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Tag: Margaret Chan

  • WHO, UNICEF laud $1.2bn polio eradication fund for Nigeria, others

    WHO, UNICEF laud $1.2bn polio eradication fund for Nigeria, others

    The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have commended the 1.2 billion dollars funding initiative to eradicate polio disease in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    UNICEF Executive Director, Anthony Lake, and WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, gave the commendations as global health leaders reaffirmed their commitment to fund the eradication of polio in the countries.

    The major pledges included 75 million dollars from Canada, 61.4 million dollars from the European Commission, 55 million dollars from Japan, and 30 million dollars from Sheikh Mohamed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.

    Others pledges were 30 million dollars from the Dalio Foundation, 25 million dollars from Bloomberg Philanthropies, 15 million dollars from an anonymous donor, and 13.4 million dollars from Australia.

    There were also 11.2 million dollars from Germany, five million dollars each from EasyJet and Italy while the Republic of Korea pledged four million dollars.

    The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), a public-private partnership dedicated to ending the disease, announced the pledges at the Rotary Convention in Atlanta.

    Lake said “today’s funding commitments will enable the programme to continue to improve performance and overcome challenges to reach every child, including vaccinating children in conflict areas.

    “We are truly on the verge of eradicating polio from the planet, but only if we work relentlessly to reach the children we have not yet reached.

    “We cannot fail to make this last effort.

    “If we do not now make history, we will be judged harshly by history’’.

    The UNICEF chief commended efforts towards ending the disease, saying polio has been eliminated from some of the most remote and challenging areas in the world.

    “For example, India, once considered the most difficult place in the world to stop the disease, hasn’t reported a case in more than six years.

    “No fewer than 16 million children worldwide, who would otherwise have been paralysed by the disease, are walking today,’’ he said.

    Similarly, Chan pointed out that polio resources in countries around the world were helping to advance other national health goals.

    “The key to ending polio will be to ensure that millions of health workers, some of whom work in the most challenging environments in the world, are able to reach every child, everywhere in the world,’’ Chan said.

    She noted that eradicating polio would be a perpetual gift to coming generations.

    “Today’s contributions and the continued commitment of all donors and partners will help end this devastating disease.

    “It will also ensure that the infrastructure and assets used to fight polio lay the foundation for better health outcomes for children everywhere for years to come.’’

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that financing of polio eradication has been remarkably successful over the past years.

    Between 1988 and 2013, donors have voluntarily contributed more than 9.5 billion dollars to polio eradication.

  • WHO admits slow response to Ebola

    WHO admits slow response to Ebola

    The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday admitted It responded “too slow” in its handling of the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

    The Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, at the 70th World Health Assembly in Geneva, also regretted that the virus had recently re-emerged near the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic.

    The outbreak, which led to the death of hundreds of people in the West African countries, happened on Chan’s watch.

    The outgoing chief of the global health body, admitted fault and said: “I am personally accountable”.

    “WHO was too slow to recognize that the virus, during its first appearance in West Africa, would behave very differently than during past outbreaks in central Africa, where the virus was rare but familiar and containment measures were well-rehearsed,” Chan said.

    The outgoing WHO chief, however, said that the organization made “quick course corrections” to bring three outbreaks under control and helped create the first Ebola vaccine.

    The year’s World Health Assembly, which includes 194 countries, would discuss what has been learned from that outbreak, as well as from WHO’s handling of Zika and other diseases.

    Experts would also provide an update on how Angola responded to last year’s Yellow Fever outbreak, which exhausted the global vaccine stockpile several times.

    The current cholera epidemic in war-torn Yemen is also on the agenda; only days ago, WHO described it as “unprecedented”.

    Polio is still causing misery and paralysis in three countries where it is endemic: Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

    Therefore, delegates would continue to push for the complete eradication of the wild poliovirus, for which there is no cure, only prevention.

    Refuting what she called “frequent criticism” that WHO has lost its relevance, Chan pointed to a recently issued report tracking how public health has evolved during her 10-year administration.

    The outgoing chief of the UN health agency, however, highlighted the relevance of WHO and offered its decision-making body parting advice that included protecting scientific evidence, pushing for innovation and thinking of people in every decision that is taken.

    As an example, she noted that while it took nearly a decade to lower the prices of antiretroviral treatments for HIV, thanks to teamwork and collaboration, the prices for new drugs to cure hepatitis C fell within two years.

    “This is the culture of evidence-based learning that improves efficiency, gives health efforts their remarkable resilience, and keeps us irrepressibly optimistic.

    “We falter sometimes, but we never give up,” Chan said.

    WHO’s relevance was “most dramatically demonstrated” during last month’s global partnership meeting on neglected tropical diseases, she said.

    According to her, participants celebrated a decade of “record-breaking progress” to eliminate the diseases.

    “The fact that, in 2015, nearly one billion people received free treatments that protect them from diseases that blind, maim, deform, and debilitate has little impact on the world’s geopolitical situation.

    “The people being protected are among the poorest in the world,” Chan said, adding that this was “a success story that the world was hungry to hear”.

    In addition to tackling these health threats and many more, the World Health Assembly would choose Chan’s successor.

    The three candidates hoping to step into her shoes after the vote on Tuesday afternoon are Tedros Ghebreyesus from Ethiopia, David Nabarro from the UK, and Sania Nishtar from Pakistan.

  • World leaders to tackle neglected tropical diseases

    …citing Remarkable Progress Since 2012

     Governments and private donors pledge US$812 millionaround five-day summit in Geneva; World Health Organization releases data showing medicines to prevent NTDs reach nearly a billion people each year

    GENEVA (19 April 2017) – This week, leaders from governments, pharmaceutical companies and charitable organizations convened at a five-day summit in Geneva to pledge new commitments to the collective efforts to control and eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The summit coincided with the launch of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Fourth Report on NTDs, showing transformational progress against these debilitating diseases, and a commitment by the United Kingdom to more than double its funding for NTDs.

    The meeting comes five years after the launch of the London Declaration on NTDs, a commitment by the public and private sectors to achieve the WHO goals for control, elimination and eradication of 10 NTDs. In that time, billions of treatments have been donated by pharmaceutical companies and delivered to impoverished communities in nearly 150 countries, reaching nearly a billion people in 2015.

    NTDs are some of the oldest and most painful diseases, afflicting the world’s poorest communities. One in six people suffer from NTDs worldwide, including more than half a billion children. NTDs disable, debilitate and perpetuate cycles of poverty, keeping children out of school, parents out of work, and dampening hope of any chance of an economic future.

    New Report Shows Dramatic Progress

    A new report titled Integrating Neglected Tropical Diseases in Global Health and Development by the WHO revealed that more people are being reached with needed NTD interventions than ever before. In 2015, nearly a billion people receivedtreatments donated by pharmaceutical companies for at least one NTD, representing a 36 percent increase since 2011, the year before the launch of the London Declaration. As more districts, countries and regions eliminate NTDs,the number of people requiring treatments has decreased from 2 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2015.

    “WHO has observed record-breaking progress towards bringing ancient scourges like sleeping sickness and elephantiasis to their knees,” says WHO Director-General, Dr. Margaret Chan. “Over the past 10 years, millions of people have been rescued from disability and poverty, thanks to one of the most effective global partnerships in modern public health.”

