Tag: health

  • Soka gets health centre

    Soka gets health centre

    While the stigma of hosting the forest of horror in Ibadan before it was dismantled by government still lingers for residents of Soka in the Oyo State capital, the people of the community are moving on with their lives as they recently commissioned a health centre they built. TAYO JOHNSON reports.

    Not many expected any good news to come out of Soka in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital so soon after the infamous discovery of an ‘evil’ forest littered with decomposed bodies and dozens of human parts in the community.

    But residents of the Oluyole Local Government Area community capital seem to have put the stigma of that discovery behind them and are moving on with their lives.

    A couple of weeks ago, the residents in their hundreds converged on Ire Akari Estate in the area to commission a Community Health Centre, the foundation of which was laid on June 8, 2010. The facility expected to serve the primary health needs of the people of the estate as well as 27 other communities comprising of 140 villages in the area was officially commissioned by a former chairman of the estate, Mr. Olayele Fasedemi, a business mogul.

    The businessman made some promises at the ceremony which include; donation of a bus, electricity generating set, drugs, medical equipment and money to the health centre.

    The residents were over joyous when the medical officer in Oluyole Local Government, Dr. Zainab Hamzat, announced that the council had transferred a midwife to work at the health centre. Hamzat also said the council would look into the possibility of sending doctors to the health facility soon.

    Although the residents expressed joy at the opening of the health facility as they would no longer have to travel for about 10 kilometres to access public healthcare, but they were still very sad that the road that leads to the health centre was in a bad shape.

    They wanted the government to adequately equip the health facility in order to complement the hospital beds, tables and chairs, examination couch, drugs and other medical equipments donated by individuals and corporate organizations to the centre.

    They therefore appealed to the Chairman of Oluyole Local Government, Mr. Abass Aleshinloye, and Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State to come to their aid.

    Lauding the initiative, the Chairman, Ire-Akari Landlords Association, Alhaji Abdulrasaq Fadahunsi, told The Nation that he “used to go from here to Ring Road to access medical care. But the presence of this health facility has changed that now. In the centre, we have delivery bed, examination bed, drugs and we are still looking up to government to provide major equipment for this centre.

    “Everything we have here is on personal donations by individuals, groups and through communal efforts from the residents. The estate donated the land and we did the foundation. The government erected the building and painted it. We still want to do flooring of the compound and the fence. Also, we need a borehole from the government for the centre.ý But the major cry of all residents of this area is the deplorable state of the roads in the estate. We have sent a SOS message to the chairman of the local government, Mr. Abass Aleshinloye. He has promised that he would do it. But he has not done it.

    “The roads are almost impassable now. From Idi-Mango where we have the health centre to the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the journey used to take about five minutes when the road was good, but now it takes at least 20 minutes.”

    Also, the pioneer general secretary of the estate, Mr. Olawale Smith Ogunlaja, stated that the foundation of the health centre was laid on June 8, 2010, after the community sought the assistance of the Community Development Council of Oluyole Local Government, under the state Ministry of Women and Social Welfare.

    According to him, the benefits attached to the presence of the health centre in the estate will cut across all the nooks and crannies of the area.

    Recalling the situation before the opening of the health centre, Ogunlaja said:”In the past, we were without health centre within this area. Then, we used to take our wives and children to Academy, where we had the nearest Primary healthcare Centre of Oluyole Local Government. It is about 10 kilometres to this estate.

    “Since the inception of this area, we have never benefitted anything from the government. I am appealing to the government to fix our roads. We want the government to fix Abuja Way, which links Ire-Akari to Idi-Mango Road. It is about two kilometres. Then, the road that comes into the community through Soka also needs urgent attention,”

    Vice chairperson of the community, Mrs. F.F. Akinwande, said since the foundation of the health centre was laid four years ago, little or nothing was done until a prominent member of the estate, Engineer Fawole, decided to leverage on his influence to ensure the erection of the building.

    “To set the health centre in operation, the landlords of Ire Akara Estate have done a tremendous work both in cash and in kind. Some individuals surprised us by their donations both in cash and kind. Some of the churches and the Central Mosque within the estate also played vital roles by their donations.” said she

    Former chairman of the estate, who began the project, Mr. Olayele Fasedemi, said the health centre would serve the eight communities in the estate, and 19 other communities, comprising 140 villages.

    He also expressed his sadness on the deplorable state of the road that leads to the health centre which has not been fixed by the government, adding that the stretch of the road from Soka to Ire-Akari Estate has become an eyesore.

    Fadesanmi said:”We want the government to please look at us with mercy. Nobody wants to come and visit us any longer because of the deplorable road. We can’t invite our friends because we are ashamed to invite them to our houses because the roads are impassable. To get to Soka from my place, which should take five minutes, now takes about 20 minutes,”

    Some of the highlight of the ceremony included a lecture on Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) and hypertension by Dr. Zainab Hamzat, the medical officer at Oluyole Local Government.

