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The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday officially certified Cape Verge as a malaria-free country in a significant achievement for global health. This is a substantial victory especially given that the mosquito-borne disease continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people on the continent, said the WHO. Cape Verde is the third country in the WHO African region to attain this status, following Mauritius and Algeria, certified in 1973 and 2019, respectively. Globally, only 43 nations have been certified as Malaria-free by the WHO. This feat has therefore placed Cape Verde among the elite group that has received such certification from the WHO. For this certification, a country has to prove that the domestic chain of transmission has been broken for at least three consecutive years.

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has revealed that diphtheria and tetanus are threatening pregnant women. The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr. Muyi Aina, made the revelation on Tuesday in an interview with journalists in Abuja. Aina, who emphasized that timely immunisation was urgently recommended for the safety of pregnant women and their babies said recent cases have shown a direct correlation between these infections and the loss of unborn babies prompting a call for urgent action. Tetanus is a fatal bacterial infection caused by clostridium tetani bacterium. It typically enters the body through wounds or cuts and produces a toxin that affects the nervous system. Tetanus is characterised by muscle stiffness and spasms, often starting in the jaw, hence the term “lockjaw”, and spreading to other muscles.

The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC has noted a raise in Lassa fever cases in the last weeks of 2023 with lower casualties contrast to previous year.

It is well known that adding salt regularly to your food raises the risk of hypertension and the resultant risks of heart attacks and strokes. But now, researchers in New Orleans, USA, have found that it also significantly increases the danger of triggering Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The study, which involved 465,288 participants, showed that a higher self-reported frequency of adding salt to foods, a common eating behaviour shaped by a person’s long-term preference for salty taste in foods and habitual salt intake, was significantly associated with an increased risk of CKD. In the paper, published in JAMA Network, the team found that people who added salt to their foods were also more likely than those who did not add salt to their foods to be current smokers and have diabetes or CKD at baseline.

Dr. Olusimbo Ige, a Nigerian, has become the first-ever black female to be appointed as the Commissioner, Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, disclosed this in a congratulatory message to Dr Ige. In the congratulatory statement shared yesterday, Dabiri-Erewa described Ige’s milestone as “extraordinary”, saying: “History made! Congrats to the first black woman in the History of Chicago Dept. of Public Health to be appointed as Commissioner.”

The Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, has given the federal government till Jan 31, 2024, to implement the upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure, CONMESS. President of the association, Dr Uche Ojinmah, gave the ultimatum on Sunday during the closing ceremony of the association’s National Executive Council, NEC, meeting in Abuja. Ojinmah stressed that the association cannot guarantee industrial harmony after the ultimatum if the government fails to meet their demands amongst which is the upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure. While stressing how doctors have been making great sacrifices he further urged the government to implement the newly approved accruement allowance with arrears from June 2022.