Frontpage News (3254)
USAID Lab Ebola Team seeks innovative solutions to strengthen interoperability of Health information Systems
The U.S. Global Development Lab’s Ebola Team of the U.S. Agency for International Development(USAID) recently called for expression of interest from organizations that have innovative solutions that can strengthen interoperability of Health Information Systems in West Africa. Find the official notice below: Strengthening Health Information Systems toward Interoperability in the West Africa Region
Dear Partner
, Exciting news – the U.S. Global Development Lab’s Ebola Team has released an addendum to the Science,Technology, Innovation and Partnerships Broad Agency Announcement. The addendum is a call for Expressions of Interest (EOIs) to take part in an innovative and collaborative solution design process. The Lab Ebola Team is looking for EOIs regarding specific innovative solutions that your organization believes could strengthen interoperability of Health Information Systems (HIS) in West Africa in the wake of the Ebola outbreak. Our main objective is to co-create, co-design, co-invest and collaborate with innovators on forward-thinking solutions that demonstrate the highest potential to significantly improve recovery and development impacts. Of particular interest are opportunities that complement USAID’s strategic focus on science, technology and innovative partnerships.
Pharmacists Urge Buhari To Reconstitute Council, Fight Fake Drug Syndrome
PHARMACISTS under the aegis of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) have called on President Mohammadu Buhari to reconstitute the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), which was recently dissolved alongside the boards of other parastatals even as they decried the unsatisfactory and inadequate access to essential drugs and other healthcare commodities in Nigeria. President PSN, Mr. Olumide Akintayo, at a press conference, yesterday, to mark the 2015 World Pharmacy Day said the pharmacy practice environment has gotten to a most wretched level, which logically cannot afford another vacuum in terms of regulatory control. The theme of the 2015 World Pharmacy Day is “Pharmacists: Your Partner in Health.”
Scientists say they are a step closer to growing fully functioning replacement kidneys, after promising results in animals. When transplanted into pigs and rats, the kidneys worked, passing urine just like natural ones. Getting the urine out has been a problem for earlier prototypes, causing them to balloon under the pressure. The Japanese team got round this by growing extra plumbing for the kidney to stop the backlog. Although still years away from human trials, the research helps guide the way towards the end goal of making organs for people, say experts. In the UK, more than 6,000 people are waiting for a kidney – but because of a shortage of donors, fewer than 3,000 transplants are carried out each year.
More than 350 people die a year, almost one a day, waiting for a transplant. Growing new kidneys using human stem cells could solve this problem. Dr. Takashi Yokoo and colleagues at the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo used a stem cell method, but instead of just growing a kidney for the host animal, they set about growing a drainage tube too, along with a bladder to collect and store the urine. They used rats as the incubators for the growing embryonic tissue. When they connected up the new kidney and its plumbing to the animal’s existing bladder, the system worked. Urine passed from the transplanted kidney into the transplanted bladder and then into the rat bladder. And the transplant was still working well when they checked again eight weeks later. They then repeated the procedure on a much larger mammal – a pig – and achieved the same results.
The Nigerian Union of Allied Health Professionals has urged the Federal Government to disregard any call for the privatisation of public hospitals in the country. The National President of the union, Dr. Obinna Ogbonna, who addressed newsmen at the University College Hospital, Ibadan on Wednesday, said the move would increase the cost of health care delivery beyond what the masses could afford. He also accused the Nigeria Medical Association of championing the call for privatisation of public hospitals. Ogbonna said, “Members of the union vehemently condemn the move by the government to privatise some hospitals in Nigeria as being canvassed by medical practitioners. Health care delivery is a social service that an average Nigerian should enjoy as subsidised by the government. By the time this social service is privatised, an average Nigerian will not be able to access and afford health care services.
“It is alarming to note that some state governments have started the concession of some general hospitals to private investors, leading to loss of jobs and high cost of health care services. The union frowns on this development and calls on such states to rescind the action in the interest of peace and that of the masses.” The union also called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to appoint a member of the NMA as the health minister, saying past members of the association who had served as health ministers destabilised the sector. “Since 1985 when the late Dr. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti was appointed as health minister to the past minister, Onyebuchi Chukwu, the Federal Ministry of Health has been bedevilled with a series of industrial crisis due to poor administrative performance by the ministers.
The registrar, Health Record Officers Registration Board of Nigeria (HRORBN), Alhaji Mohammed Mami, has criticised Nigeria’s data gathering system, saying that the data generated cannot be used for any international comparison. He said that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), an organ of government recognised to give information on all aspects of the nation’s economy, health, education among others, only comes out with cumulated data which are not up to international standard. In an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP in Abuja, Mami maintained that most of the health data generated in the country are inaccurate as they are conducted by personnel who have no experience in the field.
