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 ...