    On EVD

    She enlightened members of the community on preventive measures against the virus such as personal hygiene, cleanliness, environmental sanitation, regular hand washing with soap with running water and avoiding contact with faeces, urine, vomits, sweat and saliva of sick persons.

    “Anyone who has open wound should please cover it so that the wound will not contaminate the environment. EVD does not have cure for now, but early detection of it will help in curtailing the spread of the virus. So, if anyone in the community manifested symptoms suggestive of EVD, the community should urgently contact the local government,” Hamzat advised.

    The doctor also described hypertension as a common ailment that does not show on faces of people, urging adults to ensure regular medical screening to know whether they are hypertensive or not.

    “If you want to prevent hypertension, the importance of lifestyle modification cannot be overemphasised apart from administration of drugs. What we eat has a lot to do with our health. I advise adults to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. They should avoid smoking and taking alcohol and they should do a lot of exercise. This will also help hypertensive patients to respond to treatment.” Hamzat stated.

  • Brain health and mass failure in Maths, English (1)

    If I am the Minister of Health, I would prescribe that Nigerians take Ginkgo biloba tea, capsules or tincture two times a day, to save them from memory loss. This herb, from the world’s oldest tree which is billions of years old, according to carbon dating, has been shown to promote micro blood circulation in the brain and improve memory even among old people who tend to forget almost everything, including their own names.

    In Nigeria, the memory tends to be short. Not many people remember today that, only a few years ago, some people in high places pocketed money voted for children’s drugs in hospitals. Have we not easily forgotten, also, the petrol scandal in which billions of Naira was paid by the government to petrol hawkers who did not supply it a drop of petrol? What about the pension money of poor workers which has ended up in private bank accounts? It is ridiculous that no one remembers this, and the press does not remind us of it when stories are published of old pensioners who slump and die in blazing African sun while protesting unpaid pensions! We wouldn’t be Nigerians if we easily remember that only a few weeks ago we were bemoaning to high heavens the 69 percent failure in the last “O” Level examinations! It was the first time so many boys and girls would be unable to score at worst an “O” Level “Pass” in Maths and English Language. These are a sort of “life or death” subjects in Nigerian’s ‘O’ Level education. Employers regard candidates without a credit pass in both, no better than semi-literate persons. And the universities would not touch them with long poles. This boys and girls would, therefore, appear stuck in life, useless to self and country.

    On a more serious note, I would prescribe Ginkgo biloba along with other brain health food supplements which may help to “open” up the brains of schoolboys and girls. But the matter goes beyond this, as we may soon discover.

    Mass “O” Level failure in Mathematics and English Language is not peculiar to Nigeria. It happens in England as well. Prince Charles, future king of England if he survives his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, has been lamenting in public that the average English boy and girl cannot write or speak Queen’s English any more. They hate mathematics as well. Worse still, they hate school and homework. It would appear an upcoming generation is redefining society and overturning the foundations of society. Someday, if the trend persists, Britain would become a slack country and may go under.

    Unlike in Nigeria, however, hardly is anything forgotten in Britain. Researchers went to work. Why are dull students dull despite healthy parenting, which is often lacking here, teacher and child support, they wanted to know. The investigations led them to check if brain nutrition was adequate. In one of the experiments designed to test this guess, omega-3 fish oil, an essential fatty acid thought to be deficient in the diet of many school children, was supplied free by the government to some groups of dull students during a long vacation. One of the guinea pigs was a boy named BEST. He hated school and homework, had short attention spans, fidgeted in the classroom and disturbed his colleagues. As was to be expected, he was a dreg in his class. During that long vacation, he had plenty of Omega-3 oils in his diet. No one thought much of the experiment or gave it any chance until, back in school, BEST clinched a digit position in the first examination. In their headlines, the newspapers roared: ‘BEST IS BEST’. Many dreg students like him also swung up in examinations.

     

     Language

    Sociologists teach us language summarises a people’s culture. Spiritually we know culture is the nature of human essence or ego, the so-called overself, the human spirit. I still do not know how, as a child, I learned the language of my parents, and speak it. But I know

    • The spoken language is derived from sounds put together to form words which give meaning to existence.

