Guardian, 14 November 2016 Nigeria records 35 per cent decline in malaria cases
Nigeria has recorded a 35 per cent decline in malaria cases in five years with only 25 per cent of children under the age of five testing positive for the disease in 2015 compared to 40 per cent in 2010. Good as the news is, however, it follows a dismal report by the World Health Organisation (WHO): “Since June 6, 2016, health clinics in displaced persons’ camps in Borno State have seen increasing numbers of measles cases. From early September until late October, 744 suspected cases of measles and two deaths were reported from WHO-established Early Warning and Response System (EWARS) reporting sites. The majority of these children had never been vaccinated against measles and most of them were aged less than five years.” The results of the 2015 Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS) released during the week by the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), National Population Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show a marked decrease in prevalence of the disease among children under five, and major improvements in prevention and treatment.
Vanguard, 16 November 2016 Nigeria loses $2.4bn to malaria annually— FG, Dangote Foundation
The Federal Government and stakeholders in the fight against malaria have disclosed that malaria was costing the country over $2.4 million annually even as they disclosed that 97 percent of Nigerians were at risk of the disease. Speaking at the launch of the Private Sector Engagement Strategy against Malaria, PSESM, in Lagos, thee stakeholders called on organised private sector to join the movement towards ensuring that Nigeria attained its target of zero malaria by 2020. According to them, no fewer than $5 is spent out-of-pocket per patient and malaria epidemics can potentially reduce GDP by 1 to 5 percent and could stunt the engine of economic development as well as inhibit the growth in the education and health sectors. Launching the PSESM document, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole noted that government could not stamp out malaria in Nigeria alone. He explained that collaboration with the Organised Private Sector, OPS, became imperative as over 30 million insecticide treated nets were used in Nigeria yearly.
Premium Times, 17 November 2016 WHO donates Polio Modular Laboratory to UCH
The World Health Organisation, WHO, will on Friday hand over a new Modular Polio Laboratory to the premier polio laboratory in the Department of Virology, University of Ibadan, Oyo State. This is contained in a statement issued by the agency’s country office in Abuja and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Ibadan. The agency stated that the laboratory was purchased with a grant from the United States Agency for International Aid, USAID, to support polio eradication activities in Nigeria. It said that the new modular laboratory, a standard BSL2 laboratory, would support diagnosis of many viral infections like measles, rubella, rotavirus, yellow fever and dengue fever, among others. “The Department of Virology, UI, is important in the fight against polio. It has single-handedly processed all Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) samples from states in the country. “This is before the Maiduguri laboratory was accredited to support polio activities by WHO in 2001,” it stated. It said that the new laboratory would expectedly increase the workspace and pave way for expansion of environmental surveillance in Nigeria.
Guardian, 17 November 2016 NACA inaugurates HIV/AIDS stigma reduction strategy
The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) is set to host a national scientific conference on Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV) prevention to showcase the achievements of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) response in Nigeria even as it has inaugurated the National HIV/AIDS Stigma Reduction Strategy and a Simplified Version of HIV Anti-Discrimination Act 2014, with supporting verses from the Bible and Q’uran. Both documents are strategic to removing stigma and discrimination at all strata of society.The landmark Conference organised by NACA is part of activities to commemorate World AIDS Day 2016, December 1, under the theme “Hands on for HIV prevention.” While HIV/AIDS Stigma reduction Strategy is to align with the efforts of various stakeholders in the area of prevention intervention in addressing HIV- related stigma and discrimination in their various health and non-health settings to bring about synergy, the latter is aimed to give religious understanding, insights and interpretations to the Anti-Discrimination Act. This would help define the behavioural dispositions of adherents of religious faith and whittle down the social evil.
Vanguard, 13 November 2016 Health Ministry to establish Bank of Health
The Federal Ministry of Health on Saturday said it would work with the private sector to establish “Bank of Health’’ to improve healthcare delivery in the country. The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, said this at news conference in Lagos to mark his one year in office. Adewole said that the ministry would also work with the private sector to publish a directory of health facilities in the country. He said that the ministry had during the period evolved a development plan even in the face of economic challenges and distractions resulting from Lassa fever and Polio outbreaks. According to him, Lassa fever has been put under check and rehabilitation work has commenced in seven laboratories across the country to aid quick and better diagnosis of disease outbreak. Adewole said that healthcare delivery required collective efforts and should not be left for government alone. ”We have decided to work with the private sector in the coming year because they have the discipline, resources and efficiency to drive the sector.
