Major Health Stories In The News Last Week

Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. (LASUTH)

Nigeria govt confirm six new cases of monkey pox

The federal government has confirmed six additional cases of monkeypox from the samples sent to the World Health Organisation’s laboratory in Dakar, Senegal.

The Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, said two cases each were confirmed in Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states, one each in Enugu state and Abuja.

This brings to nine the total number of monkeypox cases so far confirmed in Nigeria. Three had earlier been confirmed on October 16.

Meanwhile, there are 94 suspected cases reported from 11 states, namely Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Rivers and Federal Capital Territory. Kano State also reported a suspected case of the disease after the confirmation of the new cases.

Polio cases decreases 90 per cent in Africa – WHO

The World Health Organisation, WHO, said it recorded more than 90 per cent decrease in polio outbreak in Africa in 2012.

The State Coordinator of WHO in Plateau, Basi Wadzin, at the commencement of the polio vaccination exercise organised by the Rotary Club, District 9125 in Jos North Local Government Area that there is a hope that at the end of 2019, Nigeria and Africa will be certified polio free and will be able to reach inaccessible areas in the country.

Globally, between 1,000 and 350,000 cases of polio outbreak were recorded annually in the 80’s and Nigeria had been certified polio free for almost two years until another outbreak in 2016 in some remote and insecure areas of Borno State.

Africa need 11 million doctors, teachers in 2030 – UNICEF

With one of every 13 child births expected to occur in Nigeria by 2050, Nigeria and African will need about 11 million doctors, nurses and teachers by 2030 to carter for millions of children who will be the result of a population boom.

According to a new report by the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, Nigeria currently accounts for 20 per cent of all births in Africa, and five per cent of the global total and the number of children in Africa will grow to 170 million to 750 million in the next 13 years.

The UN agency attributed the boom in births to high fertility rates, a raising number of women of reproductive age and lower mortality.

To bridge the gap, 5.6 million health workers and 5.8 million teachers have to be trained by 2030.

Kano reports suspected case of monkeypox

Kano State has report a suspected case of monkeypox virus in Bebeji local government area of the state.
The state commissioner of health, Kabul Gesto, said a symptom of the disease was noticed in a patient. The blood sample of the victim has been sent to Abuja for clinical verification and the victim has been isolated in isolation and intensive clinic till the result of the sample is out.

The state also identified 60 people who had contact with the victim and all of them have been quarantined.

300,000 to be immunised against cholera in Borno – WHO

The World Health organisation says it will immunise 300,000 people against cholera in Borno State.

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, UN-OCHA, in the Humanitarian Situation Report for September said that the organisation in collaboration with other health development partners would also conduct another round of Oral Cholera Vaccination, OCV exercise in the state.

Reports indicate that the immunisation exercise would be conducted at internally displaced persons, IDPs camps and host communities of Damasak, Banki, Bama, Gamburu, Ngala, and Pulka.

There have been 4,360 suspected or confirmed cases of cholera and 60 related deaths in the state in September.

Nigeria worries over increase in organ harvesting

The National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, says it will commence investigation into illegal human organ harvesting in the country.

Organ harvesting is the illegal removal of human organ or tissue without a person’s consent, generally sold on the black market for organ transplant.

The Director-General of NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli decried the rising cases of organ harvesting in guise of ritual killings in some part of the country. She said the agency would carry out full investigation on cases of organ harvesting and bring perpetrators to book.

Organ trafficking is a form of human trafficking and is an organized crime. According to the UN Gift Hub, organ trafficking falls into three categories: traffickers who trick the victim into giving up an organ for no cost; con artists who convince victims to sell their organs, but who do not pay or who pay less than they agreed to pay; and doctors who treat people for ailments which may or may not exist and remove the organs without the victim’s knowledge.

Canada earmark $ 3.5 billion to tackle health challenge of Nigerian women, children

The Canadian government has earmarked $3.5 billion to advance the health of women and children in Nigeria, Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Christopher Thorney has said.

Mr. Thorney during the Multi-Country Dissemination of the Rapid Access Expansion (RAcE) Project on Integrated Community Case Management of Childhood Illnesses (iCCM said that Canada has a long-standing history of working to advance the health of women and children in Nigeria and the latest initiative will span a 2015-2020 template and targets related programs during the five years.

Mr. Thorney, while commending the remarkable progress made so far in reducing child mortality, said that significant work remains to be done as troubling statistics in 2016, showed that about 5.6 million children under the age of five died worldwide; to make that more understandable, that is about 15,000 child deaths per day.

Nigerian doctors warns against declining immunisation coverage

The National Chairman, Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Mike Ogirima. has decried the declining immunisation coverage in the country and urged government at all level to do more.

Mr. Ogirima said 2016/2017 National Immunisation Coverage Survey, NCIS, indicated that only 33 per cent of children around 12 to 23 months of age had three doses of pentavalent vaccine against the global target of 90 per cent and only 23 per cent were fully immunised.

While warning that a large population of Nigeria children particularly less than five years are unprotected, he said 40 per cent do not receive any vaccine from any health system and these children are at risk of dying from vaccine preventable diseases such as measles, diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis among others.