Chioma Umeha

Chioma Umeha The Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has pledged to strengthen its activities and collaborations with relevant stakeholders, including the National Assembly and the media to tackle the challenges of drug abuse in the country. Pharm. Ahmed Yakasai, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) made the commitment at the sensitisation programme on drug abuse and misuse, organised by the Pharmaceutical Association of Nigerian Students (PANS), of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna, weekend. Yakasai who was the special guest of honour, said there was need for multi-sector collaboration among organisations, institutions, groups, even individuals and government to provide practical and lasting solution to the societal ill. The PSN boss said; “All hands must be on deck to find practical and lasting solution to this societal menace. Over 3 decades ago, I was deeply involved in drug abuse campaign across the country as Director an

Chioma Umeha A 2015 Mandela Washington Fellow, Mr. Kunle Adewale, early last week, inaugurated an Art in Medicine Fellowship for public health practitioners and professional artists in Lagos. Eighty-five medical professionals including doctors, nurses, and trained caregivers as well as 15 visual artists were inducted into the yearlong fellowship. The 100 inductees will hold a series of creative art engagements such as painting, drawing and collaging for children and young adults living with sickle cell anaemia, cancer, and mental health conditions. The sessions will be held for patients in selected hospitals and healthcare centers in Lagos, including the National Sickle Cell Centre, Idi Araba; Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH); and Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba. Arts in Medicine project seeks to incorporate the arts into healthcare delivery, with a view to enhancing holistic patient care. The project is funded through a public diplomacy

Some albinos at the exhibition tagged: Angels Amongst Men, organised recently in Lagos by OAM Foundation and Damilola Onafuwa recently in Lagos ...Launches Angels Amongst Men Chioma Umeha To debunk the myths and misconce p t i o n s associated with albinism in Africa, especially Nigeria, Onome Akinlolu Majaro (OAM) Foundation in collaboration with Damilola Onafuwa last week held a photography exhibition tagged ”Angels amongst Men.’ With an estimated figure of over two million people, the rate of albinism in Nigeria is ranked among the highest in the world. This makes them one of the largest vulnerable groups in the country today, says OAM Foundation. With his latest series, Angels Amongst Men, documentary photographer, Onafuwa – whose work is typically centred around social issues and other human interest stories – is exploring the lives of Nigerians with albinism. The series seeks to demystify albinism, featured the special character of the pale sk

•Task Media To Propagate Accurate Information Chioma Umeha There is increasing concern about how to reverse the current low Contraceptive Prevalence rate (CPR) and curb growing maternal deaths in the country. Every day, 111 women die from pregnancy related issues can be blamed on five major causes of maternal mortality, viz: haemorrhage, hypertension, infection, abortion complications and obstructed labour. Fortunately, experts have confirmed that investment in family planning (FP) would reduce the rate of maternal deaths by 30 per cent. Already, the Federal government has intensified campaigns to increase uptake of family planning commodities and services with the formulation of the new policy to increase the CPR from 15 per cent to 27 per cent by 2030. In Lagos state, the goal is increase CPR to 74 per cent by 2020. However, some traditions, misconceptions among other factors have continued militate against adequate Family Planning uptake, especia

•Give Notice Of Fresh Strike Chioma Umeha Health workers have threatened to commence on   industrial action over failure of the Federal Government’s to honour an agreement it made with it by approving the adjustment of CONHESS scale as was done to medical doctors’ CONMESS since January 2014 and replicated in September 2017. The health workers who came under the auspices of Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (JOHESU/AHPA) said that the delay in implementation by the Federal Government was not causing crisis in the health sector. This warning was contained in a communiqué JOHESU/AHPA issued at the end of its three-day consultative meeting held from February 6 to 8, 2018 in Abuja, just as the group noted it has communicated its discontentment on the issue to the appropriate government quarters. In the communiqué signed by Comrade Biobelemoye Joy Josiah and Comrade Ekpebor Florence, JOHESU’s National Chairman and

L-R Ravi Akelia,Director, Technology Solutions, AMESA, IQVIA in Technology ; Remi Adeseun, Country Manager, West Africa, IQVIA in General; Pharm Ahmed Yakassai; President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria; Prof. Mike Ogirima, President, Nigeria Medical Association;Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, President, Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, and Dr. Femi Olugbile, Chairman, IQVIA HCPSpace Advisory Board, during the MOU Signing Ceremony at the official launch of the IQVIA HCPSpace in Lagos, recently.   Chioma Umeha Healthcare professionals in the country have been urged to leverage communication and networking in to improve the networth of health service given to the patients. The appeal came from Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, Chairman of the occasion and President, Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy, who encouraged professionals to become early adopters in the use of digital health platforms that will positively improve patient outcomes. Adelusi-Adeluyi made the app

…Signs MoU With Janssen On Cure Chioma Umeha Pharm. Ahmed Yakasai, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has called on pharmacists to join forces in the renewed fight against cancer in the society. Yakasai, PSN President, spoke in a message on the World Cancer Day marked on weekend. World Cancer Day is commemorated every year on February 4 all over the world to celebrate efforts of the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations (UN), governmental and non-governmental health organizsations towards fighting against cancer. The PSN President said the celebration provided the chance to reflect on what individuals can do to make a difference in the fight against cancer. He added that the key messages for this year’s World Cancer Day were meant to inspire action, take action, prevent cancer, make healthy lifestyle choices and understand that early detection saves lives. “In many ways you can make a difference based using the above key mess

•Records $196m Shortfall In 2017, Launches 2018 Response Plan Chioma Umeha To meet its 2018 humanitarian intervention programmes in the North-east where Boko Haram insurgency has affected more than 10 million people, the United Nations weekend, said it requires $1.05 billion assistance. The world body said the 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan appeal was pecked at “$1.05billion, people targeted in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe States, 6.1 million: number of partners participating in the HRP: 60, number of projects included in HRP 173.” The UN also disclosed that it recorded a shortfall of $196 million in donations from the targeted $1 billion for humanitarian intervention in the North-east of Nigeria in 2017. Following severe humanitarian conditions and insecurity occasioned by the insurgency, the UN in collaboration with other international organisations and government have been actively leading in humanitarian assistance in the North-east in the last nine y

Chioma Umeha The Lagos State Government has again reiterated the need for members of the public to ensure and maintain adequate personal hygiene and environmental sanitation at all times as part of prevention and control measures against the spread of the Lassa fever disease in the State. In a statement issued and signed by the Dr. Jide Idris,   Commissioner for Health, the state government noted that that the prevention and control of the disease remains a shared responsibility for all citizens through observance of the highest possible standards of personal and community hygiene as well as environmental sanitation. Idris enjoined residents to store household refuse in sanitary refuse bags or dustbins with tight-fitting covers to avoid infestation by rats and rodents; dispose refuse properly at designated dump sites and not into the drainage system and store food items in rodent-proof containers, adding that it is by so doing that a habitable and conducive e

From L-R: Dr. Kubby Layeni-Adeyemo, Director Occupational Health and Staff Health Services, Lagos State Ministry of Health; Dr. Olufemi Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Primary Health Care, and Mr. James Marsh, the CEO James Marsh and Associates, at a Sensitisation meeting on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) with Stakeholders in the Water, Food and Beverages Industry at Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos recently. •Sensitises Stakeholders On HACCP By Chioma Umeha The Lagos State Government has moved to check food and water contamination in eateries, restaurants and hotels across the state, charging stakeholders to embrace the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and certification. HACCP is a management system that gives a systematic preventive approach to food safety, from biological, chemical, and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumpti