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COVID-19: NCDC Records 1,734 Recoveries, 226 New Cases

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The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) on Tuesday recorded 226 new cases of COVID-19 in the country, bringing the total number of infections in Nigeria to 6401.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that one new patient has been confirmed dead of the virus in the country, bringing the total number of fatalities to 192.

The health agency explained that most of the fatalities recorded from COVID-19 were cases with other underlying illnesses known as co-morbidities.

It advised Nigerians to trust the health authorities and take responsibility to control the spread of the outbreak.

The health agency said that the 226 new cases were confirmed in 16 states, one death was recorded in Nigeria by May 19.

The 226 new cases were reported from 16 states- Lagos (131), Ogun (25), Plateau (15), Edo (11), Kaduna (7), Oyo (6), FCT (5), Adamawa (5), Jigawa (4), Ebonyi (4), Borno (4), Nasarawa (3), Bauchi (2), Gombe (2), Enugu (1), Bayelsa (1)

The NCDC noted that no new state has reported a case in the last 24 hours.

The health agency said that till date, 6,401 cases have been confirmed, 4,475  active Cases, 1734 cases have been discharged and 192 deaths have been recorded in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

NAN reports that the NCDC advocates for sustainability in use of Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) across health care settings in the country.

The NCDC gave summary of the key infection prevention and control (IPC) strategies to limit or prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in healthcare settings as follows:

“Health works should ensure early triage, recognition and source control at the entry point of the facility: Ensure the availability of a triage station at the entrance of the facility with trained personnel.

“Request information on recent travel history and pre-existing disease profile of the patient to determine the patient’s risk level: Evaluate clinical symptoms of COVID-19 to ensure early recognition and

“Ensure source control (isolation) of patients with suspected SARS COV-2 (COVID-19) infections in a designated area with a defined approach for further assessments,” it stated.

“The health agency said that at the application of standard precautions for all patients at the entry point of the facility, none of the IPC protocols should be bypassed under any circumstances to reduce the likelihood of viral transmission to healthcare workers and other patients within the healthcare setting.”

The NCDC noted that the protocols also include hand and respiratory hygiene for healthcare workers and patients, visibility of IEC materials that communicate the symptoms of COVID-19 and prevention measures, clearly stating that some cases may be asymptomatic.

It also advised the appropriate use of PPE, safe waste disposal practices, sterilisation of medical equipment and surfaces.

“Confirmed cases of COVID-19 should be housed together with enough ventilation. The physical distancing between all patients should be adhered to in all facilities with at least 1-meter distance.

“Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) should be utilised based on a risk assessment. Proper disposal and waste management of all PPE, equipment, and consumables used on patients.

  “Where equipment must be re-used, such equipment should be properly disinfected. Otherwise, single-use and disposable equipment should be utilised.

“Maintain visitors log to record details of all visitors into COVID-19 wards (including health care workers) to support with contact-tracing when necessary.

“Disinfect all surfaces that patients come in contact with airborne precautions (in a certain situation when aerosol-generating procedures are carried out on COVID-19 patients.

“Appropriate PPE such as eye protection such as a facemask, long sleeve/water-proof gowns should be utilised,” it explained.

The agency said that all procedures should be performed in rooms with sufficient ventilation for aerosol-generating procedures, by limiting the number of people present.

The NCDC said that in implementing administrative controls, healthcare settings require infrastructure to address COVID-19 cases such as adequate PPE, sensitisation materials for patients and health care workers, adequate health care worker training, designated waiting for areas for asymptomatic patients, isolation facilities for confirmed cases amongst others.

The health agency said that the use of environmental and engineering controls such as adequate spatial separation of patients, appropriate ventilation and appropriate cleaning of the environment.

It said that for ventilation, a natural ventilation may be utilised. For artificial ventilation, it was appropriate to use a filters for air conditioning and in a spatial separation, at least one meter of physical distancing should be observed between patients.

“Cleaning: Thorough cleaning and disinfection of surfaces as well as laundry protocols and frequent monitoring of the adherence to necessary standards for the above.

“The choice and combination of PPE ensemble to be worn in dealing with COVID-19 patients should be based on a careful risk assessment that considers the risk of exposure and extent of contact anticipated with respiratory droplets, blood, body fluids, and/ or open skin.

“Where possible, it may also be advisable to bundle similar services to reduce inefficient use of PPE however the quest to minimise inefficient use of PPE should not come at the expense of standard protocols and precaution,” it stated. (NAN)

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Reliance on Importation of Pharmaceutical Products will Reduce Soon – FG

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The Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa, has assured Nigerians that very soon reliance on importation of pharmaceutical products would drastically reduce.

He gave the assurance on Monday in Abuja, at a high-level dialogue to “Address the Technology Gaps in Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical and Vaccine Industries”.

The dialogue was organised by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, in collaboration with the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation (APTF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to Alausa, the assertion is based on the steps taken so far on the implementation of the National Plan for Vaccine Research and Development and Local Production 2024-2034, which was inaugurated in February.

