Health
Nigeria, World Bank to Raise $30m for Vaccine Plant — Osinbajo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says Nigeria and the World Bank are collaborating to raise 30 million dollars to finance a vaccine plant.
Osinbajo spoke on Monday in Abuja at the International Conference on Health Access and Socio-Economic Development Beyond Covid-19: The First Multisectoral Approach to Solution Finding.
The conference was orgainsed by the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD).
He said the global trend in health had made it critical for Nigeria to establish its own vaccine production facilities.
“Nigeria is in talks with the World Bank’s private lending arm and other lenders to raise about 30 million dollars to help finance a vaccine plant.
“Bio-vaccine Nigeria Limited is chaired by Prof. Oyewale Tomori; 49 per cent of the company is owned by the Nigerian government with the balance held by May and Baker Nigeria PLC and they have plans to begin construction of a plant.
“ I believe in the first quarter of next year; the plant which is supposed to be located in Ota, Ogun State, will initially, we are told, fill and finish, which I’m also told, means importing the raw materials for the vaccines and then packaging them for distribution.
“Some South African companies are already involved in doing exactly that; I believe Aspen Pharmacare and Belvac Institute operate similar facilities.
“Full manufacturing, we are told, is expected to follow in the coming months or years; I am not entirely certain, when.
“So, it is evident that the way forward is more funding for healthcare and research for innovators to develop solutions in pharmaceuticals and medical consumables.’’
The vice president said that by the discussion he had with NIPRD Director-General, Dr Obi Adigwe, he was inspired by the potential and the kind of support that the pharmaceutical industry and research agencies would require.
Osinbajo said that the Federal Government had established the Healthcare Sector Intervention Fund Facility which had disbursed N76.9 billion, about 185 million dollars, to finance the acquisition and installation of critical medical care equipment.
He said that the fund was also for the expansion of production lines in various pharmaceutical companies across the country.
According to him, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is also supporting a number of research and development initiatives in the health sector as it had disbursed a total of N233 billion in grants.
Osinbajo said that NIPRD was also making immense contributions in developing local cure for COVID-19.
“NIPRD has also developed an impressive variety of pharmaceutical products from indigenous resources and both the Niprimune and Niprimune plus both of which I have the pleasure of seeing, have been found to posses reasonable property that are able to prevent or work against COVID-19.
“Both products, which have been registered by NAFDAC, are currently undergoing various levels of clinical studies towards approval for production for emergency use.
“The NIPRD Director-General, Dr Obi Adigwe, has assured that by this time next year, the institute will launch three new products currently under development at its Nanomedicine, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Centres.
“It is this proactive approach that we must take to the slow pace of vaccine access in Africa and of course, Nigeria.
“Although, we received help from some friendly nations and the Covax alliance, less than four per cent of our eligible population would have been vaccinated by the end of this year.
“There is no question that we cannot afford not to have own vaccine production facilities.’’
He said the COVID-19 pandemic was for him, an eye opener in five different respects—the unpreparedness of most developed economies; vaccine hesitancy and the danger of conspiracy theory and false information, especially in public health crisis.
Osinbajo said that the fourth eye opener was that, in terms of global health crisis on the scale of the COVID-19, help should not be expected.
“The fifth eye opener is that despite infrastructural weaknesses, we in Nigeria have an experienced and robust public health system, peopled by some of the best personnel anywhere in the world.
“` But more importantly, we have an opportunity to become one of the leading nations in healthcare,’’ he said.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Adigwe said that the conference was the first of its kind to gather multidisciplinary scholars to engage, innovate and synthisise new approaches to solving global health challenges.
The keynote speaker, Prof. Joseph Fortunak, who spoke virtually, said that COVID-19 exposed the vulnerability of pharmaceutical supply chain and urged Nigeria to take the manufacture of drugs seriously.(NAN)
Health
Millions of Children Experience Daily Domestic Violence in Schools, Homes Globally – WHO
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)Health
WHO Identifies 17 Pathogens as Top Priorities for new Vaccine Development
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)Health
UCH JOHESU Suspends Strike
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)