    The report detailed progress against each disease, citing countries and regions that are reaching control and elimination goals for specific NTDs. Highlights include:

     

    • Lymphatic filariasis (LF) racing toward finish line: In the last year, eight countries(Cambodia, Cook Islands, Maldives, Marshall Islands,Niue, Sri Lanka, Togo and Vanuatu) eliminatedLF, and 10 other countries are waiting on surveillance results to verify elimination. Thanks to strong programs, the number of people globally requiring preventative treatment has dropped from 1.4 billion in 2011 to fewer than 950 million in 2015.
    • Fewest-ever cases of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT, or sleeping sickness): In2015, there were fewer reported cases of sleeping sickness than any other year in history, with fewer than 3,000 cases worldwide – an 89 percent reduction since 2000. Innovative vector control and diagnostic technologies, supported by increasing numbers of product development partnerships, are revolutionizing sleeping sickness diagnosis, prevention and treatment.
    • Eighty-two percent decrease in visceral leishmaniasis (VL) cases in India, Nepal and Bangladesh: Since 2008, cases of VLacross India, Nepal and Bangladesh have decreased by 82 percent due to improvements in vector control, social mobilization of village volunteers, collaboration with other NTD programs and drug donations from industry partners.
    • Guinea worm disease nearing eradication: Cases of Guinea worm disease have reduced from an estimated 3.5 million in 1986 to just 25 human cases in 2016 in just three countries – Chad, Ethiopia and South Sudan.

     

    Global Donors Pledge Additional Support

    Governments and other donors announced new commitments at the summit to expand the reach and impact of NTD programs around the world. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $335 million in grants over the next four years to support a diverse group of NTD programs focused on drug development and delivery, disease surveillance and vector control. The commitment includes $42 million to support The Carter Center’s guinea worm eradication initiative, as well as dedicated funding to accelerate the elimination of African sleeping sickness.

    “NTDs are some of the most painful, debilitating and stigmatizing diseases that affect the world’s poorest communities. That’s why we helped launch the London Declaration, a historic milestone that led to significant progress in treating and reducing the spread of NTDs and demonstrated the impact that the public sector, the private sector, communities and NGOs can have by working together,” said Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

    “Thanks to this partnership, these neglected diseases are now getting the attention they deserve so fewer people have to suffer from these treatable conditions. There have been many successes in the past five years, but the job is not done yet. We have set ambitious targets for 2020 that require the continued commitment of pharmaceutical companies, donor and recipient governments, and frontline health workers to ensure drugs are available and delivered to the hardest to reach people.”

    The Belgian government also pledged an additional $27 million, spread equally over the next nine years, toward the elimination of sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This amount will be matched for the next three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, establishing a platform for increased collaboration between Belgium, the DRC and the broader NTD partnership.

    As part of its commitment to eliminating HAT, Vestergaard pledged to donate 20 percent of its insecticide-treated “tiny targets” used to control the tsetse flies that carry the disease, scaling over the next three years towards 100 percent as elimination nears.

    These commitments build on the UK Government’s announcement earlier this week, in which it pledgedalmost $450 million over 5 yearsto support NTD control and elimination efforts around the world.

    Industry Contributions Expand Scale and Reach of NTD Program

    Progress against NTDs has been enabled by the large-scale donation of medicines by 10 pharmaceutical companies. In the five years since the London Declaration,companies have donated over 7 billion treatments that, with the support of partners, now reach nearly 1 billion people every year. These donations, worth an estimated $19 billion from 2012 through 2020, greatly multiply the impact of donor investments; USAID estimates that each dollar invested in delivery leverages $26 worth of donated drugs.

    In a statement released today, industry leaders reaffirmed their 2012 pledge to do their part to beat these diseases, and encouraged other sectors to maintain their commitments as well.

    “The London Declaration is a powerful example of the impact of successful partnerships,” said Haruo Naito, CEO of Eisai and an original signatory of the London Declaration. “By leveraging our resources and focusing on a common goal, we are already making unprecedented progress towards eliminating these horrific diseases. The work we are doing today is a long-term investment into a healthier and more prosperous future.”