“These are people whose training does not involve the management and reporting of these data and they cannot give it a professional touch. They will not be able to carry these data from the local government level up to the state level and up to the Federal Ministry of Health where these data would be collated and become a national database,” he said. According to the registrar, the health record officers who are trained personnel that are supposed to carry out the task are not fully involved at the primary collation centres where nurses, environmental health officers, community health workers hold sway. He said, “Out of the 34,000 health facilities in the country, you probably don’t have any facility that is using this data collation form designed by the Federal Ministry of Health because the primary officers that are supposed to be involved in the keeping of these data are not initially involved.”
Nigeria Contributes Highest Contingent To AU Ebola Support Team – FG
The federal government has disclosed that Nigeria contributed the highest number of medical personnel to the African Union (AU) Ebola Support Team to some of the West African states ravaged by Ebola. The permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Linus Awute stated this when the remaining seven Nigerians left in Sierra Leone returned to Nigeria after a successful response activity to the Ebola victims of the country. The team arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja yesterday. Their return comes four months after an initial 185 returned last May. The team comprising of medical doctors, laboratory scientists and other related experts left Nigeria last December.
According to Dr Sani Gwarzo, Director Of Port Health Services at the Ministry of Health, who represented the permanent secretary, the Nigerian support to the AU Ebola support wasn’t just substantial, but catalytic in encouraging other African countries to join the effort. He said: “Nigeria has contributed the highest in terms of personnel deployment to both Sierra Leone and Liberia. and about 185 of the over 200 deployed personnels had earlier returned to the country, who have all been monitored and certified to be ebola free. “Same process would also be adopted for these final seven who have just returned from sierre leone.
Dr Bola Oyeledun, the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Integrated Health Programme (CIHP), has raised alarm over the high rate of new HIV infections in Nigeria. Oyeledun said this at a one-day stakeholders’ workshop in Makurdi on Monday. She that the new infections were recorded mostly among youths of between the ages of 20 and 29. However, she said that zero infection for HIV was achievable, especially among the youths, if they are adequately enlightened on their vulnerability, adding that the focus should be on treatment as prevention. She further said that the goal was in line with the global attention which is aimed at reducing new infections as well as other bottlenecks that constitute impediment to achieving the set target.
Oyeledun said the country has been segmented into 32 priority local government areas with the highest HIV prevalent rates in five states, including Benue, Nasarawa, Cross River, Lagos and Akwa Ibom. “It is a like a war room approach. There is need to employ the use of biological monitoring, improve quality of care and regiment. The goal standard means that every patient must get HIV test. “The quality of service delivery must be of high standard and should be available. We must engage the youths positively. “As it has done for Polio, so we must do same for HIV to reduce it to the barest minimum,” said the official. Oyeleduncommended stakeholders in the state for the positive job they are doing in scaling down the infection, urging the leadership of CIHP in the state not to relent in ensuring the drastic reduction of the disease.
As Nigeria marks her 55th independence anniversary today, the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) says the greater part of the country’s health history is replete with one of the worst health indices in the world since 1960. The NMA president, Dr Kayode Obembe said such outcomes include woes, travails, lamentations and buck passing without effective remediation. He stated this in a statement yesterday ahead of today’s independence celebration while calling for a paradigm shift for the health of all Nigerians. According to him, the failure to establish world class health system is a major factor causing the retardation of Nigeria’s development, which is in keeping with the dictum that ‘health is wealth’. He said “We also observe that the country has never lacked effective recommendations to mitigate our crippling socio-economic, political and developmental woes, rather, poor leadership and poor implementation have been responsible for the uninspiring status of the nation in the global development circle.”
Obembe said notwithstanding these lapses, there is hope for a greater Nigeria, urging all Nigerians to keep faith with government and diligently contribute their quota to the change the present administration promised Nigerians. “Pessimism must give way to hope and optimism, destructive opposition and extremism to virile issue- based constructive dialogue and agitation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has revised its HIV guidelines to recommend that anyone who tests positive for the virus that causes AIDS should be treated immediately. The U.N. health agency had previously said doctors should wait to treat some people with HIV until their immune systems suggested they were getting sick. But in a statement yesterday, WHO said the new recommendations are based on recent trials that have found early treatment “keeps people with HIV alive, healthier and reduces the risk of transmitting the virus.”
The new guidance means that all 37 million people with HIV globally should be offered immediate treatment, a prospect that may be unrealistic in poor countries, where many patients are still unable to get medicines. Last year, only about 15 million people with HIV were being treated. WHO says the sickest
The President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Mr. Olumide Akintayo, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to reconstitute the board of Pharmacists Council of Nigeria. Akintayo, in a statement during the 2015 World Pharmacists Day entitled “Pharmacists: Your Partner in Health”, noted that the absence of the board would enable drug counterfeiters to operate freely in the country. According to him, the dissolution of the board will frustrate the regulatory function of the council and make way for the influx of fake medicines into the country.
