Chioma Umeha

By Independent The Lagos State Commissioner for Wealth Creation and Employment, Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi Etti, has commended the management of Cedarcrest Hospitals for establishing a branch of the hospital in Lagos. He made the commendation at the official commissioning of the hospital situated on Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. Mr. Babatunde Durosinmi Etti stated that the establishment of an arm of the hospital in Lagos aligns with the strategic roadmap of the administration in Lagos which has the health and welfare of all its citizens at heart. He enjoined Lagos residents to take advantage of the qualitative healthcare delivery that the hospital, through its specialized services, is bringing to the state. Also, speaking at the commissioning, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Felix Ogedegbe said the hospital has played a critical role in saving Nigeria foreign exchange (forex) through the spacialised services offers. This, he pointed

By Independent The Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) Kogi State chapter has warned the state government to take proactive measures to redeem the health sector from total collapse to avert impending workers’ unrest. Dr Tijani Godwin Atayi, the state Chairman of NMA, gave the warning while speaking with newsmen in Lokoja, recently. It would be recalled that NMA after its emergency congress in June 22, 2017, suspended her industrial action for three months and promised to reconvene in September to reappraise the suspended strike and resume if their demands are not met. According to the NMA chairman, “the three months ultimatum will expire in September, but up till now, nobody has called NMA for a meeting. “All efforts to meet with Commissioner for health proved abortive. No concrete information from government on revised CONMESS, promotion and annual stepping. “About eight of our members are still on the uncleared list and have not being paid salary for seve

* Funding Promised In Oslo Stalled By Independent At least $2.2 billion is needed for humanitarian assistance in the region spanning Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, but only $460 has been delivered, said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. Six months after donors at the Oslo Conference committed funding for humanitarian support in the Lake Chad Region with nearly 800,000 severely malnourished children, only 57 per cent of the funding has come in. At least $2.2 billion is needed for humanitarian assistance in the region spanning Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, but only $460 has been delivered, said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “Lack of sufficient humanitarian funding is putting young children’s lives at risk,” warned Egeland. “The donations from the Oslo conference have been crucial, but we are not able to avert a massive loss of lives without large additional funding for our humanitari

By Chioma Umeha Everyone considering IVF should be aware of PGS, and those in the following circumstances should be particularly aware: women who have attempted IVF without becoming pregnant more than once, women who have experienced recurrent miscarriages or have had a pregnancy involving a chromosomal abnormality, and women with diminished ovarian reserve (since a high proportion of their eggs are often chromosomally abnormal). All embryos do not develop to the blastocyst stage, and generally only some of those that do will be identied as chromosomally normal. Regardless of the number of blastocyst stage embryos produced, there is always a risk that none will be identied as chromosomally normal once subjected to PGS. Should this occur, a transfer will not take place. Women who produce few eggs in a single IVF cycle may engage in a process referred to as “embryo banking”. In an effort to accumulate a more plentiful number of embryos for PGS analysis, their d

By Independent The Joint Health Sector Unions and Assembly of Health Care Professionals and   National Union of Allied Health Professionals(   JOHESU/NUAHP)   has given the Federal Government grace of up to September 30, 2017, within which to meet its demands failure of which it would have no other option than to shut down health care services nationwide. In a release signed by Comrade Obinna Ogbonna, the National President, and Comrade Obisesan O.A., National Secretary, the union said the ultimatum was expected to elapse on September 12, 2017 but that it extended it to September 30, considering other mobilisation factors and to give the government further room to address their demands. The demands are as highlighted below are revamping the infrastructure in the tertiary health institutions, report of the inter-ministerial sub-committee on critical matters in the health sector, professional autonomy, headship of departments/units in hospitals and Enhanced En

By Chioma Umeha Over the past five years, there has been a rapid scale-up of services to Prevent Mother-To-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. This has reduced the annual number of new infections among children by 50 per cent worldwide since 2010. Global HIV Plan In the 21 priority countries that were the focus of the Global Plan towards the elimination of new HIV infections among children and keeping their mothers alive (Global Plan), AIDS-related mortality among children under 15 years of age dropped by   53 per cent between 2009 and 2015. In countries such as Botswana, Burundi, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland, even greater reductions, above 65 per cent, were achieved. However, this welcome news has some challenges. For instance, in 2015, there were 1.8 million children under 15 years of age living with HIV worldwide. An additional 150, 000 children acquired HIV globally in 2015 (2,800 a week), and 110, 000 children died of AIDS-related causes (300 a

By Chioma Umeha It was a carnival of sort in Ikot Ukpong and Ikot-Esop communities, Nsit Atai Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Akwa-Ibom State, as they celebrated provision of portable drinking water by the European Union (EU) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). While the youth from communities displayed posters with various inscription thanking UNICEF and EU for the gesture, women on their part rendered special songs. Some of the posters read, “We thank UNICEF and EU for giving us standard water, we thank all the facilitators of this project to our community; we men and women and youth appreciate the effort of   EU for giving us water, etc,” The two communities now boast of safe drinking water after several years of battling with diarrhea, cholera among other water borne diseases, following the implementation of the Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) projects in the state. Before the intervention of EU and UNICEF with the collaboratio