    In addition to donations, pharmaceutical companies are working together and with research institutes to discover and develop new tools to prevent, diagnose and treat NTDs. A report released today by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations collected the full scope of industry investment in NTD R&D, including:

    • Sanofi and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) are developing a new oral drug candidate for HAT, fexinidazole, which would replace the current mixed oral-intravenous drug regimen. Fexinidazole could represent a therapeutic breakthrough which will support sustainable elimination efforts as per the WHO roadmap for 2020. The drug is expected to be submitted for regulatory approval later in 2017.
    • Several companies are working to develop pediatric formulations of existing NTD medicines, including Bayer (nifurtimox, for Chagas disease), Merck KGaA (praziquantel, for schistosomiasis),and Elea/Mundo Sano (who are working with DNDito develop a second pediatric source of benznidazole, for Chagas disease), while Johnson & Johnson (mebendazole, for soil-transmitted helminths) developed a new chewable form of mebendazole, recently approved by the FDA, for children too young to swallow.
    • AbbVie, Bayer, Eisai, Johnson & Johnson and Merck KGaAare part of the Macrofilaricide Drug Accelerator Program, an initiative aimed at identifying and generating new drug compounds that can kill the adult worms that cause onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis.
    • Bayer is working with DNDi to develop emodepside, an oral treatment for lymphatic filariasis and river blindness
    • Eisai is working with DNDi to develop ravuconazole, a new oral drug currently in clinical trials for Chagas disease, and is partnering with DNDi to develop ravuconazole in a new disease area, mycetoma.
    • GlaxoSmithKline and DNDi have agreed to jointly pursue the pre-clinical development of the two novel candidates for the treatment of visceral leishmaniasis; the candidates were developed by a collaboration between GSK and the University of Dundee’s Drug Discovery Unit, and the work was funded by Wellcome. The agreement for pre-clinical development will be conditional on signing an additional agreement.
    • In 2015, Eisai, Shionogi, Takeda, AstraZeneca and DNDi launched the NTD Drug Discovery Booster, a multi-company effort to accelerate the discovery of new drugs for leishmaniasis and Chagas disease.In 2016 they were joined by Celgene Global Health. Merck KGaA announced today that it will join the consortium.
    • Many companies – including AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Chemo, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai,Elea, Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Merck KGaA, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Sanofi, Shionogi, and Takeda– have given DNDi and other non-profits access to their compound libraries and/or contribute scientific and technical expertise to DNDi and conduct pre-clinical and clinical studies to facilitate the development of new drugs to combat various NTDs.
    • Gilead is collaborating with the US Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health as well as multiple academic institutions to discover and develop novel antivirals for highly pathogenic infections and neglected/emerging viral diseases, including dengue fever. GS-5734, Gilead’s most advanced investigational agent, is currently being studied in Ebola survivors.

    Companies are also working with partners to solve supply chain problems, develop program strategies and build in-country capacity to ensure that drugs, tools and other interventions reach those who need them most.

     Addressing the Challenges Ahead

    Though tremendous progress has been made in reducing the burden of NTDs, global control and elimination targets cannot be met without increased financial support, stronger political commitment and better tools to prevent, diagnose and treat the diseases. This week, partners from private philanthropy, affected country governments and cross-sector partnerships recommitted to leveraging their respective resources and expertise to fill critical gaps.

     

    Financial Resources

    Although nearly a billion people received NTD treatments in 2015, more funding is needed to ensure that NTD programs reach all people and communities affected by the diseases. WHO estimates that 340 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa could be covered by new investments of $150 million per year through the year 2020.

    In addition to government commitments, private philanthropy is helping to address these gaps by supporting drug delivery and surveillance programs, as well as research and development into new medicines, diagnostics and other health tools. The END Fund, founded shortly after the London Declaration, has raised over $75 million to target the five most common NTDs, helping to treat over 145 million people around the world.

