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Medical Council to intern doctors, dentists: don’t go on strike
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The Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN) has warned doctors and dentists undergoing internship across the country to desist from participating in industrial actions. It warned it could lead to them repeating postings without remuneration.
The council said the guidance became necessary because of recent developments in the health sector. The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on May 30 issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to meet it demands or risk an indefinite strike.
The National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) of Nigeria on Monday commenced a nationwide indefinite strike. This is coming after the expiration of a 14-day ultimatum issued on the 30th of May. The President of NARD, Dr. Aliyu Sokomba, announced this in a press briefing in Abuja.
He stated that the Association’s decision is predicated on the fact that the healthcare delivery system is characterised by the perpetual unavailability of personnel protective equipment (PPEs) for healthcare workers, which has caused an increase in infection rates.
A coalition of Nasarawa State Health Professionals Association has alleged that 26 health workers, including six medical doctors, have died of COVID-19 in the state.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday in Lafia while declaring a seven-day total warning strike, the coalition spokesman and Chairman of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Peter Bulus, said the state government has neglected the health sector, a situation that allegedly led to the death of 26 health workers due to COVID-19.
The Enugu state Primary Healthcare Development Agency (ENS-PHCDA), says it has trained 1,875 health workers on COVID-19 case identification and response to stem the further spread of the pandemic.
The four-day step down training started on June 11, was organised by ENS-PHCDA in collaboration with National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). Executive Secretary of the agency, Dr. George Ugwu, told newsmen on Sunday in Enugu, that the training was designed to expose health workers and volunteers to all aspects of COVID-19 knowledge and what they were expected to do.
Rivers State Government has denied claims credited to the Nigerian Medical Association in Rivers State that 82 health care workers in the state recently contracted coronavirus disease while discharging their duties.
NMA in the state, according to the state government, also claimed that the situation was as a result of the unavailability of personnel protective equipment at the state treatment centres.
About 24,483 units of blood were collected and screened from voluntary blood donors through the 17 centres of the National Blood Transfusion Service network in 2019, the Federal Government said on Sunday.
The government also stated that in same year, 19,676 units of blood were issued to various hospitals nationwide for transfusion. The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said this on Sunday in a statement in Abuja in commemoration of the 2020 World Blood Donor Day with the theme, ‘Safe Blood Saves Lives.’
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has described the initial clinical trial results from the United Kingdom (UK) that shows dexamethasone can be lifesaving for treating patients critically ill with COVID-19 as a welcome development.
It however said an in-depth analysis of the intervention will be carried out before issuing clinical guidance on how and when the drug should be used.
The WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made this known on Wednesday in a statement.
Despite protest against his choice by the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, the Federal Government has inaugurated Mr A. T. Mora as the chairman, Governing Council of the Pharmacist Council of Nigeria.
At the event, the government charged pharmacists to think of new ways of doing things as “a situation where the focus is on importation of finished products and compounding of raw materials is clearly not acceptable.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO), Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of coronavirus cases in Africa is now over 256,000. The UN health agency gave the update on its official twitter account @WHOAFRO on Wednesday.
The agency said: “There are over 256,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 117,800 recoveries and 6,800 deaths.’’ Meanwhile, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organisation (WHO), said the world had now recorded more than eight million cases of COVID-19.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), on Wednesday, announced that the country has recorded 587 new cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19), bringing the total number of infections in Nigeria to 17,735.
The NCDC disclosed this on its verified Twitter handle on Wednesday night. The centre also said that the number of fatalities has risen to 469 after recording 14 new deaths, while 5,967 people have been discharged from the isolation centres after full recovery.
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Kaduna State government says it has secured a mobile laboratory for COVID-19 test and other infectious diseases in the state. Gov. Nasiru El-Rufai, who made this known on Thursday in Kaduna, said the laboratory, earlier donated by USAID for tuberculosis test, was deployed to the communities for COVID-19 test and the effort had yielded result.
He said the mobile laboratory tagged: Wellness On Wheels (WOW), which had been in the state for a while, was to increase the rate of testing in the communities.
The Plateau Government said on Wednesday that 29 of its health workers had contracted the coronavirus. Commissioner for Health, Dr Nimkong Lar, made the disclosure at a press briefing in Jos. According to the commissioner, the state has recorded 198 confirmed cases with 114 discharged and five deaths.HIV/AIDS: NGO empowers over 20,000 vulnerable households in Nasarawa
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AS attention has shifted from other health-related ailments to Covid19 pandemic, a Non-governmental Organization (NGO), Child Education and Community Development Initiative (CECDI) said in Lafia that it has identified and empowered more than 20,005 vulnerable HIV/AIDS households in Nasarawa State.
Programme Manager of the organization, Jonah Aboki who stated this while interacting with newsmen on Monday stressed that the organization was currently wading into the immediate needs of persons around the identified households in the state.
The World Health Organization called on Monday for a rapid increase in production of dexamethasone, a cheap steroid which has been shown to reduce deaths in critically ill coronavirus patients. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said demand had already surged after a British trial of the drug was publicized but he was confident production could be ramped up.
Some 2,000 patients were given the drug by researchers led by a team from Oxford University, and it reduced deaths by 35 percent among the most sickly, according to findings published last week.
