Nigerians are shocked with the recent revelation that 100 years will be needed for the country to be able to produce the number of doctors it needs based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) standard which stipulates the ratio of 1:600 doctors to patients respectively, and at most, 1:1000. The reason cannot be far-fetched as the medical profession has become elitist with undergraduates paying about N3 million per session, thereby making it very difficult for the brilliant but average Nigerian to study the course to completion.

In a developing country with a population of approximately 170 million people whose majority are prone to diseases and malnutrition, only 35,000 medical doctors can be said to be in practice, which is equivalent to the ratio of 1:4,857, a far cry from global standards and best practices. This is not to say that adequate number of undergraduates are not admitted into the nation’s higher institutions but upon graduation, many seek for greener pastures, thereby increasing the dwindling number in the profession.

The federal government has sought the support of the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the health sector. Minister of health, Prof. Adewole made this call during the summit of international and local NGOs in Abuja. He pointed out that the Ministry will put up structures that will enable it plan for short, medium and long term, adding that the summit was to enable the NGOs to key in to the plan. He said further that the plan is achievable by working together as a team in terms of having a common objective. He pledged that the ministry will be accountable, accessible , and will have no bureaucratic bottleneck in its dealing with them.

The Minister emphasised that there was need for the Ministry to prioritise its programmes considering the current economic situation in the country, adding that the programmes would be dealt with in stages. He expressed that the plan of the Ministry was to partner with states and local governments in taking the reforms in the sector to the grassroots, adding that there is need for focus in achieving the reforms by targeting the poor, improving health facility and welfare of the health workers. Prof. Adewole explained that Public Private Partnership will be key in solving Primary Health Care issues like maternal and child mortality, cancer and HIV.

As the 7-day ultimatum issued to the striking doctors in Osun state by government to return to work or be sacked expired during the ongoing public holiday, the National Association of Government General Medical and Dental Practitioners has appealed for the intervention of traditional rulers and elders of the society to avert total collapse of health service in the state. Briefing journalists in Osogbo, the state capital, the National President NAGG.MDP, Dr. Nurud-din Akindele, urged the statesmen to appeal to governor, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola to not only withdraw the sack threat to the doctors but allow for negotiations on the matter.

The National President noted that the sack threat would not achieve any meaningful result because members of the body are not ready to return to work under the present condition in health sector of the state. Akindele, who regretted that the industrial action embarked upon by the doctors since September has put in risk health of many people in the state, stressed that the demands of the doctors, if not met would force them to paralyze health sector in the state.nHe said: “the government of Osun state should as a matter of urgency and in the interest of the public, invest in equipping the hospitals with up-to-date equipment, provide adequate manpower and make the working environment more conducive.

Guinea was declared free of Ebola on Tuesday after more than 2,500 people died from the virus in the West African nation, leaving Liberia as the only country still awaiting a countdown for the end of the epidemic. People in the capital, Conakry, greeted the declaration by authorities and the U.N. World Health Organization with mixed emotions given the deaths and the damage the virus did to the economy and the country's health and education sectors. "Several of my family are dead. This situation has shown us how much we must fight for those who are survivors," Fanta Oulen Camara, who works for Medecins Sans Frontieres Belgium (Doctors Without Borders), told Reuters.

"After I got better, the hardest thing was to make people welcome me. Most people that normally supported me abandoned me. Even the school where I was an instructor dropped me. It was very hard," said Camara, 26, who fell ill in March 2014. Ebola has orphaned about 6,200 children in Guinea, said Rene Migliani, an official at the national coordination centre for the fight against Ebola. There were more than 3,800 Ebola cases in Guinea out of more than 28,600 cases globally with 11,300 deaths, according to figures from the WHO. Almost all the cases and deaths were in Guinea and its neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone.