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May212019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Why 14% of Babies Face Poor Health Future, by Studies

Why 14% of Babies Face Poor Health Future, by Studies

NEWS
One in seven children born with low weight will develop chronic diseases in adulthood More babies are likely to be born with low birth weight and face a future of poor health by developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart failure, hypertension and psychiatric disorders, among others if nothing is done urgently. A new study undertaken by researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organisation (WHO), showed that over 20 million babies were born with less than 2500 gramme; 5.5 pounds in 2015 translating to about one in seven of all global births. The study, which involved 148 countries and 281 million births and published in The Lancet Global Health journal, noted that almost three-...
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May212019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
1000 Indigent Persons to Get Free Medical Service in Edo

1000 Indigent Persons to Get Free Medical Service in Edo

NEWS
The Imalu Airiemhionkha Ebhoaye Memorial Foundation yesterday said it will provide free medical services to 1,000 persons in Igueben Local Government Area of Edo State. It explained that the programme is aimed at improving the standard of living and access to healthcare for indigent community members. Its founder, Chief Frederick Airiemhionkha, who disclosed this at Igueben, said the Foundation was established to commemorate his late mother’s legacy in the service of God and a lobe to render humanitarian services. He also revealed the foundation’s plans to award scholarship to no fewer than100 Igueben indigent students to any level of their education. Airiemhionkha said the free medical care was designed to assist the poor in Igueben, especially persons who could not afford modical care.
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May212019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Health Workers Sue Akeredolu Over Demotion, Salary Reduction

Health Workers Sue Akeredolu Over Demotion, Salary Reduction

NEWS
Health workers in the Ondo State Civil Service have dragged Governor Rotimi Akeredolu to the National Industrial Court in Akure, the state capital, for allegedly demoting them and deducting their salaries illegally. Other defendants in the suit are the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and the Ondo State Local Government Service Commission. It was gathered that the workers, who were said to be over 2,000 across the 18 local government areas of the state, alleged that the defendants had been shortchanging them since 2013. It was also learnt that the claimants, who were employed by the Ondo State Local Government Service Commission as health workers, were tactically demoted since 2013 as they were being paid as administration officers, which had led to the reduction of t...
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May212019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Community Pharmacists Seek Govt Attention to Tackle Fake Drugs

Community Pharmacists Seek Govt Attention to Tackle Fake Drugs

NEWS
The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria, ACPN, has reiterated calls for better funding of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC and other regulatory agencies involved in pharmacy practice. The calls came as the Association refuted claims that the incidence of drug faking in Nigeria had risen to 70 percent, noting that the initial submission of 70 percent was a mutilation of the documented figure of 17 percent. Stating this position in a signed statement, Pharm Samuel Adekola and Pharm Bose Idowu, National Chairman and National Secretary of the ACPN respectively, debunked the claims as false and dangerous and tasked government to rise up to the situation. “We strongly urge the Federal government to commence full implementation of the Nationa
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May212019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Okorocha Gives Hospitals to Muoka, Churches, Others on Lease

Okorocha Gives Hospitals to Muoka, Churches, Others on Lease

NEWS
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, yesterday, leased out some of the state-owned hospitals to religious bodies, and security agencies with Pastor Lazarus Muoka’s Lord Chosen being among the beneficiaries. Muoka was given the abandoned Ohaji/Egbema General Hospital to manage for 25 years with a monthly payment of N100,000 to the state government. Same applies to the Anglican diocese of Orlu, which got the Orlu General Hospital. The 32 artillery brigade, Obinze was allowed to manage the Owerri West General Hospital, while the Ngor Okpala and Owerri North General Hospital were handed over to the Airforce and the Navy respectively. The governor said the action was in line with his Public Private Partnership (PPP) economic policy of his administration to expand the scope of governance and
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May212019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
NDLEA Opposes Akeredolu on Cannabis, Destroys 3,900 Hectares in Ondo

NDLEA Opposes Akeredolu on Cannabis, Destroys 3,900 Hectares in Ondo

NEWS
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has said it never advocated the growth of cannabis sativa for medicinal purpose or economic gain, adding that it had destroyed 3,900 hectares of cannabis sativa in Ondo State. The NDLEA Chairman, Col. Muhammad Abdallah (retd), stated this on Monday, noting that he and the Ondo State Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, did not go to Thailand to learn how to grow cannabis sativa for economic gain, as being reported in some quarters. The governor was reported on Saturday as saying the state government was planning to take advantage of the commercial value of the plant to create jobs for the youth. He urged the Federal Government to support cannabis cultivation in large quantities in Ondo, saying the trade would boost the state’s Internally Generated Reven
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May202019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Obaseki Urges Support for Interventions to Save Lives

Obaseki Urges Support for Interventions to Save Lives

NEWS
The Chief Medical Director of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Edo State, Prof. Darlington Obaseki, on Tuesday appealed to well meaning Nigerians to save lives by providing financial support in the way of ‘intervention funds’ for quality healthcare delivery in the country. Obaseki said this yesterday in Benin while speaking with journalists as part of activities marking the inaugural founders day and launching of endowment fund for the hospital. He said: “UBTH is the only hospital in the sub Sahara African to carry out stem cell transplantation. Yes, we have set back after the initial successful transplant due to poor funding. Some things like this supposed to have interventional fund but non availability of interventional fund has crippled the stem cell centre,” he sai
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May202019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Ebola in Congo Questions Nigeria’s Readiness on Outbreaks