     

    Political Commitment

    Strong leadership from affected countries is vital to sustaining progress against NTDs, particularly in the face of shifting economic climates and competing health priorities. Despite these challenges, some countries are increasing financing for NTD programs and integrating them into national health systems. Among other countries, Ethiopia has made significant strides in fighting trachoma by including progress against the disease as a target in its national health plan, providing significant domestic funding, participating in the Global Trachoma Mapping Project and training surgeons to conduct eye-lid surgeries to correct the effects of trachoma.

    “Ethiopia is fully committed to realizing ambitious, yet achievable, elimination targets for trachoma and other NTDs with proactive program coordination,” said H.E Professor YifruBerhanMitke, Ethiopian Minister of Health.“An increased direct program financial contribution by the government to NTDs, as high as 3 million USD by 2016, is a big step forward in alleviating the burden and stigma of these diseases.”

     

    New Tools and Innovations

    To meet control and elimination targets, more research and development is needed to provide NTD programs with improved tools to prevent, detect and treat the diseases. Promising new therapies are in the pipeline: A new three-drug regimen for LF known as triple therapy has the potential to dramatically accelerate the pace of elimination in affected countries, and is currently in large-scale safety trials in India.

    R&D organizations such as PATH and partnerships like DNDiand the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund have catalyzed the development of better and more cost-effective tools. These innovations, which include new drugs and rapid diagnostic tests for sleeping sickness and river blindness, are especially critical in the low-resource settings most burdened by NTDs. Several new vector control tools are under development and being piloted to address the growing problem of diseases transmitted by Aedes mosquitos.

    The Global Partners Meeting on Neglected Tropical Diseases will be hosted by the World Health Organization on 19 April 2017. From 20-22 April, Uniting to Combat NTDs and the global NTD community will host the NTD Summit, which will feature technical discussions on the best strategies to reach the NTD control and elimination goals.

    About Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases:Established in 2012, Uniting to Combat NTDs is a group of organizations committed to achieving the WHO’s 2020 goal to control and eliminate 10 NTDs as laid out in in the London Declaration. By working together, Uniting to Combat NTDs aims to chart a new course toward health and sustainability among the world’s poorest communities.

    The 10 diseases covered by the London Declaration include onchocerciasis (river blindness), Guinea worm disease, lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), blinding trachoma, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths, leprosy, Chagas disease, visceral leishmaniasis and human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). To find out more about the work of Uniting to Combat NTDs and to learn more about NTDs, please visit our website.

    About the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases: The London Declaration on NTDs, launched on 30 January 2012, is a joint commitment to control, eliminate or eradicate NTDs, signed by WHO, 13 pharmaceutical companies, donor and endemic country governments, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank.

     

  • WHO records progress against tropical diseases

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has achieved “record-breaking” progress in controlling neglected tropical diseases, which blind, maim, disfigure and debilitate millions of people worldwide, especially in poorest countries.

    The Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, in a new report on Integrating Neglected Tropical Diseases into Global Health and Development, said an estimated one billion people were reached with treatment for at least one of these diseases in 2015 alone.

    Chan explained that efforts were on by the UN health agency to tackle the diseases, known as Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs).

    “We have observed record-breaking progress towards bringing ancient scourges like sleeping sickness and elephantiasis to their knees.

    “Over the past 10 years, millions of people have been rescued from disability and poverty, thanks to one of the most effective global partnerships in modern public health,” Chan said.

    The WHO’s new report shows how political support, improvements in living conditions and supply of medicines have led to sustained expansion of disease control programmes in countries where these diseases are most prevalent.

    “Another major milestone was the endorsement of a NTD roadmap in 2012, in which WHO partners’ committed additional support and resources to eliminating 10 of the most common NTDs.

    “For sustaining this momentum, experts believe that wider progress towards realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development would be crucial.

    “Meeting global targets for water and sanitation, such as those under the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be key”.

    WHO estimates that 2.4 billion people still lack basic sanitation facilities such as toilets and latrines, while more than 660 million continue to drink water from “unimproved” sources, such as surface water.

