Chioma Umeha

‘Meningitis Kills In Hours, Needs Emergency Medical Attention’ By Chioma Umeha Experts have said that meningococcal meningitis currently ravaging some states in Nigeria requires emergency medical attention as it can kill within hours. Stating this was Dr Biodun Ogunniyi, consultant epidemiologist for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) during the just concluded one-day advocacy and sensitisation meeting on meningitis outbreak and response for journalists, organised by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in Abuja. In his presentation to journalists at the orientation meeting for journalists on the disease, Dr Ogunniyi said meningitis needs not kill as there’s an effective treatment for it. The cumulative number of suspected cases recorded in Nigeria throughout the outbreak period was now 9, 646 and 839 deaths from 43 local government areas in 23 states, Dr. John Oladejo, NCDC Incident manager, said at the NCDC orientation meeting with journalist

To permanently rid the country of Malaria before the World Health Assembly’s target of 2030, Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) on Tuesday, called for increased efforts by scientists to fight the disease. Dr Kudo Eresia-Eke, the company’s General Manager External Relations, said this during the commemoration of this year’s World Malaria Day (WMD) with – End Malaria for good- as its theme, lamenting that there was grave indifference by Nigerian scientists to find a solution to a scourge peculiar to the tropics and the country. In a statement jointly signed by Tony Okonedo, Manager, Corporate Communication and Public Affairs and Anne-Marie Palmer-Ikuku, Head, Media Relations, Eresia-Eke remarked that the trend may not augur well for global efforts to reduce malaria incidence and mortality rates by at least 90 per cent by 2030. He said: “That is why we, at NLNG, are speaking out and calling on all Nigerians to make malaria eradication a priority. We can’t continue to watc

By Chioma Umeha On World Malaria Day, Malaria No More celebrated its 11th Annual International Honours event by recognising two leaders who have helped make that progress possible, and who remain committed to defeating malaria for good. “Aliko Dangote and Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer represent the combination of U.S. government support and endemic country leadership that have made malaria one of the great public health success stories of our time,” said Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No More. “One is a military leader who has served the world’s most vulnerable populations across three Administrations; the other is Africa’s most successful businessman and most prominent philanthropist – and they have found common cause in working to end malaria.” The work is not done. Despite historic progress, malaria remains a daily threat, with half the world’s population still at risk. In 2015, there were 429,000 malaria deaths and 212 million malaria cases. A ch

By Chioma Umeha To end the malaria scourge, Reckitt Benckiser (RB) Nigeria teamed with the Lagos, Ogun and Abia state governments, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Abuja and embarked on community engagement. The collaboration tagged, ‘One Act Against Malaria,’    was to mark this year’s World Malaria Day with the universal theme ‘End Malaria for Good.’ The community engagement saw officials from the States Ministry of Health and Reckitt Benckiser, makers of Mortein insecticide brand carry out sanitation, free malaria testing and consultation in four states – Abuja, Abia, Ogun and Lagos State. They also went round communities to sensitise and educate residents on the immense benefits of maintaining clean environment as one of the most cost effective ways to reduce mosquitoes which are the major carriers of malaria parasite. Speaking at the press briefing in Abuja to commemorate this year’s World Mala

By Chioma Umeha The number of new cases of suspected Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) is declining as outbreak control measures have continued to take effect, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Dr Lawal Bakare, Communication Manager of NCDC, who said this in a statement in Abuja on weekend, explained that the cumulative number of suspected cases recorded in Nigeria throughout the outbreak period was now 9, 646 and 839 deaths from 43 local government areas in 23 states. “A total of 628 new cases were reported in week 16 against 1,935 in week 15 and 2,127 in week 14. “While the total number of suspected cases will rise with each new case, the number of new cases recorded per week is dropping in the affected states indicating that the outbreak is likely to have peaked. “We expect a continued decline in the number of new cases with the intensification of control measures in the affected states,’’ Bakare said. He said that the nationa

What Is Pre-implantation Genetic Testing? By   Alfred Akuki How is the PGD performed? Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis begins with the normal process of in vitro fertilization that includes egg retrieval and fertilization in a laboratory. Over the next three days the embryo will divide into eight cells. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis involves the following steps: •             First, one or two cells are removed from the embryo. •             The cells are then evaluated to determine if the inheritance of a problematic gene is present in the embryo. •             Once the PGD procedure has been performed and embryos free of genetic problems have been identified, the embryo will be placed back in the uterus, and implantation will be attempted. •             Any additional embryos that are free of genetic problems may be frozen for later use while embryos with the problematic gene are destroyed. Who might benefit from PGD? Preimplantation genetic di

By Chioma Umeha Following an initiative which seeks the rebirth of harmony among the different professionals in the health sector, experts drawn from each of the major health disciplines will brainstorm at a symposium holding at the University of Lagos on May 11. The symposium is being jointly organised by the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy in partnership with the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) and will feature practitioners drawn from medicine, pharmacy, nursing and midwifery, medical laboratory sciences, physiotherapy and other medical professions. Former Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo will deliver the keynote presentation. According to Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, President of the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy and also a former Minister of Health, “the dire state of healthcare in Nigeria today despite continuing efforts, requires that all professionals in the sector work in harmony to tackle the issues for the good of the country.” U

By Chioma Umeha   The Deputy Head of Mission, U.S. Embassy, David Young, on Monday said that his country was committed to ending the scourge of malaria in Nigeria. Young, who stated this in Abuja at the commemoration of 2017 World Malaria Day organised by the U.S. Embassy, said prevention and control remained a major U.S. foreign assistance objective. “The U.S. Government, through Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is committed to raising awareness about the proper prevention, diagnosis and treatment of this disease,” he said. According to him, the U.S. Government supports local partners to design and implement programmes to improve public and private sector adherence to diagnosis and treatment guidelines. He disclosed that the U.S. invested over 420 million dollars in the fight against malaria in Nigeria since 2010, and 75 million dollars in 2016 alone. He said that the U.S PMI strategy go

By Chioma Umeha It is estimated that almost half of all homicides in which women were the victims in 2012 were committed by intimate partners or family members. Worldwide, more than 700 million women today were married as children (below 18 years) and of this number, more than one in three were married before age. Similarly, Nigerian women and girls are subjected to violence in their homes, the place expected to provide protection from harm and violence. The statistics are scary as one in three women has experienced either physical and/ or sexual violence worldwide. Perhaps more daunting is that over 133 million girls and women have experience one form of female genital mutilation (FGM) in 29 African countries. Sadly, civil society organisations have discovered that the heinous and dastardly acts are under-reported in the media which ineptly and inadvertently causing their efforts to have little or no change in the society, especially among the perpetua

By Chioma Umeha The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, has directed heads of federal government tertiary hospitals in the country to prepare, equip and be proactive in responding to outbreak of diseases in Nigeria. Speaking during a meeting with them in Abuja, Adewole urged the federal hospitals to come up with strategies to support the primary and secondary health care centres in the states, while also charging them to adopt secondary and primary health facilities, supervise them and make sure they work well. He recalled that the country has been dealing with series of outbreaks over the last one year, including Lassa Fever, cholera, measles and now meningitis, advising the public to notify the Federal Ministry of Health on any epidemic outbreak to enable it deploy response team immediately to checkmate the spread of the diseases. “The outbreak of meningitis in Zamfara actually started late November 2016, but we did not know till February, which was