Frontpage News (3254)
Health experts have said the spread of HIV/AIDS from the present generation to the next generation in Nigeria can be cut down through adequate and proper budgeting that will finance the programme that will ensure and sustain the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of the ailment.
The health experts recently played host to the NACA/SURE-P media team at their respective hospitals in Taraba state.
The NACA/SURE-P team, after visiting 62 health facilities in the 16 local government areas of Taraba, became optimistic that HIV/AIDS can be controlled only if PMTCT is given due consideration by the affected persons and all the tiers of government.
Public health workers have threatened to embark on an indefinite strike beginning on Wednesday over alleged breach of agreements by the Federal Government.
The workers, under the aegis of Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations, had earlier handed the government a 15-day ultimatum with effect from February 3 to accede to their 10-point demands or risk a nationwide strike.
Among their demands, the workers called for the heads of federal health institutions to be designated “Chief Executive Officers, against the present Chief Medical Directors.”
Following reactions to the current budget process, various groups under the auspices of Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PAFaH) gathered for a one-day meeting to discuss issues pertaining to the Healthcare aspects of the Budget with the view to advocate for a more transparent and efficient budgeting process.
The objective of the meeting was to collaborate with the government to identify gaps in the budget and budget process in order to improve the process and ensure a holistic, efficient and value-driven budget that can potentially address priority areas.
The meeting brought together various groups, civil society organizations, and associations within the Health sector to discuss various issues and come up with key priorities for the 2016 Health budget.
The Kwara State government in collaboration with Management Sciences for Health (MSH) on Wednesday launched the health workforce registry in the state.
The Osun House of Assembly on Wednesday passed the State Primary Health Care Development Board Establishment Bill 2016. 
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) on Thursday suspended its planned nationwide strike to press home improved working conditions. The union also gave the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum, effective from Feb. 18, to meet its demands.
Mr Biobellemoye Josiah, the National Chairman of the union, announced this while briefing newsmen on the outcome of JOHESU’s meeting with some government officials in Abuja.
Josiah said the union met with the Ministers of State for Health and Labour, respectively, as well as the Chairman, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.Others government representatives were the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health; and Permanent Secretary, Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
Osun State Government has technically sacked the doctors in its employ who have been on strike since September 28th 2015. The Chairman, Special Committee on Health, DEATH OF 25 CHILDREN: Lagos confirms outbreak of killer disease in Lekki
The Lagos State Government yesterday confirmed the outbreak of a strange disease in Otodo-Gbame Community in Ikate, Lekki, alleged to have killed 25 children saying it has despatched a team of medical experts to unravel the mysterious disease.
Confirming this in a telephone chat with Vanguard in Lagos, the the spokesman for the State Ministry of Health, Mrs Adeola Salako, however said no further death has been recorded since Feb. 10, when the epidemiological investigation team led by epidemiologists from the state Ministry of Health commenced investigation.
Salako claimed that the ministry responded immediately news about the strange disease was received, adding that the team was despatched to the community on Feb. 10.
The Senator representing Lagos Central senatorial district and wife of the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Tuesday said the current poor indexes in child and maternal health in the country is a challenge to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
She stated this at a three-day summit on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) in Abuja. She said: “When my husband was the governor, I worked on health-related issues on women and children.
Up till now, I’m still working with my non-governmental organisation, still advocating for youth, still advocating for the rights of women. Coincidentally, in my second senate, I have been appointed to chair the Committee on Women.
According to Prof. Taiwo Lateef-Sheik, the Medical Director, Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Kaduna recent statistics show, that about 80% of Nigerians with mental problems do not have access to treatment.
Discussing with a NAN representative during a mental health training in the state, he said that there is need for Nigeria to improve access to mental health centers.
“Statistics shows that about 80 per cent of Nigerians who have issues that have to do with mental health do not actually receive treatment. “We felt that there is need for us to improve access to mental healthcare to Nigerians, hence the decision to develop this programme.”
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Barely 48 hours after his disengagement from office, the immediate past Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) Dr. Paul Orhii has said he has left behind a robust institution that will outlast any successor.
Mrs Blessing Ameh, Health Educator, Kogi State Ministry of Health, said on Saturday that the state was free of polio for upward of six years without new cases.
Ameh said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja, attributing the success story to routine polio immunisation exercises. The health educator said that more efforts were still needed to protect the children from re-infection. According to her, the first round of the exercise this year will hold between Feb. 27 and March 1.
“The National immunization plus days for this year is here again. It is a time whereby vaccinators go from house to house, school to school, market places, churches and mosques.
THE strike embarked upon by local government areas in Bayelsa State over the non-payment of salary arrears has hampered the medical outreach programme of the United Nations Children’s Fund in the state.
The UNICEF team was in the state last for the rescheduled second round of the Maternal Newborn and Child Health Week. The second round of MNCHW was held nationwide from December 4 to December 10, 2015, but did not hold in Bayelsa State due to the governorship election that took place in the state on December 5, last year.
The exercise monitored by Southern City News in some remote villages indicated that many government-owned health facilities were under lock and key, while a few others that were opened lacked adequate health workers to complement UNICEF team to administer services to the people.
Global vaccine experts and officials from all 26 African “meningitis belt” countries have convened in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to celebrate one of Africa’s biggest public health achievements—the introduction of a vaccine, MenAfriVac®, designed, developed, and produced for use in Africa, that in five years of use has nearly eliminated serogroup A meningococcal disease from meningitis belt countries and is now being integrated into routine national immunization programs.
Cases of the deadly infectious disease went from over 250,000 during an outbreak in 1996 to just 80 confirmed cases in 2015 among countries that had not yet conducted mass immunization campaigns and among those unvaccinated, scientists at the Meningitis Vaccine Project (MVP) Closure Conference reported.
