Daily Independent, 26 March 2015 Doctors suspend Strike till after Election
Ten days after boycotting their consulting rooms to protest what they termed ‘unjust treatment’ by government, doctors in the employment of Lagos state, on Wednesday announced the suspension of its strike action till after the general elections. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the guild directed all its doctors to resume work throughout the public hospitals by 8am on Thursday. The decision to suspend the strike came after a joint emergency general meeting of the Lagos State branch of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) and the Medical Guild was held at the auditorium of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).
WHO, March 2015 Nigerian mobile Lab in Sierra Leone: bringing Skills learned in one Outbreak to another
A Nigerian mobile lab has been operating in Sierra Leone as part of the international effort to help test Ebola samples in the current outbreak. The lab saves critical hours by testing the samples rapidly and reducing the need to transport samples over long distances. The lab plans to return to Nigeria to work on Lassa fever when the Ebola outbreak is over.
Voice of America, 20 March 2015 Women expand Community Health Services in Nigeria
Employing women as community health workers was a pretty radical change for conservative, predominantly Muslim areas of northern Nigeria. Yet a small test using female community health workers revealed that Nigerian women and children were more likely to use health services if they could see women instead of male nurses. Nigeria has one of the world’s highest death rates of women connected with pregnancy and childbirth — and northern Nigeria is worse off than most of the rest of the country. Male health workers travel from town to town, but many women patients won’t see a man for such personal issues.
news24 Nigeria, 24 March 2015 Poll reveals major Causes of Death in Nigeria
The majority of Nigerians have cited sickness, poverty and motor accidents as the major causes of death in the country. Terror, despite its prevalence, does not feature as the major cause. This is according to findings by a regional polling agency, which established 26 percent of Nigerians believe sickness is the highest cause of deaths while 24 percent and 16 percent cite auto crashes as the main cause respectively. NOIPOlls conducted the poll in the background of the World health organisation indicating the country’s mortality rate was high. In line with this finding, most respondents (65 percent) were of the opinion that Nigerians did not live up to old age in recent times; with perceptions divided between ‘50 years or less’ and ‘70 years’ (26 percent each) as the current life expectancy in Nigeria.
Ventures Africa, 23 March 2015 The African Union has launched its Centre for Disease Control to tackle Epidemics like Ebola
Efforts are underway by The African Union (AU) to establish a pan-African Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (African CDC) by mid-2015, a development that can bolster the continent’s desire to transform its health practices and promote the welfare of its people. This idea was first proposed by the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and approved by the African Union Commission in 2013 at its 22nd ordinary session in Abuja, Nigeria. “The idea of establishing the Centre has since been discussed in a series of AU summits and extraordinary sessions,” revealed Dr. Marie Goreti Harakeye, Head of HIV/AIDS, TB & OID Division Under the AU Department of Social Affairs.
pulse.ng, 26 March 2015 UNILORIN graduates 4,062 Medical Doctors in 32 Years
Sixty-four new medical doctors graduated from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) College of Health Sciences have been inducted into the medical profession, Daily Trust reports. Speaking at the 31st professional initiation and admission ceremony the College Provost, Professor Wahab Johnson, said the 2015 set brings the number of doctors the university has graduated in 32 years to 4,062.
Medafrica, 25 March 2015 Nigeria launches its first National Health Insurance Program on Mobile
After the announcement in 2014 to increase health insurance penetration in Nigeria, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) have officially launched this week the National Mobile Health Insurance Programme (NMHIP) for Nigerians. The Nigerian subscribers of the mobile telephony can now henceforth subscribe to a health insurance directly from their telephone. According to Femi Thomas, the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Program (NHIS), the NMHIP is a new concept which purpose is to supply the subscribers of mobile networks with a platform of easy access to health care.
Guardian, 26 March 2015 VC laments declining State of post-medical Training in Nigeria
The Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has decried alleged low quality of content and curriculum of post- graduate medical education in Nigeria. Adewole, yesterday at the 31st professional initiation and admission ceremony of the Health Sciences University of Ilorin said the ugly trend, if not urgently redressed, could cause a major setback in the nation’s health care system.
Guardian, 26 March 2015 Lagos, PATHS2 and others partner on standard Warehousing System for Drugs
For improved operational efficiency of medical consumables and drug warehousing in the state, the Lagos State Ministry of Health has gone into collaboration with Partnership for Transforming Health Systems II (PATHS2) and private suppliers of medicines and consumables to Lagos central medical store, Oshodi. The public-private collaboration, with the support of PATHS2, is to enhance the operation of Sustainable Drug Revolving Fund (SDRF) system, currently running in the state. Specifically, the collaboration will promote transparency and accountability of procurement of health commodities, professionalism and fairness on the part of suppliers of pharmaceuticals with respect to delivery of quality health commodities to Lagos State.
Nigeria Health Watch, 24 March 2015 On World TB Day, there is little to celebrate in Nigeria
As the Ebola epidemic in West Africa slows and falls away from the headlines, there is a temptation to view this outbreak as an isolated event and go back to life as usual. In Nigeria, the fairly successful response to the Ebola epidemic has brought a bit of credibility to the Nigerian health sector, with many Nigerian public health professionals smiling when confronted with the question “How did you guys do it?” While there is definitely some satisfaction to be gained in the response to the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria, it does not change the fact that we are still in a precarious situation with several other infectious disease threats, which kill thousands of people in Nigeria. No other disease illustrates better our collective inability to deliver the essentials of a modern public health response to those who need help the most, in the most timely and efficient manner, than our response to tuberculosis (TB).
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