Chioma Umeha

....Insists, They Are Barriers To Women In Accessing Services Chioma Umeha After three days of brainstorming over barriers of women in accessing family planning (FP) services in the country, experts at the fifth biennial Nigeria Family Planning Conference (NFPC2018) demanded a review of policies and laws guiding FP services to reverse the trend. Making the demand at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja, weekend, which began with a pre-conference event on December 3, with a focus on youth, women and faith-based entities, they said it is important to subject outdated policies and laws that limit access to family planning to judicial trials and pronouncements. The call was also contained in a communique issued after the main conference with the theme, “Investments, Innovation, Inclusiveness,’’ and held from December 4 – 6, with a total of 729 participants drawn from the 36 states of the federation including partners, donors and members of the International community. The partici

Chioma Umeha As the 2018 edition of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) Conference   draws near, the body has provided an opportunity for intending participants to register at the conference venue. This means that even though registration closed on the company’s website last week, participants who were not able to meet the online registration deadline, now have the chance to register physically at the venue of the conference. The ASLM Conference, scheduled to hold from December 10 to 13, 2018,   at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria, will play host to hundreds of delegates from across Africa.   The conference theme this year is; ‘Preventing and Controlling the Next Pandemic: The Role of the Laboratory’. This is the first time the conference will be held outside Cape Town, South Africa, where the first three editions were staged. The conference will be chaired by co-founder and the Executive Director of the International Research Centre of Excellence a

Chioma Umeha Coca-Cola Nigeria Ltd has emerged best company in the ‘Good Health and Well-being category’ at the 12th SERAS Awards. The company was recognised for its Safe Birth Initiative (SBI) –   a partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals and an NGO, Medshare International Inc., that aims to tackle the high rate of maternal and newborn deaths in Nigeria. SBI is focused on supporting doctors and nurses to achieve successful birth outcomes by strengthening the capacity of target public hospitals in three critical areas. These include; procurement of vital maternal and neonatal medical equipment and supplies to enable safe deliveries and post-delivery emergency care. Others are; training biomedical engineering technicians to improve equipment maintenance and uptime; and reactivating a large stock of abandoned medical equipment wasting away in public hospitals. The first

Chioma Umeha To reduce maternal and child mortality in Nigeria, one of the Nigeria’s health insurance providers, Hygeia HMO, have entered into partnership with Audrey Pack Company Limited. The memorandum of understanding between the parties was signed in Lagos recently. When 800 women die in every 100,000 live births, it is clear that Nigeria has an unacceptably high maternal mortality rate. This problem and associated ones for pregnant women and new mothers need new approaches and collaborative solutions to address them. Announcing this partnership recently, Obinna Ukachukwu, Hygeia HMO’s Executive Head for Business Development & Strategy, said that its special plan which takes care of maternal needs was essential as a private-sector led initiative to improve the quality of healthcare that women get throughout their maternity experience. “Hygeia HMO has a long term goal to ensur e that the vast majority of Nigerians get covered by health insurance and this is an effe

Dr. Edmond Eddie Osagie is a United Kingdom based consultant on reproductive health care services of Aurora who is set to relocate to Nigeria to help women with pelvic pains, fibroids and miscarriages with advanced laparoscopic surgery to treat infertility without complications. In this interview with CHIOMA UMEHA he speaks on the technology and expertise he is bringing. Excerpts: What is passion as a reproductive medicine expert? I am a consultant and have lived in the UK for the past 25 years. I did my undergraduate medical training at the University of Benin where I graduated in 1985, but I came to the United Kingdom in 1993 to do my post graduate service in reproductive medicine and surgery. I have been working as a consultant here in Manchester for 15 years now and I have developed extensive reproductive medicine services. My desire now is to take some of the expertise back to Lagos, Nigeria, to help women who have reproductive issues and to help women with Endometriosi

Chioma Umeha Members of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Kano Chapter, has organised a reception in honour of Pharm. Ahmed Yakasai, the immediate past President of PSN to appreciate him   for his contributions to the advancement of pharmacy and health sector in the country. Yakasai who has just finished his term as the PSN President was elected in 2015. Speaking for PSN Kano Chapter, the trio of Pharm Bala Maikudi, the State Chairman of PSN, Pharm Murtala Umar, the Vice Chairman and Chairman organising committee and Pharm Sani Ali, the Secretary, noted that Yakasai has made indelible marks in the development of pharmacy and health industry. Specifically, they said, the immediate past PSN President has played significant roles toward improving drug distribution channel and ensuring the safety of medicines in compliance with the National Drug Distribution Guidelines (NDDG). These include the unveiling of pharmaceutical information technology onlin

  •As 11 Million Children Risk Death By 2030 When the report of a new analysis conducted by Johns Hopkins University and Save the Children International hit the newsstand revealing that Pneumonia will kill nearly 11 million global children by 2030, not a few analysts were worried. Indeed, many of them have deep concerns over the report which also indicated that more than four million of these deaths could easily be averted with concerted actions to improve rates of vaccination, treatment and nutrition. Yet, there are more worries as the report shows that Nigeria, India, Pakistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are likely to bear the highest burden of deaths, without timely intervention. The report is based on a model developed by researchers at John Hopkins University called the lives saved Tools (LIST). They show nearly 11 million (10,865,728) children will die by 2030 on current trends, with the highest burden of deaths in Nigeria (1,730,000)