Health
COVID-19: Nigeria to Take Delivery of 3.92 Doses of Astrazeneca Vaccine
Nigeria has been scheduled to take delivery of 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.
This was made known in a joint statement by the World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) on Sunday in Abuja.
The country was earlier set to receive its first four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from COVAX Facility, a global scheme to procure and distribute inoculations for free.
The COVAX Facility is co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, with UNICEF as a key implementing partner.
It was launched in April 2020 to help ensure a fairer distribution of coronavirus vaccines between rich and poor nations.
COVAX said it would deliver two billion doses to its members by the end of 2021.
According to the statement signed by WHO, UNICEF and NPHCDA, the delivery of 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine would mark the first arrival of COVID-19 vaccine in Nigeria.
It would also make Nigeria the next West African country to benefit from the COVAX Facility after Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
“The arrival of the vaccine will enable the NPHCDA to commence vaccination of Nigerians in priority groups, starting with frontline healthcare workers, the statement quoted Dr Faisal Shuaib, Executive Director and Chief Executive of NPHCDA, as saying.
The statement also quoted Shuaib as saying that arrival of the vaccine would be a result of the commitment of the Federal Government, support of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and guidance of the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire.
“We are fully prepared to receive and deliver the vaccine to eligible Nigerians, as we have commenced training of health workers and ensured that cold chain facilities are ready at all levels.
“We have a robust cold chain system that can store all types of COVID-19 vaccine in accordance with the required temperature.
“We are, therefore, confident that we will have a very effective roll-out of the vaccine, starting with our critical healthcare workers, who are in the frontline in providing the care we all need.”
The statement said that the doses of AstraZeneca vaccine were part of an overall 16 million doses planned to be delivered to Nigeria in batches over the next months by the COVAX Facility as part of an unprecedented global effort to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
“The COVAX Facility has worked exceptionally hard to ensure that Nigeria gets the vaccine as soon as possible so it can start its vaccination programme to the largest population in Africa,” it quoted Peter Hawkins, UNICEF Nigeria Country Representative, as saying.
According to the statement, vaccines are a critical tool in the battle against COVID-19.
“In the meantime, Nigerians must continue to take steps to contain the virus, as the vaccination programme will take at least a year before it is fully effective,” the statement quoted Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, WHO Representative in Nigeria, as saying.
NAN reports that Nigeria plans to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the citizens, aged 18 years and above, in four phases within two years.(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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