Health
COVID-19: FG Says Pandemic Exposed National Dependence on Importation of Health Commodities
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, on Saturday said COVID-19 pandemic had exposed Nigeria’s dependence on importation of health commodities.
Ehanire said this in his keynote address, at the end of a three-day 2021 Special National Council on Health (NCH) meeting in Abuja.
The meeting was organised by the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and other stakeholders in the sector.
The theme of the meeting was entitled: “The Journey to Attaining Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Applying Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic Towards Building A Resilient National Health System”.
NCH, as provided for in the National Health Act (2014), is the highest policy making body on matters relating to health in Nigeria.
The membership comprises Minister of Health (Chairman of the Council), Minister of State for Health, States Commissioners for Health and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretariat, FCTA.
Ehanire said that the Federal Government could not afford commodities anymore, adding that measures were being put in place to encourage local production.
He said that there was a law in progress for mandatory health insurance system and effective Primary Health Care system to take care of the grassroots in achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the country.
Ehanire said emergency was the same for all diseases and that there was the need to put measures in place to address it accordingly.
He said that the government would ensure that no one was left behind.
Hoping that the NHAct would be fully operationalise to achieve the targeted objectives, Ehanire said Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) would also be leveraged upon to take health sector to greater heights.
He said the theme was aimed at addressing the unpredictable pandemic that struck the world early 2020 which resulted to stringent measures like lockdowns that slowed down the global economy.
The minister, however, said that efforts and strategies put in place yielded positive results as all the catastrophic predictions on Africa due to the pandemic did not come to pass.
He said that there was need to strengthen the country’s health sector pandemic or not.
Ehanire said the ultimate measure of building a resilient health system would take care of the vulnerable as a line of defence for any other pandemic.
He said that doses of the COVID-19 vaccines were being rolled out with mass vaccination both at the National and Sub-national levels.
The chairman congratulated all the stakeholders for a successful hosting of the special NCH meeting.
He wished that NCH would change the narrative of ‘’leaving no one behind’’.
Meanwhile, Dr Stanley Ukpai, the Director Projects of PACFaH@Scale (PAS), commended the FMOH for convening the council on matters addressing the theme.
Ukpai said that PAS works in the area of supporting non-profit organisations to hold government accountable.
Emphasising the importance of reaching urgent milestones in strengthening the health system and healthcare delivery, he said PAS would continue to support FMOH in its activities to promote child and family health.
“PAS was one of the partners that worked with the FMOH towards the successful conduct of this special NCH,” he said.
The Special NCH meeting was chaired by Ehanire, with 635 delegates from the Departments, Agencies and Parastatals of the FMOH, State Ministries of Health, the Health and Human Services Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, Abuja.
Others in attendance were members of the National and State Assemblies, representatives of Federal Ministries of Education, Water Resources, Communication, Environment and Population Council, Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
Nigeria Governors Forum, Department of State Services and Medical Corps of the Nigeria Army, Nigeria Navy, Nigeria Air Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps.
There were also delegates from Development Partners, Civil Society Organisations, Organised Private Sector, Health Professional Regulatory Bodies, Health Professional Associations and the Media.
There have been four Emergency NCH meetings held since the last NCH, in 2019, Aug. 6, 2020; June 23, 2020, April 21, 2020 and March 4. At each of these meetings, relevant resolutions were made.
35 States of the Federation and the FCT were represented at the Special NCH meeting except Ebonyi State that was absent.
It was agreed by council that the 63rd NCH will hold in Akure, Ondo State in March, 2022. (NAN)
Hundreds of millions of children and adolescents around the world face daily violence in their homes, schools, and elsewhere which could have lifelong consequences.The World Health Organisation (WHO) said this on Thursday.The violence includes being hit by family members, being bullied at school, as well as physical, emotional, and sexual violence, WHO said.