Ebola in Congo Questions Nigeria’s Readiness on Outbreaks

NEWS
Besides the loss of many lives, outbreaks of pandemics or epidemics could cost Nigeria trillions of naira if adequate preparations are not made to contain health emergencies. A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease while an epidemic is a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time. Last month, the World Health Organisation raised the alarm that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was spreading at a disturbing rate. “The increased transmission rates witnessed recently continue to demonstrate a heightened risk of Ebola Virus Disease spreading to other neighbouring provinces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and to surrounding countries,” a spokesman of the global health body said last week. Nigeria in 2014 w
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May202019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Govs Neglect Health Care As State Hospitals Rot Away

Govs Neglect Health Care As State Hospitals Rot Away

NEWS
Like teaching hospitals, state hospitals across the country are fast collapsing following the neglect of the health facilities by the state governors, The PUNCH investigations have revealed. Findings by our correspondents across the country showed that buildings in many of the hospitals were in a state of disrepair while the health institutions lacked equipment as well as basic consumables needed to treat patients. Investigations also revealed that the conditions of some of the hospitals were worsened by unhealthy and dirty environment. General hospitals in Ogun, Anambra, Edo, Enugu, Ekiti, Gombe, Cross River, Benue, Osun and other states visited by our correspondents were in short supply of hand gloves, face masks, drip stands, wheelchairs and stationery for recording patients’ compla
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May202019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
FG classifies patent medicine vendors into three tiers

FG classifies patent medicine vendors into three tiers

NEWS
…To issue Essential Medicine List in September The Federal Government says the seventh edition of the Nigerian Essential Medicine List and Essential Medicine List for Children will be inaugurated in September. The Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, made this known at the stakeholders meeting for the review of the Approved Patent Medicines List on Saturday in Abuja. Adewole noted that its inauguration would ensure access to quality healthcare and curb chaotic drug distribution. The meeting was organised by the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria in collaboration with Pathfinder International and Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health @Scale Project. The minister said that the list when inaugurated would serve as a guide for those in the pharmaceutical sector on the type of
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May172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Adamawa Kicks Off Health Insurance Scheme

Adamawa Kicks Off Health Insurance Scheme

NEWS
Governor Mohammed Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State has inaugurated a contributory health insurance programme for the state with a commitment of government to pay for the poor. While launching the scheme at the Government House in Yola this week, he said government would support those who are unable to contribute due to financial inadequacy because the programme is meant to would provide health insurance coverage for all residents of the state irrespective of their financial capacities. “The aim of the scheme is to create a platform for the collection of contributions from all citizens who are willing and able to pay. In addition, it will provide governmental support for those who are unable to contribute due to financial inadequacy. Overall, the scheme is intended to pool resources t
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May172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Doctors Unveil First Child Blast Wound Manual

Doctors Unveil First Child Blast Wound Manual

NEWS
Doctors and rights activists unveiled on Thursday the world’s first field manual for the treatment of child casualties from explosions, which they say cause almost three-quarters of juvenile deaths and injuries in war zones. The guide was put together by British aid agency Save the Children and experts at Imperial College London at the request of Syrian medics working in the bloody eight-year civil war. “It starts from the point when something goes ‘bang’ and a child is exposed to that explosion,” former British army surgeon Paul Reavley, one of the the manual’s authors, told AFP. “It then follows the child on a care pathway and focuses on the key differences of children compared to adults,” Reavley said ahead of the launch at the Peace Palace in The Hague. Save the Children said suicid
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May172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Oshiomhole: I Would Have Sued Doctors Who Wrongly Diagnosed My Wife

Oshiomhole: I Would Have Sued Doctors Who Wrongly Diagnosed My Wife

NEWS
The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has called for a review of Nigeria’s medical system so that doctors treat patients only in their areas of competence. He said wrong diagnoses could be prevented by governments if it provides robust regulations on the health system. The APC national chairman spoke at the Founders Day and launching of an endowment fund of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). He said his late wife, Clara, died due to wrong diagnoses.Oshiomhole said he would have sued the doctors if it were in another terrain because his wife was a victim of medical quackery. He said: “You visit a hospital, one doctor is a gynaecologist, psychologist, paediatric, and the doctor treats everything. My wife was unf
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May172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
Lagos Takes HIV/AIDS Campaign to Religious Leaders

Lagos Takes HIV/AIDS Campaign to Religious Leaders

NEWS
For awareness about HIV/AIDS to further reach the people at the grassroots, the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency engages religious leaders in the state in a two-day sensitisation workshop on how to prevent the virus and handle stigmatisation issues, reports Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF. In times past, getting infected with HIV was the equivalent of a death sentence. But this is not the case anymore, says Dr. Oluseyi Temowo, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Lagos State AIDS Control Agency (LSACA). Having HIV is no more a life sentence, especially if the person eats well as recommended and takes all the drugs as prescribed. As far as Dr. Temowo is concerned, it is tantamount to committing a crime for anybody to die of HIV/AIDS in Lagos. This, according to him, is because the stat...
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May172019 by PharmaTimesNo Comments
‘Our Services Have Improved Healthcare Outcomes’

‘Our Services Have Improved Healthcare Outcomes’

NEWS
MeCure Healthcare Limited has said its ten years of operating in Nigeria have contributed immensely to the development of the country’s healthcare system through improved healthcare outcomes. This was the position of the management of the diagnostics giant as the company celebrated its first 10 years in the country. While rededicating itself to better service delivery, the company promised to increase its contributions towards quality service in diagnostics, optometry, pharmaceutical and oncology for improved and better patients’ outcomes. As part of activities to mark the anniversary, MeCure launched its new innovative product, ‘MeCure Smart Buy,’ to ensure Nigerians access healthcare easily at their convenience. Explaining the significance of the milestone, Dr. Obiefuna Ajie, chief
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