He said that the national plan which had adopted a mixed method approach was developed to address the insufficiency Nigeria and other African countries suffered due to the lack of locally made vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“You will recall that COVID-19 pandemic took the world by surprise, the impact was felt globally, including in most advanced countries.

“The lessons from the pandemic cannot be forgotten in a hurry, including the scramble for COVID-19 vaccines by developed nations.

“As you’re aware, Nigeria, like many other African countries, was affected due to inability to manufacture vaccines locally.

“In the light of this, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, went ahead to develop a vaccine policy in order to be proactive in achieving sustainable local manufacturing of vaccines.

“The national plan is embedded with nine change strategies for prioritisation in order to achieve sustainable local manufacturing of vaccines in Nigeria.

“Two among these nine change strategies are clearly reflected in the objective of this event. One of the change strategies is about intellectual property while the other is technology sophistication and knowledge transfer. “

He also said that the dialogue brought together relevant stakeholders to synthesise ideas and solutions for the robust and contextual strategies that would expedite technology transfer for local manufacturing of medicine and vaccines.

“This approach will provide a strong foundation that support harnessing of local capacity to meet the health care needs of the population.

“The intervention also stimulates local research and development activities for pharmaceuticals and other healthcare commodities.”

The Chief Executive Officer of APTF, Prof. Padmashere Sampath, said that a lot of reasons were responsible for low availability and high prices of pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.

She added that lack of domestic producers, who could produce in ample quantities, was one of the primary reasons, making it impossible to have the kind of competition that would help crash prices of commodities.

“A second reason is that a lot of drugs currently being sold in the Nigerian market are sold by international producers and these producers either sell patented versions of the drugs or maybe branded generics.

“They are more expensive than what will be the case if you produce them domestically.

“So by building domestic capacity, introducing new firms, having competition in the market, we can actually increase availability and reduce price at the same time.

“This is helpful for economic development because the pharmaceutical sector can employ a lot of people.

“It’s the backbone of the industrial economy, but it’s also very good for public health.” she added.

Sampath also said that having drugs at lower prices frees up public health budget to help the health systems become more robust for pandemic preparedness.

This, according to her, would enable people to be treated and give better resilience to the healthcare system.

On his part, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, the Senior Special Advisor to the President, African Development Bank, said the solution was to ensure industrialisation in the sector.

According to him, health security cannot be outsourced.

He advised that companies willing to produce drugs in Nigeria should be given the right and requisite support to produce the drugs needed in the country.

“So it shouldn’t just be a problem for us, it should be opportunities for this country to solve its own problems and grow its own skills.

“We believe that if we all come together, we can solve this problem and in the next three or four years, we should have so many companies actually producing the drugs that we require,” he said.

Also, the Director-General of NIPRD, Dr Obi Adigwe, said that it was predicated in the national plan that at least three companies, should emerge during the 10-year period of the plan.

He added that presently, there were already three companies that have indicated interest and based on past records of those companies, they would successfully manufacture vaccines within the next 24 to 36 months.

“So it is for us to enhance our activities to be sure that their support is contextual and enable them to reach that target.

“So for the future, we’re looking at leading the charge to coordinate science and research and development to enable policies support the industry.

“This will enable us to get at least three local vaccines manufacturing entities in Nigeria within the next three to five years.

“I am very confident that the policy ecosystem will enable us reach that target of three manufacturing entities in half the time that the plan sets out.”

Reports says that the meeting’s objective is to enable national stakeholders make developmental contributions to the national assessment programme to measure the technology gaps in Nigeria’s pharmaceutical sector, including vaccines. (NAN)

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Gender Inequalities, Root of Global Crisis in Health — WHO

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A WHO  report, “Fair share for health and care: gender and the undervaluation of health and care work”, illustrates how gender inequalities in health and care work negatively impact women, health systems and health outcomes.

The  report that was released on Wednesday said that the outlines under investment in health systems resulted in a vicious cycle of unpaid health and care work lowering women’s participation in paid labour markets, harming women’s economic empowerment and hampering gender equality.

It said that women comprised 67 per cent of the paid global health and care workforce.

“In addition to this paid work, it has been estimated that women perform an estimated 76 per cent of all unpaid care activities.

” Work that is done primarily by women tends to be paid less and has poor working conditions,” it said.

The report highlighted that low pay and demanding working conditions are commonly found in the health and care sector.

” Devaluing care-giving, which is work performed primarily by women, negatively impacts wages, working conditions, productivity and the economic footprint of the sector.

“The report illustrates that decades of chronic under investment in health and care work is contributing to a growing global crisis of care.

” With stagnation in progress towards universal health coverage (UHC), resulting in 4.5 billion people lacking full coverage of essential health services, women may take on even more unpaid care work,” it said.

It said that the deleterious impact of weak health systems combined with increasing unpaid health and care work are further straining the health of caregivers and the quality of services.

Mr Jim Campbell, WHO Director for Health Workforce., said that “The ‘Fair share’ report highlights how gender-equitable investments in health and care work will reset the value of health and care and drive fairer and more inclusive economies.

“We are calling upon leaders, policy-makers and employers to take action: it is time for a fair share for health and care,” he said.

The report presented policy levers to better value health and care work which improve working conditions for all forms of health and care work, especially for highly feminised occupations and include women more equitably in the paid labour workforce.

Other policy levers are enhance conditions of work and wages in the health and care workforce and ensure equal pay for work of equal value and address the gender gap in care, support quality care work and uphold the rights and well-being of caregivers

Also , ensure that national statistics account for, measure and value all health and care work and invest in robust public health systems to reduce the burden of unpaid care work and improve the quality of healthcare services.

The report said that investments in health and care systems not only accelerate progress on UHC, they redistribute unpaid health and care work.

It said that when women participate in paid health and care employment, they are economically empowered and health outcomes are better.

According to the report, health systems need to recognise, value and invest in all forms health and care work.(NAN)

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Stakeholders Call for More Youths Inclusion in the Fight Against TB 

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By Laide Akinboade, Abuja

Stakeholders in the Health Sector, at the weekend called for more youths engagement in the fight against Tuberculosis, TB, challenges in Nigeria.

The theme of the workshop is ‘Empowering Young Champions to End TB:Flag off of the one minute silence for TB campaign’.

 

Among those who spoke at Debriche Health Development Center, DHDC 2024 volunteers workshop with support from Stop TB Partnership Geneva, in Abuja included, Director of Public Health, Ministry  of Health, Dr.

Chukwuma Anyaike, Chief Austin Obeifuna, Vice Board Chair, Stop T partnership, Geneva, Dr. Amos Omoniyi, National professional officer, World Health Organization, WHO, Nigeria, Dr.
Jemila Amin, Head of ACSM unit, National Tuberculosis  and Leprosy, and Buruli Ulcer Control Program, Nigeria, etc, in Abuja.  

Dr. Omoniyi, of WHO, who was represented by Dr Emmanuel Opeyemi, a national professional officer, WHO, in his presentation, titled ‘Role of Young Champions in advocacy, communication,social mobilization to end TB in Nigeria’, lamented the fact that in Nigeria, people die of TB in every 5 minutes, Nigeria is first in Africa .

He said 285,561, (59.6%), are notified our of 479,000 cases, 19,989 (26%), children are notified our of reported cases. 

Nigeria among 8 countries that accounted for two third of global TB case.

According to him, “TB is a concerning disease and 1 person is infected every minute.TB is number one killer in Nigeria today oner person die of TB every five minutes , that means in 1 hour about 20 person have gone, on 24 hours  

about 480 have died,and this is a disease that has been with us for over 100 years . TB is driven my mal nutrition and HIV, malnutrition is an open secret because Nigeria is poverty capital in the world. 

“Only 30% of Nigerians are aware of TB, in terms of right information. 71% of TB patients have to pay for one TB treatment service.  The youth sub group are very important in addressing the challenges of TB”.

The WHO professional officer said, even though Nigeria has achieved some feats in its fight against TB, “The youths engagement to fight TB has been sub optima, prior to now, a lot of efforts  has on in order to addressing the challenges of TB. 

In the past there has been  involvement of lots of stakeholders, cross section of the society  in addressing the challenges of TB but the involvement of youths who constitute the larger population in the society, is still very sub-optimal and that is why WHO through it ‘one plus one’ youth initiative’ is pushing for more youths involvement and more engagement to be able to address TB challenge. 

“Reach one, each one’ ,  ‘Reach one Teach one’,  ‘Teach one for each one’ ,   initiative. The initiative is a gateway to create the needed social supports (this address issues around discrimination  and stigmatization), awareness and mobilization, (this is about been able to reach out to the needed millions of youths that are needed to create awareness)”.

Bethrand Odume is the Executive Director of KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation Nigeria, said it imperative to address the issue of stigma especially in the rural area, through the use of youths in the communities. 

“stigma has actually become a key barrier to access to TB care. We know that most of us come from the village. We know that in the village,  people actually are not yet informed on the key fundamentals around TB disease. Some feel that it is  not curable, some feel 

 it’s related to witches and witch craft and  we all know it’s a preventable disease.

 “I think reaching out to people with the right information and empowering them would actually be a major way we will be able to prevent TB sigma. A lot of the youth now are on social media, which is why getting social media influencers, creating some of these apps that would impact on people and can share their opinions and some of these barriers. Stakeholders will be able to address some of these barriers that they face daily in accessing TB care”.

The Executive Director of DHDC,Deborah Ikeh, said her organization is trying to use the youths 

their voices,  their platforms to mobilise the needed awareness and the needed attention for TB.

She said, “We all know that lot of people do not know that this disease is treatable, curable and preventable. We heard during the presentation that only 30% of people are aware of TB signs and symptoms. This is a huge challenge. And that is why, mobilising young people and empowering them as champions to be advocates is very important because we want to leverage the platform of the young people, the voices, the movement of young people to be able to speak on these issues. For example today, we know that almost everyone is on social media”.

Dr Jamila, from Ministry of Health, said in order to fight the disease effectively the Federal Government, has made 

 TB tests, TB treatment for six months all free. 

“So you can walk into any government facility and get tested and get treated free of charge without having to spend a penny from your pocket” she noted.

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