    What we call the Universe is a work in Creation filled with sounds and colours, from top to bottom. These sounds and colours derive from the radiations or vibrations of the activities of Nature beings who brought the Universe about upon the Creators command. We cannot see them easily nowadays because our vision has become too dense. But we cannot on this account deny their existence. In any case, do we see the air we breathe or the heat of sunlight? We see colours because they fall within the spectrum of light the eyes can see. These colours are waves. Waves produce sounds. Sounds, too, produce colours. Clairvoyants tell us our thoughts, invisible to us as they are, solidify into forms, also unseen, and emit sounds and colours. When we immune cells see and fight germs, how do they do it? Do they have eyes? No. every cell of the body of about 100 trillion cells in the average adult human emits waves of energy or vibrations. And because they all originated from a single fertilise egg, the zygote, they broadcast their existence or where about on a common frequency. Different germs do the same but on different frequencies. So, immune cells are able, through this signaling, to differentiate the body from its enemies, except a mishap occurs as in auto immune diseases. What occurs in the microscopic cells occur in the gigantic universe. The planets and other heavenly bodies, including the stars, maintain their unique pathways in so-called space through gravitational forces of mutual attraction and repulsion which maintain sanity. There forces are waves, waves make sounds, and sounds express as colours!

    This is an interesting field Dr Alex Thomopolous, Chief Executive Officer of The Guardian Newspapers Limited (GNL) may spend a whole day talking about it. In the universe, there are many spheres of existence. Each one, from the bottom to the top, is a different force field, which means it is of a different sound and colours. Higher spheres have richer sounds and colours than lower spheres, because their motion is stronger. The higher we go, the stronger this colours and sounds. The lower we descend the more sluggish and dull they are. Some animals hear these sounds and see the colours. The cock, for example, crows at specific time of the day, say 4 p.m and at dawn, giving us an indication of time. Didn’t many animals migrate before the tsunami? The Old Testament of the Bible reports an incident in which the horse on which a man named Baalam declined to heed his command to hop on. The horse was stationary despite his command to the contrary. Its eyes were seeing astral ethereal events which the restricted physical eyes of Baalam could not behold. Suddenly, says the report, the inner or ethereal eyes of Baalam were permitted to open. He saw some beings in an activity in which fire was erupting from inside the earth. In error, he called them Angels. We now know they were Nature Beings, who were trying to prepare that portion of land for the future use of a people who would be led there. The astral form of that event was taking shape. Maybe it would express as an earthquake someday. Maybe there were trying to alchemically transmute the soil to some mineral resources. The horse saw them and Baalam did not. Had he lived in this part of the earth, he may have called them witches out to harm him. For many of us know no better than this.

    We must quickly return to how all these are involved in the evolution of language and of how unfolding generations world-wide are failing massively in language education as evidenced in the 69 percent failure in Nigeria’s 2014 “O” Level English Language examination. The earth is a spiritual school in one part of our universe. The level of the inner or spiritual development of individuals or a people connects them to that sphere of the universe which corresponds to the degree of their maturity. We get a faint picture of this from what happens during the refinement of crude petroleum. (is Mr Wale Ajila Listening?)

    At different degrees of heat or pressure or friction, different products emerge… aviation fuel, regular motor oil, diesel, kerosene, grease, engine oil, petroleum jelly etc. As individuals and whole people or generations differentiate in this earth school, they become automatically connected to the spheres of the universe homogeneous with their kinds. There spheres, they become acquainted with sounds and colours prevenient there. From these vibrations words were formed. Often, helpers were sent (incarnated) to help them develop the language. The work of Martin Luther in respect of the German Language has been recongnised in this regard. The Germans recognise fears as high as Olympus and Valhalla. When, today, I read the Yoruba Bible, and match its language with the Yoruba many Yorubas speak now, I wonder if Bishop Ajayi Crowther didn’t belong to the order of people such as Martin Luther and if his captivity as a slave boy was not to support his work. It would, therefore, require a lot of effort over many generations to keep developing a language to its loftiest heights. But as we learned in the 1920s, more than half of the population of this earth was not meant to be here, they were to still be in the nether regions of the Universe, maturing. But through irreverence with the procreative act, they have, inadvertently, been prematurely inducted up. The sexual irreverence has led to a largely irreverent population which is turning upside down everything that was painstakingly built up. Look at politics and governance. Turn to the economy. Where is trust and the good family name today? Our nutrition fares no better; it has been ruined! And the language? Just pay attention to the language of the motor boys or the street traders. In terms of inner development and inner worth, the incoming generation cannot sustain the culture of their forebears, which included the spoken language. They desecrate everything. Their music, suffused with sex, tells you where they are coming from and where they are heading. They know nothing but sex, showing they have fallen to the level of the animal. On Facebook, the language is bastardised, vulgarised and denigrated. I used to correct my ‘friends’ every morning, but I gave up on that when they wouldn’t budge. They cannot see that sphere of the universe they are not matured for.

    We cannot blame them without blaming ourselves. Many of us took the procreation act for granted. Hardly do we remember or know that when a man and a woman engage in it, they set vibrations which echo into the universe. These vibrations provide a channel or bridge through which souls waiting to incarnate approach the couple, the woman in particular. If lustfulness is what has enveloped them, what kind of soul would they attract in The Law of Attraction of Homogeneous species? Purity of thought is demanded of both parties. When the act is over, the attracted souls hardly disperse. They wait for a body to start to form in the womb and jostle to incarnate in it. It is far, far, better in my view, to seriously will for the souls one desires as children to come home and surround one, even when no procreative act is going on. Women who should take the lead in this do not know about it or, if they do, approach this talk lukewarmly yet our grandmothers would tell us how pregnant women in particular should conduct themselves lest of wrong soul incarnate through them.

