Chioma Umeha

Chioma Umeha The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the alarm that cases from the resurgent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are expected to rise in the coming days. WHO’s Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Dr Peter Salama, said in Geneva that there had been around 20 deaths as a result of the Ebola virus. Salama also said protecting vulnerable people in eastern DRC from the latest Ebola Virus outbreak was going to be “very, very complex”, given the huge logistical challenges and ongoing conflict there. The WHO emergency preparedness and response chief said: “We know for example that there have been around 20 deaths. We can’t at this stage confirm whether they are all confirmed or probable Ebola cases. “We expect however that the overall case count will rise in coming days to weeks, based on the trajectory of epidemics at this stage in their development.” Salama said that WHO was unaware of the

Madam Ike Theresa and another villager washing and drinking water supplied via the borehole provided through the intervention of European Union (EU) and United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Onanaku, a community in Ezinifitte Anambra State, recently. PHOTOS BY CHIOMA UMEHA Some pupils of Anuli Community School, Ezinifite, Aguata Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State, washing hands via a tippy-tap water system provided through the intervention of European Union (EU) and United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF), recently. •50-Year-Old Childless Widow, Others Rejoice Chioma Umeha For almost five decades, Ike Theresa, 50, native of Onanaku, unmarried and childless, used to trek several kilometres in search of portable water for drinking and other domestic purposes. No doubt, many years of carrying the heavy load of water regularly while trekking could have contributed to her spine being bent backwards, causing her to develop hunched back. Accord

•Writes President Buhari, Says Recommendations Full Of Bias The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Association (AHPA) in a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari urged the Federal Government to withdraw the Report of the 2014 Presidential Committee of Exper ts on Inter-Professional Relationships In the Public Health Sector, saying that it was not in tune with national development and public interest, CHIOMA UMEHA writes. The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Association (AHPA), a body that constitutes about 95 percent of the workforce in the health sector, has rejected the report of the Yayale Ahmed Presidential Committee of Experts on Professional Relationships in the Public Health Sector submitted to former President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2014. JOHESU and AHPA in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari said it was rejecting the report because the Nigerian Medic

Chioma Umeha Trying to conceive is one big waiting game – you never know if this will be month that pregnancy test turns positive. But thankfully there are a few ways to help boost your odds of getting pregnant. Sure, you can track your cycle and follow all the baby-making tricks in the book, but sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do. Here, we break down foods, activities and habits to avoid when trying to conceive. Smoking You are probably already planning on quitting smoking once you get pregnant (and you definitely should), but avoiding cigarettes now will be a huge benefit too. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, it takes longer for smokers to conceive, and smoking makes a woman’s eggs more prone to genetic abnormalities. Smoking increases the risk of   miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy. In fact, the habit wreaks so much havoc on fertility that female smokers who have in vitro fertilization (IVF) have

Ahmed Yakasai, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) (middle); Prof Christiana Adeyeye, Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) (fourth right), Chiedu Mordi, Chairman, PSN Board of Fellows (BoF) and others during the 2018 yearly meeting and award ceremony of the pharmacists in Lagos, recently. Chioma Umeha Lagos – Amid calls to urgently tackle growing rate of drug abuse, pharmacists under the aegis of Board of Fellows (BoF) of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), recently rolled a five-year campaign against scourge to curtail its adverse effect. The pharmacists who were worried at the increasing incidence of the menace noted that over 90 per cent of drugs circulating in the country are dispensed by non-pharmacists and that there is no legislation that protects the practice in the country. Speaking for PSN, was Chiedu Mordi, Chairman, BoF, who made the announcement during the 2018 yearly me

SARAH SOTONYE About 60 million Nigerian have been denied access to information on how to learn life skills on reproductive health. This was the high point of a training tagged: ‘Sensitisation of Journalists,’ which held in Lagos recently. The one-day programme was organised by the Development Communications Nigeria,(DEVCOMs), in collaboration   with the   Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) . The Programme Adviser, NURHI,(Abuja), Mrs. Macbeth Bolaji said that the training was aimed at sensitising   the journalists on life planning on adolescents and the youths. “When we look at the population of Nigeria, one-third of entire population of Nigeria are the young people who lack access to information on how to plan their reproductive health. “And that has led to ills in the society where teenage pregnancies, abortions and these young girls are eventually forced out of schools. The information of Life Planning on Adolescents and the Youths sh

Chioma Umeha It was pay time for professional, hospitals and other stakeholders in the sector as the Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Awards (NHEA 2018) doled out honours to them in 27 different categories at its fifth ceremony in Lagos. The awards were given to them in recognition of their excellence in the provision of quality and affordable health service in the country. Among those honoured was Prof. Fola Tayo who received the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award,’ while Prof. Auwal Mohammed Abubakar, Chief Medical Director (CMD) Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Yola was the recipient of the ‘Special Recognition Award.’ Prof. Abubakar’s award was given in recognition of the Hospital Paupers Fund he established at the FMC, Yola. The Hospital Paupers Fund was established in 2015. This fund is meant to cover the costs of hospital services for indigent citizens who cannot afford to pay for healthcare services. The fund ensures that nobody is denied care in FMC, Yola bas

Chioma Umeha When Mrs. Taiwo Olubunmi, a 42-year- old mother was counselled to adopt family planning two years ago after the delivery of her fourth child, it was like a ‘hard pill to swallow.’ Bunmi as she is fondly called by acquaintances was skeptical following many negative stories that she has heard about the different methods of family planning. In some communities in Africa, Nigeria included, misconceptions and skepticisms about the use of family planning or child spacing are still rife. Some of the fallacies include that use of family planning make women promiscuous, gain excess weight, bleed heavily, causes cancer etc. This also extended to sexual relationship where some couples erroneously believe that family planning would deprive them of sexual pleasure. Some even believe that family planning can make a woman not to get pregnant again, if she desires to. There are women who also believe they cannot use family planning as long as they are brea

Chioma Umeha A cholera outbreak in Cameroon has claimed at least a dozen lives. Hundreds of people have been rushed to several hospitals in the central African state. It is feared some of the cases were imported from Nigeria and may contaminate refugees fleeing the Boko Haram insurgency, according to Voanews.com reports. Arabo Saidou, the highest government official in charge of health in Cameroon’s north region says the first cases of cholera were reported along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria two months ago. He says the disease has continued to spread since four cases of cholera were recorded in the northern Cameroon town of Mayo Oulo that borders Nigeria on May 18. He says many people, especially children, have been dying both in and out of hospitals. In May, the Word Health Organization reported that Nigeria’s Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states had been experiencing recurrent cholera outbreaks since February, with a total of 1,664 suspected cases and 31 de

From left: Mrs. Abiola Adekoya, a family planning expert, provider and facilitator and some women in Agboyi-ketu area of Lagos State who have embraced family planning. Chioma Umeha In many modern African societies where the economy is consistently on the downward trend, raising healthy and happy children poses a great challenge. Research has also shown that unplanned pregnancies in the absence of family planning triggers population growth in many countries of the world. This is worsened by the poor state of healthcare in many African countries like Nigeria, giving rise to increase in child and maternal death rates. In view of this, there have been growing calls for all countries to curb population explosions by adopting family planning methods. This is in line with this year’s World Population Day theme, “Family Planning is a Human Right.” Analysts believe that the entrenchment of Family Planning (FP) as a human right by every country of the world would mak