Health

A disease outbreak suspected to be a viral haemorrhagic fever (Lassa fever) has claimed the lives of three staff of 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, Kaduna. The revelation was contained in a letter originated from the office of the Acting Commander Nigerian Army Medical Corps and copies were circulated to all Nigerian Army healthcare facilities across the country. According to the letter, “The Accident and Emergency (A&E) Department of 44 NARHK has witnessed the loss of three members of staff and a patient in the last 48 hours with some in critical condition. 

Following the surge in cases of kidney failure in the sub-saharan Africa which its major cause is yet to be identified, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated for the National Assembly to enact a legislative that will support people with kidney disease and enact laws on the emerging organ harvesting and trafficking in Nigeria. Obasanjo was speaking yesterday during the 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Scientific Conference of the National Association of Nephrology with the theme: “Optimising Dialysis Therapy To Prolong Survival”, at the main auditorium of the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State. 

The federal government has hinted its intension to ban the use of Styrofoam and single-use plastic goods in all ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs). Minister of state for environment, Iziaq Salako, gave the directive during a workshop and capacity building for chemicals and waste handlers conducted today, January 30, in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state.

Pope Francis has yesterday advocated for a global ban on surrogacy, saying the practice of a woman carrying another person’s child was “deplorable.” Surrogacy is the act of a woman having a baby for another woman who is unable to do so herself, and the later will lay claim to the baby. The catholic leader in his New Year address to diplomats at the Vatican said it was a “grave violation of the dignity of the woman and the child”. 

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has revealed it has secured a pre-qualification approval for the agency’s Yaba laboratory, Lagos State, as a Central Drug Control Laboratory, CDCL, in Nigeria. The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known during a news conference in Abuja on today Thursday. According to her, the World Health Organisation, WHO had recently Okayed its CDCL located in Lagos for its onwards testing of drugs.

President Bola Tinubu has expressed worry over the mass exodus of health workers who are leaving the country in search of greener pastures elsewhere around the world blaming the country policies for the exile. Special Adviser to president Tinubu on Public Health Matters, Salma Anas, expressed worry on behalf of the president today during the 2023 annual conference of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists in Abuja, themed ‘Universal health coverage: The medical laboratories priority in Nigeria.’