    In summary, we have on our hands an incoming generation that is sinking down the sphere, in tune with the Law of Spiritual Gravity, and defining us own world with nether region values. In English Language examinations, we assess them on the basis of a standard they have no capacity to grasp. I have seen Master’s Degree University graduates who cannot write a correct sentence of English. As Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, I would bring in about 25 university graduates job seeker every month for assessment for reportorial work, all I would ask  them do was write an essay on wither MY MOTHER or A BICYCLE or RAIN DROPS OR my BEST MEAL. Stuff like that. It was amazing that many of them could not write more than a page of A4 paper on the woman who brought them to this earth, breastfed them, changed their nappies, kept the vigil with them, and sold their headgears and wrapper to send them to school! I am therefore, not surprised when I met doctors, lawyers or engineer who do not speak good English. They may be sound professionals. The language, as the summation of culture, tells a lot about all of us.

     

    Mathematics  

    Back in high school, I had no head for maths. I was later to discover in my late twenties it was probably not an ability I needed not in fulsome measure to get around in this earth-life. Spiritual (not religious) life gave me a beautiful inkling into the origins and some depths or dimensions of mathematics. One evening, Dr. Thomopoulus and I were discussing life. We know God is life, the starting-point of everything which exists. He and I show serious  interest in the Bible and other accounts of about LIFE now distorted and formed into religions. It seemed to have done a lot of study about the pyramid. The pyramid is a four-sided figure. Jewish slaves helped the Egyptians build stupendous pyramids. Pyramid specialists teach us that when the angles of the triangle are well inclined, a pyramid connects or plugs into certain forces in this creation. That means certain powers from the universe flow into the pyramid. This is an explanation, for example of why anything kept in the Egyptian pyramids does not despoil. It is like they are frozen in time without actually freezing. Corpses of kings (Pharaohs) known as mummies have been preserved in these Egyptian pyramids for hundreds of years without anything happening to them. Armed with this knowledge, some people have tried to build household pyramids which could serve as refrigerators for preserving food. It has been suggested, also, that huge pyramids can be constructed to store foodcrops in their seasons which can then be release in their, off season, for consumption. This would prevent food wastages, high food prices, hunger and poverty. Who knows, if it wasn’t in pyramids that the Egyptians stored food in the seven years of plenty which were later overtaken by seven years of famine? Remember pharaoh’s dream of seven lean cows swallowing seven fat cows which slave boy Joseph ably interpreted as famine overtaking food surplus.

    Back in school, I did not understand the pyramid. It was an aspect of geometry we learned under the heading “constructions”. But it made a lot of sense to me that evening that Dr. Thomopolous and I shared experiences in his house. He reminded me of

    •The starting point, God, and

    •The four animal beings at the foot of God’s throne.

    This imagery is in the Bible’s Book of Revelations. Elsewhere, I have shared experiences I gathered from revelaed knowledge of creation on the face of the earth today about the nature and importance of these Animal Beings, or beings in Animal forms.

    Today, I will speak only of their relationship with the pyramid, one of the subjects of mathematics I hated in school. The Book of revelations report that these Animal Beings, the Lion, the Ram, the eagle and the Lamb, are equidistant from one another and from the starting point above them. If you join together the equidistant points of the Beings at points A,B,C and D, what results from that is a perfect Square. If your project points A,B,C and D in the square to the dot of the starting point, a Pyramid emerges with a Square base.

    It should be clear from this that mathematics is a royal subject which may lend its secret to any-one. It is, in my view, knowledge of transcendental reality passed down to earth dwellers in a special language which can be easily understood by only the initiated or people who are meant to work with it.

    Architect Lekan Adams, of Lagos, educated me in one of his articles on the Egyptian pyramids published in the comet newspaper. That article showed that the partitioning in the pyramids were based on knowledge received about the timing and duration of cosmic events. One of the explanations which touched me most concerned a comet which was to visit the earth. Lay minds would enter the pyramid and visit its closet without the architecture making any impact on their souls. It is probable that it is from the square that the Foursquare church derived its name. The Yoruba, too, believe that creation has “four pillars” and that four elders man these pillars. In the series of this column on Easter and Lucifer, I referred to the fact that there were four Wise Men, not three, who were to find their way to Jesus in the manger.

  • Health insurance scheme for communities

    The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Health Insurance Scheme (FAHIS) has been extended to Yewuti community in Kwali Area Council and Abaji town of Abaji Area Council of the FCT.

    Distributing health insurance cards to residents of the two communities, the Coordinator of Community-based Health Insurance Scheme (CBHIS), Dr. Grace Aganaba, urged them to utilise the affordable health scheme extended to them by the FCT Administration.

    According to Aganaba, the FAHIS would assist the residents in improving the condition of the Primary Healthcare Centre in their communities, adding that the FCT Minister of State, Oloye Olajumoke-Akinjide is committed to providing affordable and accessible healthcare delivery for people in rural communities of the FCT.

    “The health of the people is very important to government of the FCT as it believes that a healthy population constitutes a wealthy society. That is why the Minister of State for the FCT, Oloye Olajumoke Akinjide is doing everything possible to ensure that residents are healthy enough through the community health insurance scheme.

    “A society where the people are sick will also have a sick economy. That is why we are urging the FCT residents to key into this insurance scheme to enable them to get their insurance cards and have access to affordable healthcare delivery. This will make them remain healthy for society to grow,” she said.

    The Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Yunusa, said as a traditional ruler, it is left for them to invite other traditional and religious leaders to educate them, so that they can also enlighten the people on the need to participate in the scheme and access healthcare delivery with minimal expenses.

    The Village Head of Yewuti community, Mr. Yunusa Mohammed, who praised the effort of Olajumoke-Akinjide and Aganaba for taking health insurance to the community, described it as the first of its kind in the FCT. He promised to give the scheme the needed support it would need to be successful in their community.

  • Dons urge collaboration in health sector

    Academics  in the health sector have called for sustained collaboration among practitioners. They made the call at a symposium organised by the Nigeria Association of Pharmacists in Academia (NAPA), held at the Idi-Araba campus of the University of Lagos (UNILAG).

    Pro-Chancellor of Caleb University, Prof Fola Tayo, who spoke at the symposium, stressed the need for collaboration among health-care providers. He said “no man is an island of knowledge, and as such, requires the expertise and specialisation of others to complement areas of deficiency”.

    According to him, anyone who prides himself as all-knowing displays the hallmark of a fool.

    Prof Tayo, a former dean of Pharmacy at UNILAG, said the curriculum of medical sciences should be reviewed for maximum impact.

    Another speaker, Prof Jane Ajukuchukwu, said capacity building workshops and retraining of pharmacists would enhance professionalism in the sector, adding that the move would allay fears of ineptitude which hinder cooperation among medical practitioners.

    Speaking on the need for collaboration among practitioners and patients, Prof Adebayo Onajole of Department of Community Health and Primary Care, said communication was crucial for achieving better results.

    “For patients and care-givers to have confidence in you, you must learn to communicate effectively in a language they understand,” he said.

    He lamented the instability of the tenure of office for practitioners, saying it had affected quality leadership in the sector.

    Referring to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Convention in Community Development, Dean of Basic Medical Sciences (UNILAG), Prof Olufunmi Adeyemi, expressed desire for the sustenance of the programme.

  • Mobile health delivery blues

    Mobile health delivery blues

    The liberalisation of the telecoms sector over 10 years ago made access to phone easy. Today, Nigerians use their phones for various things, especially business. The revolution is also opening a new vista for poor rural and urban dwellers to access health care services. How far can this go? LUCAS AJANAKU reports.

    Forty-three-year-old Blessing Adewumi lives in Egbeda, a Lagos suburb. A petty trader and mother of four, she lost her husband about four years ago.

    Since then, life has been difficult for her, because she sponsors the education of her  children.

    Recently, she took ill. Instead of going to the hospital, she asked Tina, her eldest daughter, 18, to call Mama Kazeem, a popular drug hawker in the neighbourhood.

    She said:  “I don’t have money to go to the hospital. Iya Kazeem will ‘count’ malaria drugs for me and I will be well. She is our family doctor. By the time I give her N200, she will ‘select’ drugs for me and in no time, I will be back on my feet. Going to the hospital is expensive. I have to pay house rent, school fees and feed my four children without any support. Aside God, there is no supporter, so I always pray to God not to allow my children to fall sick.”

    Another housewife, who simply identified herself as Mama Glory, also has a sad tale to tell. She was not feeling fine, so she visited one of the private hospitals where tests were run on her. When the result came out, it showed that she had typhoid fever. She was billed N10,000 and was told she would be on admisison  for three days.

    She never went back. Reason: She does not have enough money. “If I have N10,000, I will start a ‘pure’ water business immediately. Instead, I will go to the market and get Iya alagbo (herbs seller) to arrange agbo for me. It will flush it out of my body system,” she said.

    Mrs Adewumi and Mama Glory are few of the many poor Nigerians not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because they are not engaged in the formal sectors of the economy.

    Their stories are common, especially among rural dwellers. They cannot pay for their treatment. Many of them toil all day long, trying to eke out a living.

