Health

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) is in partnership with the Global Fund to launch a comprehensive three-month sensitisation programme, with a dedicated focus on tackling the prevailing gender and human rights challenges that significantly affect individuals living with or affected by HIV. The Director of NACA, Gambo Aliyu, in a statement issued on Thursday, said the collaborative effort aims to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all individuals affected by HIV, marking a significant step forward in the battle against the virus.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, NCDC, has today revealed that it has recorded about 1,068 cases of Lassa fever infection across 112 local government areas in 28 states across the nation. NCDC disclosed this through its official website today in its Lassa fever situation report for week 37 in its sequence of reporting which is effective (Sept. 11 – 17, 2023).

The Federal Government has recorded 453 deaths and 11,587 suspected cases of diphtheria in the country with 7,202 confirmed cases from 105 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in 18 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This comes as the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate reportedly established a national emergency task team. A breakdown of the figure showed that Kano State accounted for 6,185, Yobe (640), Katsina (213), Borno (95), Kaduna (16), Jigawa (14), Bauchi (8), Lagos (8), FCT (5), Gombe (5), Osun (3), Sokoto (3), Niger (2), Cross River (1), Enugu (1), Imo (1), Nasarawa (1) and Zamfara (1).

Ogun state government has raised alarm over the outbreak of cholera in Ijebu North Local Government Area of the state. It was reported that four persons have lost their lives to the disease in the LGA. In a statement on Sunday signed by Tomi Coker, Special adviser to the governor on health, the state government asked residents to report any familiar cases of frequent stooling and vomiting. The government also requested residents to be wary of the types of foods and drinks they consumed.

The Federal Government (FG) through the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, has set-up an emergency taskforce to curb the spread of diphtheria in the country according to a press statement issued on Thursday by Pate’s Special Assistant on Media and External Relations, Tashikalmah Hallah.

A new study involving reports from more than 700,000 U.S. veterans theorised that people who adopt the undermentioned healthy lifestyle habits by middle age can expect to live substantially longer than those with few or none of these habits. These habits include: being physically active, avoiding smoking, properly managing stress, being free from opioid addiction, having a good diet, not regularly binge drinking, having good sleep hygiene, and having positive social relationships. According to the results, men who have all eight habits at age 40 would be predicted to live an average of 24 years longer than men with none of these habits. For women, having all these healthy lifestyle factors in middle age was associated with a predicted 21 additional years of life compared to women with none of these habits.