In most cases, violence occurs behind closed doors. More than half of those aged two to 17 or more than a billion minors in total experience violence each year according to the WHO. In three out of five children and adolescents, it is physical violence at home, with one in five girls and one in seven boys experiencing sexual violence.Between a quarter and half of minors are affected by bullying according to the information provided.Only half of the children reportedly talk about their experiences of violence and less than 10 per cent receive help.Lifelong consequences could include depression and anxiety disorders, or tobacco and drug use.As a result, many children do not reach their learning potential in school.Against the backdrop of being highly preventable, violence remains a horrific day-to-day reality for millions of children around the world leaving scars that span generations,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director general.The UN’s first conference on violence against children opened in Bogota, Columbia on Thursday.At the two-day conference, more than 100 countries pledged to find ways to better support overwhelmed parents and introduce school programmes against bullying and for healthy social behaviour.They also pledged to raise the minimum age for marriage.Some countries wish to generally ban children from being hit at school or home. (dpa/NAN)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has listed 17 bacteria, viruses and parasites that regularly cause disease as top priorities for new vaccine development.WHO, in a study published on Tuesday, reconfirmed long-standing priorities for vaccine research and development (R&D), including for HIV, malaria, and tuberculosis – three diseases that collectively take nearly 2.
5 million lives yearly. The study is the first global effort to systematically prioritise endemic pathogens based on their regional and global health impact. Attention is also given to pathogens such as Group A streptococcus, which causes severe infections and contributes to 280,000 deaths from rheumatic heart disease, mainly in lower-income countries.Another new priority is Klebsiella pneumoniae — a bacteria that was associated with 790,000 deaths in 2019 and is responsible for 40 per cent of neonatal deaths due to blood infection (sepsis) in low-income countries.The new study supports the goal of ensuring that everyone, everywhere, can benefit from vaccines that protect against serious diseases.It aims to shift the focus in vaccine development away from commercial returns towards regional and global health needs, WHO’s Dr Mateusz Hasso-Agopsowicz, who works in vaccine research, said in a statement.He explained that in the past, vaccine R&D typically was influenced by profitability.“As a result, diseases that severely affect low-income regions received little attention.“We hope this represents a critical shift where we want to change the focus from commercial perspective profitability of new vaccines towards the actual health burden so that the new vaccine research and development is driven by health burden and not just commercial opportunities,” he said.To carry out the study, WHO asked international and regional experts what they think is important when prioritising pathogens for vaccines R&D.Criteria included deaths, disease and socioeconomic impact, or antimicrobial resistance.“We had asked experts that have expertise in pathogen epidemiology, clinicians, paediatricians, vaccine experts from all of the WHO regions, to ensure that the list and the results that we produce really reflect the needs of diverse populations worldwide,” Hasso-Agopsowicz said.Analysis of those preferences, combined with regional data for each pathogen, resulted in the top 10 priority pathogens for each of WHO’s six regions globally.The regional lists were then consolidated to form the global list, resulting in the 17 priority endemic pathogens for which new vaccines are urgently needed.To advance vaccine R&D, WHO has categorised each pathogen based on the stage of vaccine development and the technical challenges involved in creating effective vaccines.Hasso-Agopsowicz said the study is expected to guide future vaccine R&D investments, including funders, researchers and vaccine developers, and also policymakers as they “can decide whether to introduce these vaccines into immunisation programmes.” (NAN)
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan,has suspended the strike it embarked on Oct. 25.The workers resumed work on Friday morning.The seven-day nationwide warning industrial action embarked upon by the unions was to press home their demands ofadjustment of Consolidated Health Salary Structure as was done with the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure sinceJan.
2, 2014 and implementation of consultant cadre for pharmacists in federal health institutions. Others are upward review in the retirement age from 60 to 65 years for health workers and 70 years for consultants, andpayment of outstanding salaries of JOHESU members in professional regulatory councils.The UCH JOHESU Chairman, Mr Oladayo Olabampe, said that the strike was suspended as directed by the national body.He explained that “the suspension followed an MoU signed between JOHESU national leadership and Federal Government.“The Federal Government asked for a maximum of six weeks counting from Oct. 31, to meet our demands.“Based on the MoU signed, the JOHESU National Executive Council met and resolved that the strike be suspended on Fridaynationwide.”According to him, JOHESU UCH is obeying the order, and workers have resumed work.Olabampe said that if the demands were not met after the six weeks, they would embark on an indefinite strike. (NAN)
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