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Tag: WHO

  • 120,000 patients diagnosed with cancer yearly in Nigeria, says WHO

    A leading hospital in the Middle East, the Saudi-German Hospital in Dubai, has expressed its desire to help Nigeria win the fight against cancer.

    The hospital’s Head of Oncology, Dr. Rajeev Kaushal, who made this known in a chat, after a meeting between the hospital’s representatives and stakeholders in the health sector, said: “According to World Health Organisation’s recent statistics, between 102,000 and 120,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer each year in Nigeria. It is disappointing that out of these figures, about 72, 000 patients are lost to the scourge. This is mainly due to lack of state-of-the-art cancer treatment and management facilities in the country, lack of sufficient public awareness, and lack of a necessary political will to build quality hospitals and treatment centres where citizens can access cancer services affordably.

    “These were the issues discussed with our Nigerian partners, and going by the outcome of our meeting, it may take about three to five years to set up facilities across the country that would address the deficit in health infrastructure for cancer treatment and management.

    “But in the interim, we have agreed to set up a cancer referral centre. We have also made arrangement for our medical experts to fly into Abuja from Dubai to conduct special screening for patients, who are having symptoms or suspicions about cancer. Against that background, if there are confirmation of cases, patients can be flown to Dubai for subsidised medical treatments.”

    He added: “This is just a short-term measure. In that, the Saudi-German Group in collaboration with our Nigerian partners will soon be setting-up a $30m state-of-the-art cancer treatment centre in Abuja.”

    The hospital’s International Patient Affairs Advisor, Semira Dikbas, said as a first contact person of the hospital, she was always ready to give the best to patients at all times, especially in the areas of  hospitality and logistics.

  • Adamawa cholera outbreak: WHO deploys 39 in Mubi

    The World Health Organisation (WHO) has deployed 39 workers in Mubi North and South, Adamawa State, to contain cholera.

    A statement by the Health Emergencies Communication Officer, Chima Onuekwe, said there were plans to engage additional 15 ad hoc personnel, saying that WHO was coordinating response activities, including active surveillance within communities and health facilities, management of reported cases, and review meetings at the Emergency Operations Centre.

    Commissioner for Health Dr Fatima Atiku said the state was collaborating with WHO and other partners to contain the outbreak.

    Atiku said efforts were yielding results as shown by the decline in the fatality ratio, which was 17 per cent as at May 12, but now reduced to three per cent.

  • Adamawa Cholera Outbreak: WHO deploys 39 staff to Mubi

    The World Health Organization (WHO) has deployed 39 staff to contain the outbreak of cholera in Mubi North and Mubi South South Local Government Areas of Adamawa.

    A statement from Chima Onuekwe, the Health Emergencies Communication Officer of WHO, made available to Our Reporter in Yola on Tuesday, said there were plans to engage additional 15 ad-hoc personnel to boost the medical efforts.

    The statement which noted that 434 suspected cases had been recorded with 13 deaths as at May 26, described the development as worrisome.

    It said that WHO was coordinating the response activities, including active surveillance within communities and health facilities, management of reported cases as well as daily review meeting at the Emergency Operations Centre, to ensure timely control of the outbreak.

    Meanwhile, the Adamawa Commissioner for Health, Dr Fatima Atiku, said that the state was collaborating with WHO and other partners to ensure that the outbreak was contained.

    Atiku said that the efforts were yielding results as indicated in the decline in the trend of case fatality ratio, which was 17 per cent as at May 12, but reduced to 3 per cent.

  • Nigeria seeks special category for immunization coverage

    The wife of the senate president, Mrs Toyin Saraki has made a case for increased support from the WHO to Nigeria in the area of immunization coverage. Mrs Saraki who attended a technical briefing to launch the Business Case for WHO Immunization Activities on the African continent at the 7th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, requested a special category for Nigeria in global health issues.

    Appreciating the transformation role of WHO in the country’s health sector, Mrs Saraki appealed to the country office to consider capacity building programmes for the private sector and civil society in driving immunization activities within the country.

    Also joining in making a case for an increased support to Nigeria is Dr Abdullahi Bulama Garba; Director, Planning, Research and Statistics of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Abuja who posited that Nigeria needs additional support on immunization bearing the population of the country. Abdullahi added that without additional support, Nigeria may not be able to achieve eradication of vaccine preventable diseases within the stipulated time.

    Responding to the request, Dr Richard Mihigo, the programme coordinator, Immunization and Vaccine Development, WHO, said Nigeria is a top priority country not only for polio but other immunization themes. Admitting the importance of civil society groups in eradicating deaths from vaccine preventable diseases, Dr Mihigo revealed that WHO is poised to finding local solutions by seeking to support the primary health care revitalization system in Nigeria.

    “The health system in Nigeria is quite fundamental and we do recognize the disparity across the different states. It is with that complexity in mind that the WHO is working with the government of Nigeria and supporting the ministry of health to develop a specific business case for Nigeria”, he said.