    According to Dr Dirk Engels, Director of WHO’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, “further gains will depend on wider progress towards the SDGs”.

    “Once widely prevalent, diseases are now restricted to tropical and sub-tropical regions with unsafe water, inadequate hygiene and sanitation, and poor housing conditions.

    “More than 70 per cent of countries and territories that report the presence of NTDs are low or lower-middle income economies.

    “The class of these illnesses include diseases such as dengue, rabies, trachoma, Buruli ulcer, yaws, leprosy, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease), schistosomiasis (larval worm infection) etc.

    “Poor people living in remote, rural areas, urban slums, or conflict zones are most at risk,” Engels said.

     

  • 422m adults live with diabetes – WHO

    422m adults live with diabetes – WHO

    The number of people living with diabetes has almost quadrupled since 1980 to 422 million adults, with most living in developing countries, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report said on Wednesday.

    The report was present by WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan, ahead of World Health Day on Thursday, and it highlighted the need to step up prevention and treatment of diabetes.

    The report documented the number of people living with diabetes with its prevalence growing in all regions of the world.

    It said that in 2014, 422 million adults had diabetes, compared with 108 million in 1980.
    The epidemic of diabetes has major health and socio-economic impacts, especially in developing countries. Diabetes caused 1.5 million deaths in 2012.

    According to the report, higher-than-optimal blood glucose caused an additional 2.2 million deaths by increasing the risks of cardiovascular and other diseases.

    “If we are to make any headway in halting the rise in diabetes, we need to rethink our daily lives, to eat healthily, be physically active, and avoid excessive weight gain.

    “Even in the poorest settings, governments must ensure that people are able to make these healthy choices and that health systems are able to diagnose and treat people with diabetes,’’ Chan said.

    The organisation called for expanding health-promoting environments to reduce diabetes risk factors, like physical inactivity and unhealthy diets, and strengthening national capacities to help people with diabetes receive treatment.

  • WHO convenes emergency meeting on Zika virus

    WHO convenes emergency meeting on Zika virus

    The World Health Organisation said it had convened a meeting of an expert committee to determine if the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas constitutes a global health emergency.

    WHO Chief, Margaret Chan, said on Thursday, during an interaction with member state representatives in Geneva, that the level of alarm was extremely high.

    She said the meeting had become necessary because the disease, which has been tentatively linked to a spike in babies born with malformed heads in Brazil, has spread to 23 countries and territories in the Americas.

  • WHO removes Nigeria from polio-endemic list

    WHO removes Nigeria from polio-endemic list

    … Pakistan and Afghanistan remain on list

    The World Health Organization on Saturday removed Nigeria  from the polio-endemic list.

    With this development, Nigeria, which in 2012, accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide, has recorded a major breakthrough in its fight against polio.

    The country last  reported a case of wild poliovirus in July 24, 2014, and a full 12 months have passed without a fresh case of the paralysing disease.

    Only two countries – Pakistan and Afghanistan are still on the polio-endemic list and WHO has assured it will support their efforts to join list of nations that had been declared free of the disease.

    “This success is the result of a concerted effort by all levels of government, civil society, religious leaders and tens of thousands of dedicated health workers. More than 200,000 volunteers across the country repeatedly immunized more than 45 million children under the age of five years, to ensure that no child would suffer from this paralysing disease.

    “Innovative approaches, such as increased community involvement and the establishment of Emergency Operations Centres at the national and state level, have also been pivotal to Nigeria’s success.

    “The interruption of wild poliovirus transmission in Nigeria would have been impossible without the support and commitment of donors and development partners. Their continued support, along with continued domestic funding from Nigeria, will be essential to keep Nigeria and the entire region polio-free,” the WHO said in a statement on Saturday.

    The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), the public-private partnership leading the effort to eradicate polio, described Nigeria’s removal from the polio-endemic list as a “historic achievement” in global health.

