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Sep172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
500 Women Screened for Breast Cancer in Ilorin

500 Women Screened for Breast Cancer in Ilorin

NEWS
Five hundred women have benefited from a free-breast-cancer screening in Ilorin, in order to curb its prevalence. The Medical Director of Lifefount Hospital, Ilorin, Dr. Yemisi Adeyeye, told reporters that there was the need for women to be aware of the existence of the disease at its early stage. She said this is because women are usually the most affected victims and their early awareness of its existence in their breasts will lead to a cancer-free society. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-day medical outreach was organised by the hospital in collaboration with the African Research Group for Oncology. Adeyeye advised women to always embark on self-breast examinations through frequent checks of their breasts for lumps and other strange features around their breas...
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Sep172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Cuba to Produce Anti Diabetic Drugs in Nigeria, Awaits Licence

Cuba to Produce Anti Diabetic Drugs in Nigeria, Awaits Licence

NEWS
The Cuban Ambassador to Nigeria, Carlos Travor, has said that his country was awaiting a formal license for the production of a drug that will prevent amputation of limb of people suffering from diabetics. Travor also said that the Cuban government has supplied equipments for early detect of diseases like cancer and other ailments in Nigeria, adding that Cuban specialists will arrive in the country this week to train Nigerians on the use of the equipment currently installed at Alimosho in Lagos State. Speaking at a news conference to announce the sixth African Conference on solidarity with Cuba, the envoy said the drug which was produced in Nigeria by Cuban specialists has been undergoing clinical test in the country for the past one year. He said that once the approval is given, ...
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Sep172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
WHO Calls for Action to Reduce Patient Harm in Healthcare

WHO Calls for Action to Reduce Patient Harm in Healthcare

NEWS
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called for urgent action to combat patients harm, which causes millions of preventable deaths annually. WHO also called on countries to increase their investments and efforts toward reducing patient harm. Information gathered from WHO’s official website reveals that millions of patients are harmed each year due to unsafe health care worldwide. As part of the campaign, the organisation said it would host the first-ever World Patient Safety Day Sept. 17. The UN agency said the situation results in 2.6 million, mostly avoidable deaths, annually in low-and middle-income countries alone. According to Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, no one should be harmed while receiving health care. “Globally, at least five patients die every min
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Sep172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
NAFDAC Invents Technology to Track Fake Drugs

NAFDAC Invents Technology to Track Fake Drugs

NEWS
The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control said it had developed a more reliable platform to trace and track unregistered and substandard products in Nigeria. The agency stated that the technology would trace and monitor the movement of medicines from the manufacturer to the patients with bar coding to check the growing trend of substandard and falsified drugs and consumables in Nigeria. The Director-General NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, made this known during a press briefing in Abuja, ahead of the forthcoming 2nd African Healthcare Conference scheduled to hold in Lagos today (Tuesday). According to her, NAFDAC, through its collaboration with a firm, Global Standard 1, was working towards expanding its food and drugs authentication system in order to en...
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Sep162019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
FG Launches Strategic Roadmap for Action to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal & Neo-Natal Mortality

FG Launches Strategic Roadmap for Action to Accelerate Reduction of Maternal & Neo-Natal Mortality

NEWS
Despite all efforts by governments towards the reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality, women and children die endlessly. This concern made the Federal Ministry of health engage other stakeholders to develop a strategic roadmap to be a springboard to accelerate reduction of maternal and neonatal mortality. This roadmap aligns with existing policy document and the national strategy and is expected to guide implementation of key priority steps at the states and the community levels. The Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, stated this at the on-going 62nd National Council of Health, in Asaba, Delta State. In his speech, the Minister said that actualizing Sustainable Development Goals’(SDGs) targets on maternal and neonatal mortality is a great task for the health sector.
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Sep162019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
War Crime: World’s Health Professionals Call for an End to Syria Hospital Airstrikes

War Crime: World’s Health Professionals Call for an End to Syria Hospital Airstrikes

NEWS
The World Health Professions Alliance condemns the continuing targeted attacks on hospitals in Idlib province, in Syria’s north-west. Urgent action is needed to stop these airstrikes on hospitals which are deliberate and systematic and have claimed hundreds of lives and left millions of people without proper healthcare. WHPA Chair Catherine Duggan said: “The WHPA unanimously call for an end to hostile targeting of hospitals and health facilities in Syria. In line with the humanitarian efforts being afforded to all citizens in areas of conflict, we unanimously support the provision of care without risk to any health personnel.” Howard Catton, the CEO of ICN said: “The ICN, which represents nurses worldwide, condemns these continuing barbaric and cynical acts which amount to crimes against
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Sep162019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Young Pharmacists Commit to Fight against Drug Abuse

Young Pharmacists Commit to Fight against Drug Abuse

NEWS
Lagos State Coordinator, Young Pharmacists Group of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Funmbi Okoya, has said with cannabis use amongst students being as high as 21.2 per cent in parts of the country, young Nigerians should be given the necessary information to avoid drug abuse. Okoya said the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PFN) has played a vital role in the fight against drug abuse through various activities and initiatives. He stated that the most notable one has been the pharmacists’ partnership with the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for the Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA) project, a school-based programme aimed at informing children on the dangers of drug abuse; and parents on the signs to look out for; as well as rendering help to those al
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Sep162019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Red Cross Calls for Inclusive Response to Emergencies