    Minister of Communications Technology Dr  Omobola Johnson lamented that the ability of many sub-Saharan African countries to improve their rating and ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI), especially those that relate to health, is constrained by several socio-economic and infrastructural factors.

    She said: “For example, Nigeria’s per capita spending on health is $161, comparing unfavorably with the $ 948 calculated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the recommended total global spending on health per person per year. Inherent in this low per capita spend on health is an acute shortage of healthcare workers.

    “Africa faces a severe shortage of trained medical personnel–we have approximately three per cent of the world’s health workers despite having 11 per cent of the world’s population, a statistic that is indeed worsened by the fact that many healthcare professionals opt to work abroad after their training because of better remuneration, better facilities and better opportunities for career growth and aspirations.”

    It is in view of this grim picture that the  partnership among NHIS and information communication technology (ICT) firm, MTN and Salt & Einstein MTS, to launch a health insurance programme, which will afford its customers who cannot access quality health care, the opportunity to do so through MTN Y’ello Health Cover is instructive.

    Airtel Nigeria also launched an initiative in this direction to deepen health insurance scheme and bring health at affordable costs to its subscribers.

    The MTN Y’ello Health Cover is an all-inclusive mobile health insurance programme, which will afford Nigerians the opportunity to access good, affordable and quality healthcare service wherever, whenever the need arises.

    Through the programme, the NHIS is working with all the leading Health Management Organisations (HMOs) to enabled mobile subscribers to opt into a micro healthcare insurance cover where, they can access a range of pre-defined medical treatments for which affordable premium can also be remitted through the subscribers’ mobile phone.

    According to the telco, this will enable subscribers under this programme have access to unlimited number of visits to the hospital with as low as a daily or weekly airtime deduction of N35 and N250 to access effective health care as many times as treatment is needed annually. It also gives access to a combination of over 7000 hospitals and primary healthcare providers nationwide currently registered under the NHIS scheme from which subscribers can choose.

    The main objective of the programme is to ensure the removal of financial barriers, which means, poor people can have unfettered access to good and effective healthcare without the usual “out-of-pocket expenses”. It is not always that one has substantial amount of money in the pocket, particularly when one is facing health challenges.

    Health insurance is a type of coverage that ensures the cost of an insured individual’s medical and surgical expenses are paid by the scheme on the behalf of the insured. It is being provided through this programme to save the masses from self medication, or from shying away from receiving treatment because of cost or other competing needs or considerations.

    Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer, NHIS, Dr. Femi Thomas, said MTN will leverage on its huge subscribers to take healthcare to the nooks and crannies of the country.  He said: “MTN is a big player in the Nigerian economy, having a good number of registered Nigerians on its database. To be able to reach out to Nigerians, we at NHIS decided to partner with Salt & Einstein MTS and MTN Nigeria on this new initiative to achieve “Universal Health Coverage” for Nigerians nationwide.

    “The time has come for us to extend health insurance to Nigerians from all walks of life. With Nigeria’s population in mind, NHIS in partnership with MTN Nigeria and Salt & Einstein MTS is bent on providing more efficient health care services to those who indeed cannot afford them. This will help pool risk and share healthcare costs equitably across the population.”

    Chief Executive Officer, MTN Nigeria, Michael Ikpoki, said the focus market for the Y’ello health insurance cover are Nigerians who have no health insurance cover principally because they cannot afford the regular health insurance services in the market.

    “These individuals like everyone else, need medical care. However, without access to insurance, they probably would be having occasional challenges paying for medical treatment, because such expenses would usually be without or at short notice. It is to take away this burden of impromptu medical expenses that we are partnering to introduce this product,” he said.

    He added that the importance of education and sensitisation of the populace about healthcare and commended the NHIS for its drive to provide universal healthcare to Nigerians.

    The Executive Chairman, Salt & Einstein MTS, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, said bringing his vast experience in mobile technology and telecommunication industry in Nigeria to the table, identified the need to leverage the market penetration and unmatched reach of mobile telecoms in Nigeria. The former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said statistics reveal that mobile telecoms subscription in Nigeria is over 129 million. This creates adequate grounds for direct health insurance provision to Nigerians who, without this, would have no access to the NHIS.

    Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Salt & Einstein MTS, the 0obile insurance services aggregator, said findings have shown that Nigeria still has less than four per cent of its population covered by basic health care services at this time in our nation’s history. “There is no disputing the fact that, one of the best things to do at this time is to come together, working with NHIS and of course, starting off with Nigeria’s leading telecommunications operator, MTN, to bring this health insurance cover to Nigerians who, hitherto, have been excluded  from access to good health care service. MTN has demonstrated that they are interested in the social good and welfare of Nigerians. We hope to create more products that benefit Nigerians across the country,” he said.