    According to the WHO regional office for Africa, data from the Business Case highlights that curbing four major vaccine-preventable diseases – measles, rubella, rotavirus and pneumococcal diseases – could save more than 1.9 million lives in Africa, avert 167 million VPD cases and generate $58 billion in economic benefits by 2030. The return on this investment has been estimated to be $37 for every dollar invested, with returns going up to $93 for measles elimination.

  • Tramadol, Codeine:  Reps propose N2m fine, two years jail-term for offenders

    An amendment bill that passed in the House of Representatives Tuesday has proposed a N2 million fine and a 2-year jail term for offenders of the ban on Tramadol and Codeine

    The bill which seeks to amend the Food, Drugs and Related Products (Registration, etc) Act Cap. F33 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to review the penalties and confer jurisdiction on High Court of the State to try offences under the Act, was sponsored by Hon. Betty Apiafi (PDP Rivers) and passed second reading Tuesday.

    The principal act regulates the manufacture, importation, exportation, advertisement, sale or distribution of processed food, drug and related products and their registration.

    In the lead debate on the bill, Apiafi said: “In Nigeria, between January and December 2015, Ibe thousand and forty-four (1044) patients were admitted for treatment in the 11 treatment centers currently part of e Nigeria Epidemiological Network  of Drug Use ( NENDU)  reporting system.

    Read Also:Codeine ban: NDLEA arrests 17 suspects

    “28.3 percent of the patients had an opiate addiction and the opiates were mainly prescription Medicines: Tramadol (71 percent as 1st most frequently used substance and specified), Codeine (15.1 percent) and Pentazocine (9.9 percent), Heroine and Morphine represented only 3.3 percent of t opiates declared,” she said.

    She added that since 2015, Codeine has nearly overtaken Tramadol as the most abused opiate in Nigeria. “Thousands of young people in Nigeria are addicted to Codeine cough syrup- a medicine that has become a street drug. Three million bottles are drunk everyday in Nigeria’s North alone, according to a recent Nigerian government report.”

    She also noted that the World Health Organisation, WHO estimated in 2011, that 64 percent of antimalarial drugs in the country were found to be counterfeit.

    “it is assessed that counterfeit drugs provided approximately $75 billion  in revenue annually to illegal operators and have caused more than 150,000 deaths worldwide,” Apiafi said, adding that ” we legislators must also do our part in this war against commercialisation of illegal unregistered food and drugs.”

    Sections 6, 7, 9 and 13 of the Principal Act were amended in the new bill which the lawmaker said was birthed 25 years ago and had never seen any amendment or reform till date.

    The new bill stipulates penalties for individuals up to the tune of N500, 000 or a prison term of 2 years or both; and in the case of a corporate body, all the directors, managers. Partners, trustees etc would be guilty of an offence and would be punished as it they had committed the offence themselves.

    The bill was referred to the House committee on Healthcare Services after it was passed by majority of members in the floor.

  • WHO calls for urgent actions on health problems

    The 71st General Assembly of the World Health Organization (W.H.O) was declared opened in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday with the Director-General of the organisation, Dr Tedros Adhanom Gbebreyesus calling for a shared sense of purpose in tackling the world’s health challenges.

    In his keynote address, Gbereyesus said there is no commodity in the world more precious than health and as such, an organization charged with defending the health of 7 billion people bears great responsibility and must be held to high standards.

    Citing the camp for internally displaced persons in Nigeria and the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo; the DG called for a sense of urgency in tackling world health problems since every moment lost is a matter of life and death.

    While praising the commitment of WHO staff and health workers who risk their lives to serve others, Dr Gbereyesus pointed at the establishment of a High-Level Commission on Noncommunicable Diseases as part of the means to stop the premature and preventable deaths of millions of people.

    Other initiatives established in the last one year under Gbereyesus, who made history as the first African to head the organization, include an initiative on climate change in small island developing states, the Global Fund and civil society initiative to treat all 4 million people globally who are infected with tuberculosis and an aggressive new initiative to jumpstart progress against malaria.

    Describing malaria as an entirely treatable disease which kills half a million people every year, he listed other objectives geared towards promoting health and keeping the world safe to include the drive for the elimination of cervical cancer and a new initiative to eliminate trans-fats from the global food supply by 2023.

    While disclosing that the WHO had in the past one year responded to 50 emergencies in 47 countries, including Nigeria, he announced the establishment of the Global Preparedness Monitoring (GPW) Board, an independent initiative convened by WHO and the World Bank to monitor system-wide preparedness for emergencies.

    “Too much is at stake for us to be modest. we will not settle for a world in which there is a 33-year difference in life expectancy between some countries.

    “We will not settle for a world in which people get sick because the air they breathe is not fit for human consumption. We will not settle for a world in which people have to choose between sickness and poverty because of the costs of paying for care out of their own pockets. That is what our new GPW is all about,” he stated.

    He hinted on the transformation plans to make WHO more efficient by streamlining practices that lead to wastage as well as ensuring gender balance and greater geographical diversity throughout WHO.

