Frontpage News (3259)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern over worldwide negligence of vaccination against measles and some other diseases. The information is on WHO’s official website, where the world body said 20 million children worldwide missed lifesaving vaccines such as measles, diphtheria, and tetanus in 2018.
“This finding is contained in new data by WHO and UNICEF. “Globally, since 2010, vaccination coverage with three doses of diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP3) and one dose of the measles vaccine has stalled at around 86 percent.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the ongoing Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
This declaration was made in a press conference on Wednesday by the Director-General, WHO, Tedros Ghebreyesus.
Dr Abiye Kalaiwo, the Programme Manager, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) says the organisation will begin a preventive intervention programme on HIV prevalence in Nigerian prisons by September this year.
Kalaiwo told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that USAID had prisons in Bauchi, Niger, Adamawa and Bayelsa as its targets.
The National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has exonerated National Eye Centre, Kaduna from the Avastin crisis. The agency in its laboratory test report said that the Avastin drug conforms with the standard certification process as the drug storage and chemical composition were excellent.
Speaking on behalf of the Director-General NAFDAC before the Senate ad-hoc committee in National Assembly yesterday, the Director, Pharmaco-Vigilance, Ali Ibrahim said before they registered the Avastin drug for use in Nigeria, it was tried and proven to be effective, apart from the monitoring and effective tracking.
Ministerial Screening: Nigeria developing drugs using local herbs to test breast cancer, cure leprosy – Ogbonnaya Onu
The former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, has said two Nigerian agencies have developed a drug “used in testing women who have breast cancer” with another in the pipeline “which has gone very far” in the cure of leprosy.
He said this during his ministerial screening at the Senate on Wednesday. He was the sixth nominee to be screened by the lawmakers.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says it is set to declare Nigeria a polio-free country. This is according to a statement by the Media and Communication Expert for WHO Nigeria, Charity Warigon, in Abuja on Tuesday.
Ms Warigon quoted Clement Peter, Officer in charge (OiC) of WHO office in Nigeria, as stating that in two months the country would reach three years without a polio case and could be certified polio-free.
The health minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Oly Ilunga, has resigned in protest over the handling of the Ebola outbreak in the east of the country. According to the BBC, the minister, in his resignation letter, condemned a decision by President Felix Tshisekedi to replace him as the head of the Ebola response team.
Mr Ilunga also criticised what he described as outside pressure to roll out a new experimental Ebola vaccine.
The President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Mazi (Pharm.) Sam Ohuabunwa has charged members of the Young Pharmacists Group (YPG) Lagos chapter, to be good ambassadors of the profession, through their dedication to activities that will promote healthcare of the citizenry.
The PSN President made the remarks at the inaugural meeting of the YPG, Lagos chapter, where he reiterated his commitment to young pharmacists and highlighted the need for them to uphold the tenets of the profession wherever they may find themselves.
Kaduna State University PANS Celebrates Accreditation of Pharmacy Faculty
It was a week-long celebration filled with unquantifiable joy and happiness as the Pharmaceutical Association of Nigerian Students (PANS) of the Kaduna State University in conjunction with staff members of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, celebrated the attainment of full accreditation status of the faculty by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and an interim accreditation status by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN).
Prior to the accreditation exercise, a statement from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kaduna State University revealed that the faculty has got seven (7) sets of students with two sets (KASU/12/PHM and KASU/13/PHM) unable to commence the compulsory internship program due to the lack of PCN accreditation of the faculty. However, by virtue of the current success attained, the affected sets of students can now proceed to apply for internship placement after their Oath taking/Induction ceremony into the Pharmacy profession in no distant time from now.
Officials of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control and policemen escaped getting lynched during an enforcement exercise at the Head Bridge Drug Market in Onitsha, Anambra State.
NAFDAC said in a statement by its Director-General, Prof. Moji Adeyeye, that the combined team of officials and policemen had visited the market sequel to credible intelligence obtained from concerned members of the public.
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The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN) has raised an alarm over what it called “organized quackery in public health institutions,” particularly at the nation’s teaching hospitals and Federal Medical Centres, saying the practice is putting the health of Nigerians at grave danger through wrong “diagnoses.”
The association accused pathologists who it claimed, have abandoned their primary duties of attending to patients as physicians and now jostle as merchants of reagents, chemicals, diagnostics as well as performing medical laboratory testing which is outside their “integral training, licensure and scheme of service.”
Over N14bn worth of Banned Tramadol, Others, Destroyed by Customs, NAFDAC
Poised to continually rid the nation of illicit drugs, smuggled into the country by unscrupulous citizens, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in conjunction with the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Thursday set ablaze about 58 containers of illegally imported tramadol and other illicit drugs worth N14.7 billion.
The Customs operatives had intercepted the smuggled drugs at various points in Lagos and other parts of the country, which warranted the need for the destruction of the hard drugs.
‘In its quest to engage and collaborate with other healthcare providers and patients with a focus on exploring avenues to improve treatment outcomes, the Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), King Zone, comprising Ifako-Ijaiye, Iju, Agege, and its environs, recently organized its Annual Healthcare Stakeholders Forum 2019.
The 2019 Annual Healthcare Stakeholders Forum, themed: “Health, Wealth and Life – What is my role”, had in attendance eminent personalities and stakeholders in the profession, including Dr Obalolu Ojo, chairman, NAPharm Drug and Substance Abuse Committee; Pharm. Samuel Adekola, national chairman, Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria (ACPN), Dr Olushola Barnet Amure, chief medical director, Ifako-Ijaye General Hospital; Pharm. (Chief) Olaitan Sunday Ogunlade, zonal chairman, ACPN, King Zone; Pharm. (Mrs) Bolanle Adeniran, chairman, PSN, Lagos State chapter; Pharm. Olabanji Benedict Obideyi, chairman, ACPN, Lagos State chapter, among other participants.
At its plenary on Monday, the Lagos State House of Assembly asked its standing committee on health to probe into the immediate and remote causes of the challenges facing the state’s renal facility.
The move is coming two days after our publication on the moribund multi-billion naira cardiac and renal centre established by the state The probe, a response to the publication, was brought to the attention of the house by its acting chairman of the committee on health, Akeem Sokunle.
