HERFON HEALTH BLOG

President Muhammad Buhari on Thursday signed medical residency training act into law The Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja. According to Enang, the Medical Residency Training Act, 2018,  enacts and regulates the Medical Residency Training Programmer for the training of medical practitioners and dental surgeons to be regulated and managed by the National Medical Post-graduate College of Nigeria. “This programme is for persons who possess the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB.BSc, MB. CH, B, BDS), or its equivalent, have gone through the NYSC programme with discharge or exemption certificate, and possess professional indemnity certificate from a reputable insurance company, among others. “This Act is directed at assuring the quality and competence of medical practice and practitioners in Nigeria through statutory med...

To meet President Muhammadu Buhari’s pledge on treating more people living with Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) yearly, the Federal Government would need to raise its funding with N6billion from N1.5billion to N7.5billion. Buhari made a commitment during the United Nations (UN) event on ending AIDS at UN headquarters in New York in September last year to maintain the 60,000 people living with HIV on treatment and put an additional 50,000 on treatment, using government’s finances. Figures from the Joint United Nations programme on AIDS (UNAIDS) and National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) released yesterday at the launch of the Nigeria AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS) in Abuja, showed that out of more than one million Nigerians on HIV treatment, the Federal Government was only responsible for about five per cent compared to South Africa’s 80 per cent. The UNAIDS and NACA estimated that about 600 Nigerian...

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to end extreme poverty by 2030 is unlikely to be met — no thanks, in large part, to Nigeria. A new report by The World Poverty Clock shows Nigeria has overtaken India as the country with the most extreme poor people in the world. India has a population seven times larger than Nigeria’s. The struggle to lift more citizens out of extreme poverty is an indictment on successive Nigerian governments which have mismanaged the country’s vast oil riches through incompetence and corruption. The 86.9 million Nigerians now living in extreme poverty represents nearly 50% of its estimated 180 million population. As Nigeria faces a major population boom — it will become the world’s third largest country by 2050 — it’s a problem will likely worsen. But having large swathes of people still living in extreme poverty is an Africa-wide problem. Crucially, of those countries in top ten, only Ethiopia is on track to meet the...

Damaturu, 13 June 2018 - With more than 14 days since the last reported case of cholera, Yobe State Ministry of Health has declared that the outbreak is over on 12 June 2018. The cholera outbreak initially reported in Gashua town of Bade local government area (LGA) with subsequent spread to Karasuwa, Jakusko, Yusufari and Bursari LGAs, abated with a case fatality ratio of 3.7% in 404 cases. “As we speak now, it has been more than 14 days without report of any suspected case of cholera in Yobe state,” the Commissioner for Health, Dr Mohammed Bello Kawuwa said. When all suspected cholera cases turned negative through rapid diagnostic test (RDT), culture or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for a minimum period of two weeks, the outbreak can be considered ended. Speaking to media practitioners in Damaturu, the state capital, the Commissioner commended World Health Organization’s (WHO) leadership and coordination of the health sector response. He disclosed that pr...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the cholera outbreak in the Nigerian state of Adamawa may mutate into a West African regional public health hazard unless urgent measures are taken to suppress it locally and prevent it spreading across the border into Cameroun. In its latest epidemiological report on the Adamawa cholera outbreak, the WHO said 1168 cases and 20 deaths have been recorded in the Mubi North and Mubi South local government areas of Adamawa by June 7, 2018. The outbreak was confirmed on May 12. WHO Adamawa Incident Manager for the cholera response Mallam Kabiru Sadiq said although new cases are being reported daily, the case fatality ratio has dropped drastically due to the impact of stepped-up disease surveillance and early responses to new cases.  “This is an indication of active house-to-house surveillance led and coordinated by WHO. The case fatality ratio was 17% as of 12 May 2018, but it had dropped to 1.7% as of 07 June 2018, suggesting that cases ar...

New estimates have shown that two leading bacterial causes of pneumonia and meningitis, Haemophilus influenza type b (Hib) and pneumococcal diseases, together still kill approximately 900 children per day around the world. The findings, published in The Lancet Global Health on June 11 (today), estimate that about half of the pneumococcal child deaths in 2015 occurred in just four countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Pakistan. However, the new estimates from a team led by scientists at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, United States (U.S.), approximate that 1.35 million children's lives have been saved by Hib and pneumococcal vaccines since 2000. The researchers also noted that child mortality fromStreptococcus pneumonia and Hib in high-burden countries have fallen by 51 per cent and 90 per cent, respectively, during 2000 to 2015. They noted that childhood deaths from pneumococcus and Hib declined sharply ...

The Plateau Government has confirmed that the state has recorded two positive cases of monkey pox in Shendam Local Government Area of the state. Dr Kunden Deyin, the state Commissioner for Health, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday in Jos that the first case recorded was imported from Port-Harcort, as the victim came in from Rivers for treatment. According to the commissioner, the infected victim eventually infected his brother and both of them were treated at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos and discharged. Deyin said that the state’s Epidemiology and Surveilance unit of the ministry are still monitoring the contacts to curtail the spread of the disease. The commissioner said that the symptoms of monkey pox were similar to that of chicken pox, but more severe. ‎ He said that the disease is primarily transmitted from animal to man while the secondary source of transmission is through human to human contact. ‎‎ Deyin warned that people w...

