman of Dangote Group and the Department for International Development (DFID) have pledged to support the fund with $75 million and £50 million respectively over the next five years.
Stakeholders in the Nigerian Health Sector (SNHS) has asked the federal government to ensure adequate funding of the Medical Rehabilitation Therapists Board (MRTB).
As contained in its communiqué after an independent review of the MRTB activities in Nigeria, the group said the federal government needs to pay more attention to medical rehabilitation therapy in the country.
Indian Doctors Perform Free Paediatric Heart Surgeries At UNTH, Enugu
A team of Indian doctors are currently at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu State, on a free paediatric heart surgery mission. The doctors are on the sponsorship of the Catholic Church’s Spiritual Self Awareness Initiative.
It is expected that 25 children would benefit from the free open heart surgeries which lasts for eleven days, even as about 50 cases have so far been screened.
Aid Workers: UN Withdraws 260 Aid Workers From Borno Over Boko Haram Attacks
The United Nations says it has withdrawn about 260 aid workers from three local governments in Borno state over the recent resurgence of attacks by Boko Haram terrorists. In a statement on Wednesday, Samantha Newport, UN spokesperson in Nigeria, said the development has affected its humanitarian service delivery in the embattled region.
Newport said Edward Kallon, UN humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, is deeply concerned about the increasing attacks in the region which has resulted in massive displacement of civilians.
Pharmacy Has To Be Disruptive or It Would Be Disrupted – Pharm. Claire Omatseye
Pharm. Claire Omatseye, MD/CEO JNC International Ltd. and President, HealthCare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) have called on all pharmacists to make a choice to either be innovatively disruptive or disrupted.
She made this call while giving her keynote address at the recently held Annual National Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria in Ibadan.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and its affiliate, the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for not privatizing the health sector. They condemned privatization of the sector, saying it would lead to masses’ exploitation.
The leadership of the two Unions, Ayuba Wabba and Biobelemoye Josiah, who expressed their concern at the recent 45th session of the MHWUN’s National Executive Council meeting in Abuja, urged health workers to unite for a common interest to resist the idea, described as anti-masses.
Scientist and researchers have been tasked to intensify their researches towards developing a vaccine that could prevent the spread of Lassa fever across the continent in the nearest possible future.
This plea was made at the ongoing maiden Lassa fever international conference which held in Abuja on Wednesday. Though some researches on Lassa fever vaccines are in the pipeline, none has been certified for use.
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Health workers have threatened to resume their suspended strike. The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), on Wednesday, threatened to resume the industrial action it suspended last May if the issues in dispute are not resolved in two weeks from today.
According to Vanguard Newspaper, JOHESU, through its chairman, Biobelemoye Josiah, issued the strike notice in a letter addressed to the minister of labor and employment, Chris Nigige.
Governor of Nassarawa State, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, yesterday told participants at the first international conference on Lassa fever in Abuja how he contracted the disease in 1990 that made him deaf for 20 years before he had a cochlear implant.
The governor said he lost his first son to Lassa fever nine years after marriage, the second son survived but with the burden of the side effects of the virus, neurological problems, especially hearing loss.
The Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, has threatened to resume the industrial action it suspended on 30th May 2018.
Gov Okowa Flags Off Scheme To Revive 27 Primary Health Care Centres In Delta
Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding and a Renovate, Operate and Transfer agreement with a consortium of medical service providers, operating under the aegis of Pharmaccess in Asaba, the capital of the state, as part of his administration’s plan to ensure quality healthcare delivery through the Contributory Health Insurance Scheme in the state.
The governor, represented by the Chairman of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission, Dr. Isaac Akpoveta, said that the MoU and the ROT would help to check the rate of rural to urban migration.