Red Cross Calls for Inclusive Response to Emergencies

NEWS
Nigerians have been called upon to get involved in rapid response to emergencies to save lives and property, rather than wait for specific people. Anambra State chairman of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS), Professor Peter Katchy, made this call yesterday at First Aid Festival in Awka to mark the World First Aid Day, which was commemorated on September 14.Katchy said: “First aid is the primary assistance any person can give in times of need. You can give first aid; it is a skilled first-aider that provides the proper service. “Red Cross is always the first responder to emergency situations all over the world. In a situation where a vehicle or bush is burning, or somebody falls on the road, you don’t leave it until a Red Cross personnel comes around, before response can come. You can
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Sep162019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
NARD Bemoans Manpower Shortage In Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Benin

NARD Bemoans Manpower Shortage In Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Benin

NEWS
National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD), South-South Caucus, at the weekend bemoaned the chronic manpower shortage and the alleged refusal of the management of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Benin City, to employ resident doctors in the institution. This was contained in a communiqué issued by its leader, Dr. Emmanuel Osagiede, and his deputy, Dr. Godae Donbaridam, at the end of its meeting at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Port-Harcourt, and made available to newsmen in Benin City. “We reviewed the state of chronic manpower shortage and the refusal of the management of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Benin City, to employ resident doctors in the institution,” they said. The duo in the communiqué said the caucus reviewed the painful
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Sep132019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Health Minister, Delta Governor Say Rising Rates of Maternal, Infant Mortality Unacceptable

Health Minister, Delta Governor Say Rising Rates of Maternal, Infant Mortality Unacceptable

NEWS
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, and Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Thursday decried the “rising and unprecedented” rates of maternal and infant mortality in the country, and declared that the trend was “simply unacceptable”. The duo spoke at the opening ceremony of the 62nd National Council on Health (NCH), meeting in Asaba, Delta State. Ehanire, in his remarks, confirmed that in spite of global decline in maternal mortality in the Millennium Development Goals era, the rates of maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria were high and at an unprecedented rates. The meeting has the theme “Consolidating the Journey Towards Achieving Universal Health Coverage”.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), quotes the minister as saying that Nigeria’s maternal mortality rates remained among the
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Sep132019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Family, Society Can Combat Suicide – LUTH Boss

Family, Society Can Combat Suicide – LUTH Boss

NEWS
The Chief Medical Director of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Prof Chris Bode, has called on families to return to the culture of building a relationship with their children. Bode who was represented by the Chairman Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital, Prof Wasiu Adeyemo, made this call on Tuesday in Lagos at an event organised by the Suicide Research and Prevention Initiative to commemorate the 2019 World Suicide Prevention Day. He said, “So many years back, parents used to be very close to their children. But nowadays, parents are too busy to check on their children. Many parents are far away from their children, even when they are at home with them. For suicide to be combated, we must go back to the old ways of children confiding in parents. “We also have to rec
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Sep132019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
UI College of Medicine Ranks 4th in Africa

UI College of Medicine Ranks 4th in Africa

NEWS
Prof Olubunmi Olapade-Olaopa, the Provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, says the 71-year-old medical college has clinched the fourth position in Africa in the 2019 World University Ranking. Olapade-Olaopa, who disclosed this on Thursday in Ibadan while speaking with newsmen at the end of the Innovative Research Fair of the college, said the institution is also the first in sub-Saharan Africa. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the three-day fair had the tagline: “Innovation for Development.” According to the provost, the premier Nigerian college fell behind Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa as well as Cairo and Mansoura Universities in Egypt. Olapade-Olaopa said that the College of Medicine had inched forward from its previously held eighth
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Sep132019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Borno, WHO Move to Halt Spread of Diseases in Border Areas

Borno, WHO Move to Halt Spread of Diseases in Border Areas

NEWS
WHO, in its latest report on disease surveillance in Borno State, said it had engaged 1,180 community-based infromants to assist in cross-border surveillance and to report cholera and polio cases. “WHO Nigeria, in collaboration with the Borno State Primary Healthcare Development Agency has initiated several strategies for improving cross-border surveillance in inaccessible areas (Mobar, Guzamala and Abadam) bordering Nigeria and Diffa region of Niger republic,” the report said. WHO said the engement of the informants led to the discovery and timely report of 261 Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) cases from border areas inaccessible to health workers and vaccinators due to insurgency. WHO, said data from the informants have driven and guided the vaccination of about 3,000 children in communi
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Sep132019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
OAUTH to Tackle Maternal Mortality with N100m Equipment

OAUTH to Tackle Maternal Mortality with N100m Equipment

NEWS
Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile Ife, on Thursday received medical equipment worth over N100m. The donation, according to the Chief Medical Director of the teaching hospital, Professor Victor Adetiloye, would enable the hospital to effectively tackle the menace of maternal and infant mortality. Adetiloye, who announced the donation while inaugurating a new gate donated in memory of Lady Abigail Olayemi Fadahunsi by her children for Wesley Guild Hospital, Ilesha, one of the units of the OAUTH, said the equipment would not only aid efforts to minimise maternal and infant mortality, but would also assist in addressing other health challenges peculiar to women and children. He said, “About a year ago, Coca Cola West Africa visited the hospital to conduct needs assess
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Sep122019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
‘Mental Disorder Accounts For High Suicide Rate’

‘Mental Disorder Accounts For High Suicide Rate’

NEWS
A Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr Kafayat Ogunsola, has said mental disorder accounts for 90 per cent of suicide cases in the country. Ogunsola, who works at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, Lagos, spoke on the sidelines of the 2019 World Suicide Prevention Day. She said: “Ninety per cent of cases of suicide occur as a result of mental disorder; it is as a result of depression. There are some personalities in certain individuals; things happen to us from time to time and our ability to cope or deal with it is one of the reasons or determine who is able to overcome. We need to understand why people are committing suicide. “We need to understand the gender that commits it more, and what were the reasons, relationship, mental disorder and that is what we have be
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