Frontpage News (3249)
The United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organisation have started an awareness campaign on the need to immunise the residents of Ekiti State against yellow fever.
WHO’s Technical Officer in the state, Mr Ayomide Aibinuomo, said there would be immunisation across the 16 council areas of the state between January 24 and February 2 to ensure that residents are free from the killer disease.
Lassa fever kills 14, infects 82 in seven states, panic in Ondo
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Lassa fever has killed 14 persons, infected 82 others in seven states and 13 councils in the country. The states include Ondo, Edo, Ebonyi, Taraba, Plateau, Bauchi and Ogun.
According to latest figures from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), tagged Lassa fever Situation Report Epi Week 02: 06 – 12 January 2020, the number of new confirmed cases for the same period in 2019 was 60. The NCDC report released yesterday showed the number of deaths decreased from 16 for the same period in 2019
Nigeria is applying for 890 million dollars grant from Global Fund to reduce the burden of HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria from 2021 to 2023. Mr Dozie Ezechukwu, the Executive Secretary, Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) Global Fund Nigeria, disclosed this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.
CCM Nigeria, the custodian of Global Fund (GF) grant, is a body of representatives of government, bilateral and multilateral organisations, Civil Society Organisations, patients, communities, private sector and academia.The mandate of CCM is to oversee the delivery of Global Fund HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Resilient Sustainable Systems for Health (RSSH) grant.
Patients who quit smoking one month to surgery have less complications
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Smokers who quit smoking at least four weeks or more before their surgical operation are more likely to have lower post-surgical complications, a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report has shown.
The UN health agency, in a statement released on its website on Monday, said tobacco smokers are at a significantly higher risk of post-surgical complications than their non-smoking counterparts. Evidence from the new report revealed that smokers who quit approximately four weeks or more before surgery have a lower risk of complications and “better results six months afterwards”.
The Registrar, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, Elijah Mohammed, said on Tuesday a new law that would checkmate quack pharmacists would commence in April this year.
Mohammed disclosed this at the 9th oath-taking/induction ceremony of pharmacy graduands of the Dora Akunyili College of Pharmacy, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State. He said the government had identified the menace of the quacks and was making everything possible to flush them out.
The World Health Organisation said on Monday that the German government had expressed satisfaction with the progress of polio eradication in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Faisal Shuaib, had on August 21, 2019 said Nigeria had begun the process of documentation towards the final stages of being declared a polio-free society. He said by June 2020, the country could achieve the status.
The Nigeria Medical Association has called on the Federal Government to treat the deadly coronavirus like the Ebola virus to stop its transmission to Nigeria from China and other countries where it has reached.
The call came on the backdrop of the fact that a sizeable number of Nigerians involved in business transactions between Nigeria and China, as well as other Asian countries, fear that a traveller infected with the virus could transmit it to Nigeria from any of the affected countries in Asia. The earliest cases of Coronavirus were reported a few weeks ago in Wuhan, China and it was believed that they were transmitted from animals to humans.
Brain Drain: Beyond minimum wage, give doctors welfare package
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As Nigeria battles with brain drain in the health sector with a ratio of one doctor to 6,000 patients, medical doctors have urged the government to look beyond the minimum wage and come up with a proper welfare package to end the migration of health professionals abroad.
Speaking at the Good Health Weekly on Vanguard Live the experts maintained that while the minimum wage is good, it is not the ultimate now that an estimated eight out of every 10 doctors are contemplating leaving the country for a greener pasture and about four leave every
The Federal Government says it has developed pneumonia control strategy and implementation plan as part of renewed efforts to ensure the survival and well-being of Nigerian children. Minister of Health, Prof Osagie Ehanire disclosed this at the opening of the 51st Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference of the Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN) in Kano on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference was organised by PAN in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The minister, who was represented by the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Prof Abdurrahman Abba-Sheshe, said the ministry had concluded all necessary arrangements for the launching of the scheme.
The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) says it is working with the Federal Ministry of Health and other agencies to intensify efforts to control Lassa Fever in the country, as well prevent any case of the Coronavirus in the country.
NGF Chairman and Gov. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, disclosed this while briefing newsmen at the end of the forum’s meeting held on Wednesday night in Abuja. Fayemi said that the forum at the meeting received updates on Lassa fever epidemic and the “coronavirus”, killing people in Chinise and it spreading to other parts of the world.
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Following the announcement by China’s national health body that the new coronavirus can be transmitted from person to person, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will hold a meeting on Wednesday to decide if it (ailment) should be declared a global health emergency.
WHO, in a message via its Twitter account on Monday said the agency’s Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, will “convene an Emergency Committee on the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) under the International Health Regulations”,
Coronavirus: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gives $10m to China, Africa
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $10 million in emergency funds and technical support to help frontline responders in China and Africa accelerate their efforts to contain the global spread of novel Coronavirus.
The foundation in a statement released on its website on Monday said that it was committing $5 million to the coronavirus response in China, and was already working with a range of Chinese public and private sector partners to accelerate national and international cooperation. It said that international cooperation would be in the areas of critical need, including efforts to identify and confirm cases,
Lassa fever: Seven doctors, five nurses quarantined at Adamawa hospital
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Seven doctors and five nurses have been quarantined at the Federal Medical Centre, Yola, Adamawa state, following their contact with a patient diagnosed with Lassa fever. A source at the hospital told TheCable on Monday that a pregnant woman who lost her fetus was the primary contact.
She said the woman was admitted at the labour ward, where the fetus was evacuated on Friday. “After the evacuation, it was observed that the woman had fever and was bleeding.
World Health Organisation (WHO) Goodwill Ambassador, Yohei Sasakawa, says early detection and treatment of leprosy will prevent patients from disabilities. Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination, said this in his message posted on WHO website to mark the World Leprosy Day.
World Leprosy Day is observed internationally every year on the last Sunday of January to increase the public awareness of the Leprosy or Hansen’s Disease. According to Sasakawa, through the efforts of many people, leprosy is an easily curable disease and the drugs are distributed free of charge.