The Nigerian Senate led by Dr Bukola Saraki has again reiterated its revolve to ensure that the two draft Bills for legislation to tackle the increasing drug abuse menace among youths in the Nigerian society become law. The proposed Bills are National Drug Control Bill and National Mental Health Bill. The Drug Control Bill seeks to clarify the mandate and strengthen the capacity of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to eradicate the illicit production, and trafficking of controlled substances. It also seeks to establish a central mechanism to facilitate collaboration among law enforcement, regulatory and public health authorities in line with the National Drug Control Policy. The Bill focuses on proactive law enforcement and regulatory measures towards the eradication of the illicit importation, production and trafficking of controlled substances. It will criminalise t...

About 57 students of Government Girls Secondary School, Kawo, Kaduna have been discharged, while six others are on admission. This followed the recent outbreak of cholera in the school, which killed one student. The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Paul Manya Dogo disclosed this yesterday. He said the state government and supporting partners have put the situation under control. According to him: “63 of them were admitted at the facility, but only six of them are remaining, while the hospital management has promised that they also might be discharged. “Sadly, one of them died at a private hospital where her parents had taken her to. That I think happened on Friday and it pained us.” Also, the Chief Medical Director at the General Hospital, Kawo, Dr. Oyelami Akintunde confirmed that the students were responding to treatment, while many others had been discharged. According to him: “They brought 42 students on Monday morning and another 15 ...

In consideration of the plight of health-seeking public and to give room for an amicable resolution of its dispute with the Federal Government, the Joint Health Sector Unions, JOHESU, on Wednesday agreed to suspend its 44 days old strike on Friday June 1, 2018. This decision followed the intervention of the National Industrial Court, NIC, which offered to take over the mediation process between the striking health workers and the government. Before now, an NGO, the Incorporated Trustees of the Kingdom Human Rights Foundation, KHRFI, had obtained a court order against JOHESU; mandating the health workers to suspend their industrial action on the 21st of May, 2018. But, in pursuit of its constitutional rights to either comply or challenge the Court order, JOHESU filed an appeal at the Appellate Court. However, the leadership of JOHESU decided to sheath its sword and direct the members of the union to resume duties since the NIC, as a neutral and impartial organ of the Judiciary, has...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has deployed 39 personnel to Mubi North and Mubi South local government areas of Adamawa to control a recent outbreak of cholera in the state, an official said. Charity Warigon, the WHO Communications Officer, said in a statement in Abuja on Monday that as of May 26, about 434 cases of cholera had been reported in the area, leading to 13 deaths. Mrs Warigon said that the personnel deployed would help coordinate partners’ response to the outbreak, support case management, surveillance and contact tracing of suspected cases to guide interventions. She said that WHO was also concluding plans to engage additional 15 ad-hoc personnel who would support efforts at ensuring the outbreak did not spread to other locations. “The outbreak has necessitated the health authority to activate an Emergency Operations Centre for concerted response and rapid decision-making. “The transmission rate of the on-going cholera outbreak in Adamawa...

Children under the  age of five maybe facing a bleak future as the 2017 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, MICS, show that over 75 percent of Nigeria’s children age 0 to 59 months were not fully immunized despite the fact that vaccine preventable diseases account for 40 percent of all childhood deaths in Nigeria Children undergoing vaccination against meningitis in Nigeria. According to the World Health Organisation, WHO, Vaccines have been one of the biggest success stories of modern medicine and it is no longer news that millions of deaths have been prevented due to vaccinations delivered around the world. Many lives have also been protected from disability associated diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, whooping cough, measles, and polio. Successful immunisation programmes also enable national priorities, like education and economic development to take hold. Sadly, although, the country made great strides in reducing deaths of under 5-year-old children from 158 to 120 pe...

A group of medical doctors has launched a mobile app aimed at reducing patient-waiting time in Nigerian hospitals. Patients in public hospitals in the country spend an average of two hours before they are attended to by a doctor, according to a report. The app, known as KompleteCare, can be accessed at the Google play store using a mobile phone. It is a collaboration between the Society for Family Physicians of Nigeria (SOFPON) and a healthcare company in Nigeria, Sevenz Healthcare. The app was unveiled to the public on May 18 at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, by the Commissioner for Health in the state, Dominic Ukpong, to mark SOFPON’s celebration of the 2018 World Family Doctor’s Day. SOFPON said the app provides a meeting-point online between doctors and patients where consultation, examination, and drug prescription can take place, and thereby help to reduce the crowd of patients at public hospitals. Doctors across different pa...

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank Group on Thursday launched the joint Global Preparedness Monitoring Board to observe how ready the world is to tackle outbreaks and pandemics, the WHO said in a statement. "The board will be co-chaired by Dr Gro Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and former WHO Director-General, and Mr Elhadj As-Sy, Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. "It will include political leaders, heads of UN agencies and world-class health experts, serving in their individual, independent capacities," the statement read. The WHO noted that the board would not only monitor the situation but also prepare annual reports on the developments in this area. "The board will monitor emergency preparedness across national governments, UN agencies, civil society and the private sector. "It will report annually on adequacy of financing, progress on relevant rese...

Health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have begun an immunisation campaign in an attempt to halt the spread of an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. The experimental vaccine proved effective when used in limited trials during the epidemic which struck West Africa in 2014-16. At least 26 people are believed to have died in the current outbreak. Health workers were among the first to receive the vaccine on Monday. What is Ebola? It is an infectious illness that causes internal bleeding and often proves fatal. It can spread rapidly through contact with small amounts of bodily fluid, and its early flu-like symptoms are not always obvious. More than 11,300 people died in the earlier outbreak in 2014-16. Why Ebola keeps coming back Why Ebola is so dangerous How not to catch Ebola How serious is the current outbreak? At least 45 cases of Ebola have been reported, including three health workers, since the outbreak began earlier this month. The virus...