    The MTN Y’ello insurance cover is one of the many ways Africa’s leading telecommunications network is adding value to the lives of it subscribers. The next leg of the launch will take place in Abuja at a yet-to-be-announced date.

    To make health care accessible and affordable to all, the WHO, the World Bank and other experts recommend among other things: mandatory and publicly subsidised health insurance scheme.

    Experts say while the initiative is commendable, more will still need to be done in the area of enlightenment.

    The partners in the project would need to do plenty of work in getting the message about the product across to the rural poor that are largely illiterate. This, they said, could be achieved by running the messages in the major indigenous languages on the operators’ network as well as in both print and electronic media.

  • Adadevoh: Tributes galore for the ‘True heroine’

    Adadevoh: Tributes galore for the ‘True heroine’

    Facebook friends of Kwami Adadevoh, a cousin of Late Dr Ameyo Adadevoh who died on Tuesday of Ebola infection have been paying tributes to the consultant physician of First Consultant Hospital, Lagos.

    Kwami changed his Facebook profile picture to that of the Dr Adadevoh hours after she was confirmed dead by Health Minister, Professor Oyebuchi Chukwu.

    In his response to the condolence messages and tributes Kwami wrote: ” Thank you all for your kind words. May The Lord bless us all and hopefully her sacrifice would not be in vain”

    Some of the tributes includes

    So sorry to hear of your loss. May her soul rest in perfect peace
    Joke Bada Savage

    She was a true heroine!Her work wasn’t in vain and she conquered this evil scourge, because she was brave to defy it!God comfort you and your family!amen.
    Ndidi Deedee Ejoh

    Rest in Peace my darling Ameyo, till we meet to part no more. Thank you for putting yourself forward for Nigeria…. We owe you our very lives! Love you, always will. Good night xxx
    Susan Kofo Osei -Baidoo

    Rest in peace you heroine! May God comfort your family my dear brother.
    Kathleen Ndongmo

    No greater love, than a woman lay down her life for her friends.
    Jae Badd

  • Rivers College of Health to fight Ebola

    Rivers College of Health to fight Ebola

    As part of the measures to fight Ebola, the Rivers State College of Health Science and Technology has introduced Ebola Virus Disease into its curriculum.

    The Deputy Provost, Academics, Dr Clement Nyenke, broke the news in his office while speaking on preventive measures against the deadly disease.

    Nyenke said the college could not sit on the fence, watching the outbreak, without initiating sensitisation, prevention and control measures.

    He said the school did not need any approval from the ministry but to inform various departments of the college and direct the lecturers on their resumption next month to start teaching Ebola as one of the courses.

    “We are on break now; as soon as we return, all the lecturers will be directed to start teaching. All we are doing now is to include Ebola as part of our curriculum in the college to enable students and the general public create more awareness about the disease.

    ”This is a health institution, all we have to do is to inform the departments in the collage, you know we have three types of skinless that fall into this category, we have  Marburg fever,  lassa fever  and Ebola fever  all these will be  included in the curriculum to be taught to students as we resume by next month.

    “It will be part of the topics to be taught in our communicable deceases course. There are courses which we call communicable decease in this institution.  First, to give the student the firsthand knowledge of Ebola disease, the source, prevention, control and mode of transmission and other ways of the disease.”

    Explaining why the college took the step, Nyenke said the college must take its rightful place to sensitise the students and the public on the deadly disease which has become an important issue for the college.

    He said: “Many people are not aware of the disease, and one of the things we are trying to do is to launch a serious awareness campaign and we cannot do that without sensitizsing and teaching our students about the disease so that they can go out well-equiped about the information relating the disease to educate the public.

    “So it is the primary responsibility of this college to train health workers and these workers we have  trained we also have the primary responsibility of informing the public what we intend  to achieve.”

     

  • Panic over boy’s deteriorating health

    Panic over boy’s deteriorating health

    •Four-year old can’t sit, stand, walk

    At four, he is supposed to do what kids his age do – sit, stand and walk. But Oluwatomiwa Abraham Ogunleye cannot do any of these.

    For over three-and-a-half years, he has been nursing an ailment that has stunted his growth. The disease has left his head unusually big.

    With no father to cater for him, his mother, Mrs Titilope Ogunleye, is helpless because she cannot afford the cost of his treatment.

    “I do think a lot these days because there is nobody to lend me a helping hand as his health grows worse by the day. I can’t help crying most times because he too cries often. Just last week, I woke up to find myself at a clinic. Oluwatomiwa’s problem has become a huge burden on me. I just hope I will live to see him get over this; somebody may show him mercy,” the weeping woman told The Nation at her Isolo, Lagos home yesterday.

    She looked frustrated as she held the boy in both hands, amid soothing words from neighbours who advised her not to lose hope.

    Oluwatomiwa was barely four months old when he developed malaria and jaundice and his mother took him to hospital in Osun State.