    The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, in a statement urged the Nigerian government to continue with the efforts that got the country off the polio-endemic list.

    Dr. Chan, who is also a member of GPEI, canvassed support for Pakistan and Afghanistan in their efforts to join the polio free world.

    “The outstanding commitment and efforts that got Nigeria off the endemic list must continue, to keep Africa polio-free. We must now support the efforts in Pakistan and Afghanistan so they soon join the polio-free world,” she stated.

    The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Ado Muhammad, who also spoke on the development, said, “We Nigerians are proud today. With local innovation and national persistence, we have beaten polio. We know our vigilance and efforts must continue in order to keep Nigeria polio-free.”

     

     

  • Ebola: Fear hampers recruitment of volunteers – WHO

    Fear of contracting the deadly Ebola virus is hampering efforts to recruit international health workers and slowing the delivery of protective garments and other vital materials to stricken areas in West Africa, World Health Organization officials said on Wednesday.

    Since March, more than 3,500 confirmed or probable cases of the disease have been reported and more than 1,900 people have died, Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the WHO, told reporters at a Washington news conference.

    Chan said overwhelming fear of Ebola was making it difficult to recruit the foreign medical teams needed to mount an effective response. “That’s the reality,” she said.

    She said the WHO was seeking to gain air and sea access to the affected countries, which have become increasingly isolated as airlines and boats refuse to land or dock for fear of contagion.

    Dr. David Nabarro, the senior United Nations Coordinator for Ebola, told the news conference the international effort to contain the outbreak needed to be scaled up three- to four-fold, at a cost of at least $600 million.

    That includes increasing the number of motorcycles, ambulances and other vehicles available to transport patients to medical facilities; increasing the supply of protective equipment, gloves and gowns; providing hazard pay and other incentives for local workers; and taking steps to protect local economies from collapse.

    Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO assistant director-general for health security, said several thousand medical personnel would be needed to treat the sick as the outbreak grew along with several hundred international experts to help run laboratories and train healthcare workers.

    Reuters reports that in Liberia Tuesday, the government began offering a $1,000 bonus to any healthcare worker who agreed to work in Ebola treatment facilities.

  • FG to ‘subsidise’ cost of medical checkup

    FG to ‘subsidise’ cost of medical checkup

    The Federal Government said on Thursday in Geneva that a budgetary allocation had been made to subsidise the cost of medical checkups for Nigerians.

    The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, said at the ongoing 66th session of the General Assembly of the World Health Organisation, that regular checkups would enable Nigeria to help address the issue of non-communicable diseases.

    He said the Federal Government had begun the fight against obesity, adding that President Goodluck Jonathan would inaugurate the campaign against the condition.

    “The president is also going to lead the fight against obesity; he has approved in writing that he will flag off the Federal Ministry of Health campaign, which is on NCDs.

    “He will publicly demostrate to the Nigerian public that there is need for a checkup, for your weight to be measured, your height to be taken and your BMI (body max index) calculated and then other test in terms of screening for stroke and cardiovascular disease.

    “In our budget this year we also have funds to begin to subsidise the cost of such tests for Nigerians; I will say we have started the journey.

    “Ultimately as you know, health remains in the hands of the individual; but it is our responsibility to give the right information evidence-based,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the minister as saying at the forum.

    Chukwu said enlightenment campaign against obesity and the consumption of unhealthy foods would be done to discourage people from patronising food products that were harmful to health.

    The minister, who said that the government would strive to scale up intervention on nutrition, gave the assurance that government would continue with its food fortification programme.

    The Director-General, World Health Organisation, Dr. Margaret Chan, who spoke at the event, said no one single country had succeeded in turning around its obesity epidemic in all age groups.

    “Just this one example makes us reflect on the importance of adopting the right policy options.”

    Chan recalled that the United Nations political declaration on NCDs clearly provided that prevention must be the cornerstone of global response.