Health

Following the halting of the ‘United States Agency For international Development, USAID support internationally, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) on behalf of the Nigerian government has confirmed that treatment for HIV in the country shall remains free. The Director-General of NACA, Temitope Ilori, reaffirm the government commitment yesterday in Asaba, Delta State, after inaugurating the Paediatric Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV Accelerated Committee (PPAC).

Dr. Sam Adegboye, a urologist and Assistant Chief Medical Officer at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Ido-Ekiti, has dismissed the claim that frequent breast sucking can prevent breast cancer. In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Dr. Adegboye addressed common myths surrounding breast cancer. He emphasized that there’s no scientific evidence to support the idea that breast sucking reduces cancer risk. Instead, he urged women to focus on proven preventive measures, such as adopting a healthy lifestyle and performing regular breast self-examinations. He recommended watching instructional videos online to learn proper self-examination techniques. Dr. Adegboye also warned that hormonal changes caused by certain contraceptives during adolescence may increase the risk of breast cancer. He explained that hormonal imbalances can lead to abnormal pain or tissue growth in the breasts.

Nigerian health workers under the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) and Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) have demands full implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (Mol) signed between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Unions on the 29th October, 2024, after a conciliation meeting at the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has raised the alarm over a looming shortage of live-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) HIV drugs in eight countries including Nigeria and Kenya. This follows the US government’s recent decision to pause foreign aid. US President Donald Trump announced the freeze on his first day in office in January as part of a review into government spending. "Disruptions to HIV programmes could undo 20 years of progress," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned. According to Ghebreyesus the development could also lead to over 10 million additional cases of HIV and three million HIV-related deaths, noting this was "more than triple the number of deaths last year".

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has reported a drop in new Lassa fever cases for Epidemiological Week 9 (February 24 – March 2, 2025). Despite this, the fatality rate remains high at 18.7%, with 100 deaths recorded so far this year. According to the NCDC’s latest report, 29 new cases were confirmed in nine states, a significant decrease from the 54 cases reported in the previous week. The affected states are Ondo, Bauchi, Edo, Taraba, Ebonyi, Plateau, Cross River, Nasarawa, and Enugu. Most confirmed cases came from three states: Ondo (31%), Bauchi (24%), and Edo (17%), highlighting these areas as the outbreak's epicentre.

Following the outbreak of Dihtheria disease that has claimed a student life at kings collage Lagos, the Principal of the College, Mogaji Zakaria, says the school has put measures in place to curb the spread and contraction of the diseases. It was learned that a death of a Junior Secondary School student was recorded following the disease outbreak in the school; this is as other students of other popular Nigerian government-owned school suffered similar incident where scores of students were hospitalized.