He said, “We implore the Federal Government to halt the drift in the operational efficiency of the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria by reconstituting it now and subsequently invoking the spirit of the law that provides for perpetual succession in the enabling act. “The absence of PCN Governing Council in a strategic profession like ours boosts the fake drug syndrome tragically.
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The Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria has decried the activities of counterfeiters of regulated drug products, saying the organised criminals have been reaping where they had not sown. Speaking at the NAIP’s 18th annual conference whose theme was, ‘Transforming the Nigerian Pharmaceutical Industry: The big picture.’ The industry chiefs said, so far, estimated profits earned from trading in counterfeit drugs was $1.77tn.
In his presentation, the Associate Vice-President, Anti-Counterfeit Co-ordination Sanofi/France, Mr. Geoffroy Bessaud, said drug counterfeiting occured at several levels, ranging from artisanal level to international organised crime networks, with the attendant loss of profit for patent owners. Bessaud noted that apart from the financial loss that licensed drug manufacturers suffer,
Two officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have been declared wanted after absconding with narcotics last month. Daniel Goska, a Superintendent of Narcotics, and Ndubuisi Ughor, a Chief Narcotic Agent, disappeared from their duty posts after a drug suspect, Dayson-Eddie Ifeanyichukwu, was nabbed with 74.4 kilogrammes of banned drugs at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu. Mr. Ifeanyichukwu and three other suspects had been arrested by the anti-narcotics agency for unlawful exportation of the banned drugs. The officers were last seen on duty at the Enugu Airport on August 7, the NDLEA said in a statement on Monday. According to the NDLEA rules, absence from duty for 21 days is punishable by dismissal.
Ahmadu Giade, NDLEA’s chairman, said any staff indicted under the law would be treated equally. “The agency has taken necessary steps by stopping the salaries of the officers and declaring them wanted. “Winning the war against illicit drugs demands that while dislodging drug cartels; we must ensure that members of staff comply with best practice at all times. “Efforts are ongoing to charge the officers in line with the rules of engagement. The agency is moving forward and will continue to purge itself of undesirable persons who are deficient in discipline and integrity,” Mr. Giade said.
The Kwara State Government said it has spent 96 percent out of the World Bank support for the implementation of HIV/AIDS in the state. The State Deputy Governor, Elder Peter Kisira stated this in Ilorin during the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) advocacy visit to the state. While reiterating the state’s commitment to HIV/AIDS programme and other health related programmes in the state, Kisira who is also the chairman of the state AIDS Control Agency (KWASACA) said that this was demonstrated by the reduction in the prevalence of HIV/AIDS from 4.3% in 2001 among the women that attended anti-natal clinics to 1.47% in 2012 among the general population.
The Deputy Governor explained that four line ministries health, women affairs, youth and sports development, education and human capital development are implementing HIV/AIDS programmes in their sectors including the 16 local government areas of the state. He called on NACA and developed countries to give Kwara State special consideration in view of its border to three countries Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and Benin Republic as citizens of these countries come to the state on a daily basis. Earlier, the Director General of NACA, Professor John Idoko commended Kwara state for its health insurance scheme which he noted has been captured by the agency as micro model being adopted by other states of the federation.
Can Buhari transform the healthcare system for good? When Flora Shaw, a British journalist and novelist, gave the most populous black nation its name, Nigeria, in preparation to becoming an independent state, and having been dominated by Britons until October 1st 1960, one would think by now the name should be ranking among developed nations of the world considering its enormous natural and human resources, which were all waiting to be enhanced after the foreigners had left more than five decades ago. But at 55, various institutions in the country, including the health and educational sector, as well as our economic institutions are still grappling to be at per with institutions of some other countries that got their independence at about the time Nigeria did. Singapore, Malaysia, Cyprus, among others, according to some school of thoughts, have long passed Nigeria in terms of healthcare, economic level, poverty alleviation and other several parameters that determine the strength and progress of a country.
THISDAY investigations as Nigeria turns 55 today, revealed that the chief sector where the citizens feel the country has not faired well considering the resources at its disposal is the health sector. Majority of the populace says they have lost confidence in the Nigeria’s healthcare system, especially its primary healthcare, hence there was no need celebrating Nigeria at 55, rather, stakeholders should look inwards and reflect on what must be done to prevent the abysmally high maternal mortality rate, lack of primary healthcare for the ordinary citizens, especially in hard to reach areas, lack of quality and affordable healthcare, incessant strike actions in the sector, high cost of treatments, among others.