    “He was given antibiotics and he got well again. But a month later, we had another problem to grapple with as his head began to swell,” Mrs Ogunleye said, adding: “Following series of tests and x-rays, it was discovered that his head is filled with water and puss.”

    “The whole problem started when I was still in Osun State. I took him to various orthodox and herbal hospitals in Osun, Edo and Ogun states to mention a few; yet, the problem persisted. At a point, I had to follow my uncle to Lagos in September last year in search of possible solution. I have since been on it,” Mrs Ogunleye said.

    The woman said she spent over N800,000 at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), where a surgery was done on the head after various tests and  drugs.

    Rather than improve, the child’s condition worsened. This led her to cry out to Nigerians through The Nation on September 10, last year.

    The paper carried an account under the name, Titilope Oyewole, at Wema Bank Plc with number, 0226456809, with Mrs Ogunleye’s phone number: 08132714060.

    Earlier, Sponsor a Child, a non-governmental organisation, found a specialist hospital in the United Kingdom (UK), where the treatment would cost N5 million.

    “Following the publication, some Good Samaritans helped us with some money which I have been spending on procuring his drugs and food. The gesture sustained him this far but all is gone now. I’m tired of begging to buy his drugs because the assistance is no longer forthcoming.

    “My two other children are out of school since I can’t sponsor them while struggling to keep their brother alive. This burden is too crippling for me to bear. All good mothers and fathers across the world should rise to help me rescue my child from the brink of death,” Mrs Ogunleye pleaded.

  • Rivers cottage hospital… From five to 367 babies

    Rivers cottage hospital… From five to 367 babies

    In four years, the story  of a cottage hospital at Obio community in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State has changed, for good. The community thanks the Rivers State government and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for the good turn. Residents and beneficiaries could not hide their ecitement during the fourth  anniversary celebration of the hospital.

    It all began when  in  2011, Obio Primary Health Centre was renamed Obio Cottage Hospital. To date about 45,000 people have benefited from the hospital. Yet, the Health Insurance premium is pegged at N7, 200  per person per year. No wonder the scheme is highly sought.

    Mrs. Ngozi Onyeala, one of the beneficiaries, said she would forever thank SPDC and Rivers State government.

    She said: “My mouth cannot express what this hospital has done to me and my family. Those who establish it have done greatly on the side of the Lord. When I newly registered with this hospital, I had no money to register for antenatal or to take some necessary medications for me and my unborn baby. But coming down here, my problem was over; I did not pay kobo when I delivered my baby.”

    Another beneficiary, Mrs. Rose Nwoka, said: “One thing about Obio Cottage Hospital is that after the initial registration, the hospital will not demand for anything even in a critical condition that required surgery,  which for other hospital could have been N300, 000 and above but the hospital will take care of the situation without asking for  kobo. So, the women of Obio are saying thank you.”

    The Medical officer in-Change of Obio Cottage Hospital, Dr. Umejiego Chigozie, said the major challenge is how to attend to the clients with limited staff.

    He said: “We used to have 20 patients but today the number has tremendously increased. But, we are also working hard to get more doctors. Before now we have only two doctors but today we have eleven doctors; with the help of the community insurance scheme, we are going to have more doctors.”

    On the area of infant mortality, Dr Chigozie said: “In every centre like this, you must have child mortality, but we have done a lot to reduce child mortality rate. Before now, we used to have five deliveries in a month but now we do have 367 deliveries in a month. This has showed how we have grown since 2010.”

    SPDC Acting Regional Community Health Manager, Dr.  Edet –Edet, while addressing reporters, said the need for accessible healthcare informed the idea to partner with Rivers State government for the benefit of the people.

    He said: “The SPDC with JV partners renovated the facility in 2006/2007 and started working with the I.A GMOU cluster Community Development Board (DCB) in designing and implementing a sustainable health care model that could impact health care in their community. The Obio Community Health Insurance scheme was thus born as a pro-poor programme after Shell conducted an actuarial study which placed the community readiness to pay for Health services at 85 per cent. SPDC in partnership with the Rivers State government and the IA cluster of communities introduced the community Health Insurance Scheme with the goal to develop and implement a scheme which will provide community members with access to efficient and effective healthcare services accessible through sustainably operated healthcare facilities within the communities where they reside.

    “We have also moved to Rumuokwurusi,   within the state there are request from other state pleading to have the programme in their state. We have a big health insurance scheme. Recently we have a roundtable discussion with the Commissioner of Bayalsa State who has seen what we are doing decided to have it in their state. The scheme is now financially independent from SPDC and underpinned by a commercial viable business model which ensures the scheme’s long term sustainability.”

    The highpoint of the occasion include a drama presentation, a lecture, dancing and cutting of the 4th anniversary celebration.

  • Ebola sensitization campaign

    Ebola sensitization campaign