Frontpage News (3249)
Medical workers fighting Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo are demanding that authorities provide better protection for them after an attack on a treatment center left one doctor dead.
Distrust of the disease and of the medical personnel working to contain it has led to violence, even as the outbreak, the second-largest ever, enters its eighth month. The outbreak has killed 970 people and sickened 1,480 as of April 30, according to the Ministry of Health.
Anambra assembly passes law banning marriage among sickle cell carriers
The Anambra State House of Assembly has passed a bill banning marriages involving people living with sickle cell anemia or incompatible genotypes.
Dr. John Ahukanna, the Commissioner for Health in Abia, said on Monday that the state would get over N2 billion from the Federal Government’s Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHPF).
Ahukanna said this in Umuahia during the inauguration of the World Bank Primary Healthcare Center (WBPHC), which was revamped through the 72-hour Clinic Makeover programme under the state’s Challenge Initiative in Umuahia.
A new study investigated by a team of investigators from the University of Tokyo in Japan has recently found how ketamine fights depression in the brain. Previous studies have shown that ketamine, an anesthetic can rapidly reduce severe symptoms of major depressive disorder, particularly the occurrence of suicidal thoughts.
Dr Conor Liston, one of the researchers behind the study explains how ketamine is a potentially transformative treatment for depression, but one of the major challenges associated with this drug is sustaining recovery after the initial treatment.
Loneliness could be a nasty and frustrating experience, which happens to everyone, at one point or the other in life, especially as one gets older. This explains the rationale behind the new study conducted by scientists from the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines in France, which validated the link between living alone and common mental disorders (CMDs).
Some common psychological disorders include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors.
Two medical consultants have opened a partnership with a Nigerian hospital to stench the flow of Nigerian patients to their practice in United Arab Emirate. Dr Yasir Parviz, an interventional cardiologist, and Dr Basim Alkhafaji, a laparoscopic general and obesity surgeon, both consultants at a Dubai-based hospital have treated a number of Nigerian patients at their practice.
Their partnership with ViewPoint Hospital in Gwarimpa started with a medical camp to see patients. One way we can collaborate with Nigerian hospitals is clinical, said Parviz. We can get involved in the management of patients and also teaching and training for medical personnel. As well, we can share ideas and experiences that we have. Parviz said what is happening in the rest of the world, is that people link-up, people collaborate and share ideas and things move. It is not done by only one hospital or one personnel, he said.
Australia is headed for a bad flu season after a surge in cases in summer and autumn.Experts predict about 4000 people will die from complications due to influenza this year as the number of infections increases again following a quiet 2018.
There have already been 40,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza in 2019, almost three times the number recorded at the same time in recent years.
Over the years, the failure of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to fulfill its primary objective of providing the required health insurance coverage for all Nigerians has compounded the fortunes of those at the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
A ray of hope that emerged through the approval of one percent from the Consolidated Revenue Fund by the Federal Government in 2018 budget remains the key to the provision of basic healthcare for all Nigerians irrespective of their financial status.
The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Pharmacy Council bill 2017. The association disclosed this in a statement signed by two of its executives, Pharmacists Samuel Adekola and Abosede Idowu.
They argued that the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) bill 2017 should be assented to because it is very consistent with similar laws in the Commonwealth League of Nations, where regulatory laws and statutes have become very sacred in keeping pace with the norms and ethos of public health. They added that recent public health concerns with regards to the increasing challenges of drug abuse and misuse in Nigeria have been evaluated by the association, stressing that this development obviously further complicates the perennial woes of fake as well as falsified drugs in Nigeria and should bother all promoters of good pharmacy practice in Nigeria. “One of the major benefit packages of PCN bill is that it opens a unique window of competence driven service rendition at all levels.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that nearly 630 million years of healthy life were lost in 2015 due to the diseases afflicting the population across its 47 Member States in Africa, now amounting to a loss of more than $ 2.4 trillion international dollars from the region’s gross domestic product value annually.
Non-communicable diseases, the WHO said, have overtaken infectious diseases as the largest drain on productivity, accounting for 37 percent of the disease burden. Other culprits for lost healthy years are communicable and parasitic diseases; maternal, neonatal and nutrition-related conditions; and injuries.
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In a mass solidarity move to protest what it termed the ‘Delay of Presidential Assent to, and Loss of Passed Pharmacy Council of Nigeria Bill, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Tuesday (7th May) carried out a well thought-out and peaceful protest to drive home their displeasure at the current situation of things. Suddenly, the Nigerian pharma community woke up one morning to learn that the PCN Bill is missing in transit between the Presidency and the National Assembly, and they feel this cannot be accepted in any way.
The ensuing protest which was observed nationwide was only carried out by pharmacists who operate pharmacy outlets and chiefly aimed at appealing to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari to quickly assent to the Bill. It was also a means of sensitizing Nigerians regarding the frustrations wreaked by the unethical approach that is the bane of drug distribution and wanton abuse of medicaments in the country.
Doctors in C/River withdraw strike notice after release of kidnapped colleague
Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) said on Sunday that it has suspended the notice of total and indefinite withdrawal of medical services across the state following the release of its kidnapped member Dr Ogbonna Uchenna-Aju by unknown gunmen.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Uchenna-Aju, a medical practitioner was kidnapped on May 3 in Cross River by unknown gunmen while on transit from Ogoja Local Government Area to his house in Obudu Local Government Area of the state.
NMA made this disclosure in a statement signed by its President and Secretary-General Dr. Frances Faduyile and Dr. Olumuyiwa Odusote at the end of the body’s 59th annual general conference held yesterday in Abuja.
The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has condemned the growing insecurity and incidence of kidnappings in the country. It, therefore, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to address security challenges, poor health indices, high unemployment rate and starvation in the country.
President of the association, Dr. Francis Faduyile, who stated this while briefing journalists yesterday in Abuja, expressed dismay over the failure of both the federal and state governments to effectively check security lapses and the rising incidence of crime and criminality in the country.
