Health

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has reacted to report by some sections of the media that there was an outbreak of wild poliovirus in some states. Reacting to the statement, the NPHCDA, Executive Secretary, Dr. Faisal Shuaibu disclosed that Nigeria has recorded 395 cases of circulating mutant poliovirus Type 2 (cMPV2) across 27 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The NPHCDA boss made this statement while reacting to the report in Abuja today; saying contrary to the report, what was recorded was not the Wild Polio Virus (WPV). That has been eradicated in the country since 2016, he said. 

A new variant of coronavirus has just been discovered in France; the variant was identified as B.1.640.2 and dubbed the IHU variant, and since has infected about 12 persons so far in France. According to a research journal published by French scientists of the Méditerranée infectious University Hospital Institute (IHU) France claimed the index case was first linked to a person who has a travel history to the Cameroun Republic. The statement reads, “The index case was an adult first diagnosed as infected with SARS-CoV-2 by real-time reverse transcription PCR (qPCR) performed in a private medical biology laboratory on a nasopharyngeal sample collected mid-November 2021,”

Amidst surging infection of the pandemic coronavirus Omicron variant amongst the populace leading to some fatalities, a health expert has lent their voice calling on the populace to turn up for vaccination. The call follows the outcry by some members of the public who laments that despite receiving the Covid-19 vaccine, people still get infected with some even dying from its severity.
In defense, the expert revealed that it was because of the vaccine received; otherwise, the fatalities would have been much higher than what we are seeing.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has yesterday warned that a blanket booster programme for covid-19 may likely prolong the pandemic and increase equity. The WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghabreyesus, gave this warning at the Geneva Headquarters of WHO yesterday while giving a brief for the end of the year. Ghabreyesus said, “No country can boost its way out of the pandemic.
He added, “And boosters cannot be seen as a ticket to go ahead with planned celebrations, without the need for other precautions,”
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Expert on Immunisation (SAGE) has in the interim issued some guidelines saying, mass programmes for countries that can afford it will worsen vaccine imbalance.

Following the protest by Nigeria and other nationals on placing the country on a red list by the United Kingdom Authorities (UK) over the Omicron variant, the UK authorities have rescinded their decision by removing Nigeria and 10 other countries from the list. The UK Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, made this known when he briefed the British Parliament today. Javid affirmed to the lawmakers that today by 04:00GMT all the 11 countries will be removed from the red list by England authorities. He explained to the parliament that the red list has been short-lived because it was found to have failed to checkmate the spread of the Omicron variant. The Health Secretary said, “So I can announce today that whilst we’ll maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel, we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4 am tomorrow.” Accordingly, Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are the Africa countries that made the red list. 

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has disclosed it confirmed a fresh 1,588 new cases of the coronavirus in the country. The health agency revealed this in their new update record of yesterday saying the cases were reported in 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.