Premium Times, 17 November 2016 Nigeria to establish trauma centres in major hospitals
The Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, on Thursday reaffirmed Federal Government’s commitment to establish trauma centres in major hospitals across the six geo-political zones in the country. Mr. Ehanire said, at a news conference to commemorate World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims in Abuja, that establishing the centres was to ensure that death and disabilities from road traffic crashes were minimal. The theme of the ceremony is “Vital Post-Crash Actions: Medical Care, Investigation and Justice.” The minister explained that the centres would be equipped with facilities and capability to provide advance medical services to victims of road crashes. He said that Nigeria lost four per cent of its Gross Domestic Product, GDP, to road crashes. According to him, crashes, death, injuries, disabilities occur disproportionately among the young, active and promising citizens between the ages of 15 years and 40 years. Mr. Ehanire pointed out that the groups often affected in the crashes were the “economically-viable segment of the society and often the bread winners of their families’’.
PM News, 14 November 2016 Lagos sanctions PHC workers for selling free drugs to patients
For three days, activities at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital in Ogbomosho, Oyo State were disrupted, following a protest by members of the National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNM). The protest was over the alleged non-payment of salaries for eight months by the Oyo State government, which took over the responsibility in 2014. It started with warning protest on Wednesday, with the nurses threatening to go on indefinite strike if government did not act promptly. The NANNM Vice-Chairman, Comrade Zaccheus Oyewunmi, said his members were facing hardship because of the non-payment of salaries. He wondered why the government would owe them, lamenting that many of them have died of hunger. Oyewumi said the government paid half of their January salary shortly after the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Oyo State chapter called off its strike last August. The government has not paid the arrears since then, he added.
Premium Times, 14 November 2016 Only 1 doctor to 9,000 people in Niger, NMA laments
The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, in Niger says the ratio of doctors to patients in the state was one to 9,000, as against one to 600 recommended by the World Health Organaisation, WHO. Mustapha Yahaya, NMA Chairman in the state, made the disclosure on Monday in Minna, when members of the association paid a courtesy call on the House of Assembly Committee on Health. “We have always drawn the attention of the government to the fact that doctors are inadequate in Niger. “We have always made reference to WHO, which recommends one doctor to 600 people. Here, it is one doctor to 9,000 people” he explained. According to him, there are currently 450 doctors in the state, with many of them already leaving “due to poor remuneration”. He urged the state government to fully implement the National Health Bill passed into law in 2014, saying that it would guarantee universal health access to all. Mr. Yahaya further advocated 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the health sector, in line with WHO’s recommendation, so as to improve the poor health indices in the state. In his response, the committee chairman, John Bahago, promised to facilitate the establishment of a medical school in one of the tertiary institutions in Niger, to bridge the manpower gap.
Resident doctors at the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa, on Tuesday began an indefinite strike to protest irregularities in the payment of their salaries. Chukwunonso Okoye, the President, Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Yenagoa. Mr. Okoye said that doctors at the medical centre had been receiving only 48 per cent of their salaries for the past four months. The president said information at their disposal indicated that it was only at FMC Yenagoa that resident doctors were being owed 52 per cent of their salaries since January 2016. “We have been having the challenge of being paid only 48 per cent and being owed 52 per cent of our salaries for the past four months. “We have tried to be patient with the present government, and also shown understanding but up till this moment, we have not received our pay; therefore, we are withdrawing all our services. “The fact is that it is affecting our members and we do not see how we can continue to show this understanding with present administration.” Mr. Okoye said the strike would continue indefinitely, if their salaries were not in full.
Nigeria Health Watch, 16 November 2016 Antibiotic Resistance in Nigeria: From Awareness to Action
Most doctors and other health workers have at least a rough sense of what antibiotic resistance is. We learnt about it in school – perhaps there was even a question on the exam. Some of us track the trends in our research. Often, we blame resistance first when a patient with a treated infection does not recover, even though there are other possible explanations. As more and more patients die of untreatable tuberculosis or drug-resistant typhoid, global health gains are slipping and health budgets fizzling away. Drug resistance is no longer a jargon-filled conversation topic among health professionals; it now features in cocktail party conversations more generally. Health systems are being ripped apart as antibiotic resistance escalates, fuelled by a previous reluctance to implement tried and true containment steps to keep resistance in check. For anyone paying attention to the news recently, it is clear that the conversation around resistance has moved beyond researchers, and diagnostic advocates, to delegates to the UN and even politicians. Antibiotic resistance has come out of its scientific closet and is now on the world’s stage.
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