Chioma Umeha

Chioma Umeha Not a few keen observers of the health sector are worried that Nigeria is home to millions of those who survived female genital mutilation (FGM). More worrisome is the high level of ignorance concerning the practice of FGM. Nigeria is among four countries where two thirds of all women who have undergone FGM/C live; the other three countries are Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan. Most recent estimates from UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme On FGM/C Abandonment: Accelerating Change Phase II report from 2014 to 2017   show that Nigeria has zero to 28 per cent   prevalence along with Yemen. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that Female genital mutilation include all procedures which involve partial or total removal of the   external female genitalia or injury to the female genital organs, whether for cultural or any other   non-therapeutic reasons. The world health body further classifies FGM into four major types, namely; Type I (Clitoridectomy),

Chioma Umeha The Challenge Initiative (TCI) a global programme with focus on the reproductive health needs of people living in poor urban communities has received $20.5 million supplemental grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The   award will enable TCI to focus more on adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health issues. The grant from the Gates Foundation includes funds from Gates Philanthropy Partners. The Initiative, led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Institute on Population and Reproductive Health within the Population, Family and Reproductive Health Department at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is now actively implementing its evidence-based urban reproductive health interventions in 52 cities across four regions: East Africa, Francophone West Africa, Nigeria and India. The supplemental award will also allow the Initiative to address the needs of youth, ages 15 to 24 years, with best-practice programming, in additio

Chioma Umeha  The National Agency   for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has designed a set of guidelines aimed at increasing cosmetics production in the country. The guidelines include: Guidelines for Micro or Kitchen scale Cosmetics producers and the Guidelines for Medium and Large scale Cosmetics producers. Prof. Christianah Adeyeye, NAFDAC Director-General, while announcing this, explained that the scaled down policies will drive growth in cosmetics Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise sectors in line with ease of doing business. Speaking   at a stakeholders’ meeting with all chemical marketers, distributors and veterinary products tagged: A Date with the DG, which held in Lagos, Prof. Adeyeye said; “The difference in the two documents is that the Micro is an abridged form of the Medium and Large scale cosmetics guidelines. “The number of documents, staff strength and room space was scaled down for the micro and likewise, the number of

Chioma Umeha With a contraceptive prevalence rate for modern methods of 10 per cent, there is big concern among experts that Nigeria is among those with poor contraceptive indices despite the significant investments made over the last decade. Expressing worry, Dr. Farouk Jega, Country Director, Pathfinder International in a statement to mark this year’s World Contraception Day said, Nigeria’s teeming population provides great potential of developing industrious youths that would guarantee the country’s development. However, Dr. Jega stressed that this depends on largely on increasing investment in youths’ education, skill empowerment, health, especially in the area of reproductive health, among others. The Pathfinder International boss said, “With a population nearing 200 million, about a quarter of who are young people, Nigeria has a good opportunity of harnessing the so-called demographic dividend by turning the ‘youth bulge’ into a productive segment con

Chioma Umeha Pharmacists under the auspices of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) have condemned disharmony and rivalry in the Nigerian healthcare sector, linking the development with the demand for the establishment of the office of Chief Medical Adviser “Surgeon General” to the president and creation of a national healthcare commission. Pharm. Ahmed   Yakasai, President, PSN who spoke for the body enumerated other reasons which   causes rivalry, including, Matters arising from Teaching Hospital Act and opposition to appointment of other health professionals as directors in Federal Health Institutions. The rest, he said are, establishment of postgraduate colleges for other health professionals, and the obvious bias against health professionals other than doctors especially in the reflected areas. Pharm. Yakasai, who presented a paper   recently, at the annual scientific conference and exposition of the Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmac

Chioma Umeha  The Ogun State government says over 30,000 indigenes have benefitted from the Community Based Health Insurance Scheme, tagged, ‘’Araya’’, as part of government’s effort at providing efficient and free health care service delivery to the residents of the state. The wife of the Governor, Dr. (Mrs.) Olufunso Amosun, through the Press Officer, Ministry of Health. Miss. Omolola Awolana unveiled this assertions at Araya Scale Up, held at Totoro Comprehensive Health Centre, Abeokuta, said the Scheme was created to deliver free healthcare services for pregnant women and children under the age of five, urging members of the community to register, so as to benefit from the programme. “I would like to reiterate that the health care services here would be free for pregnant women and children under five. It is essential for you to have an Araya so as to be able to get free health care service. Yes, it is free and open to all members of the community, howeve

Chioma Umeha The Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy has   called for better, safer, more convenient and affordable medicines as well as treatment regimens for diseases that afflict humans, especially those that are endemic to African region. Making the call during the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy annual Investiture ceremony in Lagos was   Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, President, Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy, who stressed that the academy is committed to cheap innovative and effective medicines and treatment. Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi said, “The Academy of Pharmacy owes society a duty to help unravel better, safer, more convenient and more affordable medicines and treatment regimens for diseases that afflict mankind, especially those that are endemic to our region of the world.” A major high point of occasion was the presentation of a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ to Chief Oludolapo Ibukun Akinkugbe for his huge contribution to the growth of pharmaceutical sector in Niger