    President Paul Kagame, Chairperson of the African Union and President of Rwanda, was the guest speaker at the assembly which boasts of about 4000 delegates from WHO’s 194 Member States and partner organizations. The Assembly is WHO’s highest decision-making body, setting out the Organization’s policy and approving its budget.

  • WHO unveils catalogue on essential diagnostic tests

    THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has published its first Essential Diagnostics List, a catalogue of the tests to diagnose the most common conditions and some global priority diseases.

    According to WHO, many people  do not get tested for diseases because they cannot access diagnostic services. Many are incorrectly diagnosed. As a result, they do not receive the treatment they need and, in some cases, may actually receive the wrong treatment, WHO said.

    For example, about 46 percent of adults with Type 2 diabetes worldwide are undiagnosed, risking serious health complications and higher health costs. Late diagnosis of infectious diseases, such as HIV and tuberculosis, increases the risk of spread and makes them more difficult to treat.

    “An accurate diagnosis is the first step to getting effective treatment,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, adding: “No one should suffer or die because of a lack of diagnostic services, or because the right tests were not available.”

    The list concentrates on in vitro tests, that is, tests of human specimens like blood and urine. It contains 113 products: 58 tests are listed for detection and diagnosis of a wide range of common conditions, providing an essential package that can form the basis for screening and management of patients.The remaining tests are designed for the detection, diagnosis and monitoring of “priority” diseases, such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, hepatitis B and C, human papillomavirus and syphilis.

    Some of the tests are suitable for primary health care facilities, where laboratory services are often poorly resourced and sometimes non-existent; for example, tests that can rapidly diagnose a child for acute malaria or glucometers to test diabetes.These tests do not require electricity or trained personnel.  Other tests are more sophisticated and, therefore, intended for larger medical facilities.

    “Our aim is to provide a tool that can be useful to all countries, to test and treat better, but also to use health funds more efficiently by concentrating on the truly essential tests. Our other goal is to signal to countries and developers that the tests in the list must be of good quality, safe and affordable,” said Mariângela Simão, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines, Vaccines and Pharmaceuticals.

    For each category of test, the Essential Diagnostics List specifies the type of test and intended use, format, and if appropriate for primary health care or for health facilities with laboratories. The list also provides links to WHO Guidelines or publications and, when available, to prequalified products.

    Similar to the WHO Essential Medicines List, which has been in use for four decades, the Essential Diagnostics List is intended to serve as a reference for countries to update or develop their own list of essential diagnostics. To truly benefit patients, national governments will need to ensure appropriate and quality-assured supplies, training of health care workers and safe use. WHO will provide support to countries as they adapt the list to the local context.

    The Essential Diagnostics List was developed following consultations within WHO and externally. The draft list was then considered for review by WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on In-Vitro Diagnostics – a group of 19 experts with global representation.

    WHO will update the Essential Diagnostics List regularly. In the coming months, WHO will issue a call for applications to add categories to the next edition. The list will expand over the next few years, as it incorporates other important areas including anti-microbial resistance, emerging pathogens, neglected tropical diseases and additional non-communicable diseases.

     

  • Ebola outbreak spreads to DR Congo city

    The Ebola outbreak in DR Congo has spread from the countryside into a city, prompting fears that the disease will be increasingly hard to control.

    The country’s Health Minister, Oly Ilunga Kalenga, confirmed a case in Mbandaka, a city of a million people about 130km (80 miles) from the area where the first cases were confirmed earlier this month.

    The city is a major transportation hub with routes to Kinshasa, the BBC reports.

    At least 42 people have now been infected and 23 confirmed dead.

    Ebola is a serious infectious illness that causes internal bleeding and often proves fatal.

    It can spread rapidly through contact with small amounts of bodily fluid and its early flu-like symptoms are not always obvious.

    The 2014-16 West Africa outbreak, which killed 11,300 people, was particularly deadly because it spread to the capital cities of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

    Senior World Health Organization (WHO) official, Peter Salama, said the spread to Mbandaka meant there was the potential for an “explosive increase” in cases.

    “This is a major development in the outbreak,” he told the BBC.

    “We have urban Ebola, which is a very different animal from rural Ebola. The potential for an explosive increase in cases is now there.”

     

  • WHO to use Ebola vaccine in Congo

    The World Health Organization said on Friday it hopes to deploy an experimental Ebola vaccine to tackle an outbreak in a remote area of Congo to prevent it spreading, particularly to the provincial capital of one million people.

    Congo reported the outbreak on Tuesday, with 32 suspected, probable or confirmed cases of the disease since April 4, including 18 deaths, Reuters reported.

    A new suspected case was reported on Friday.

    The WHO is moving quickly, having been criticised for bungling its response to a 2014-2016 outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

    “We are very concerned and planning for all scenarios, including the worst case scenario,” Peter Salama, WHO’s Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, told a regular United Nations briefing in Geneva.

    He said the outbreak area is 15 hours by motorbike from the closest town and has “absolutely dire” infrastructure.

    “So, the WHO wants to send in 20-40 experts by helicopter this weekend and then clear an airstrip for more supplies.

    “This is going to be tough and it’s going to be costly to stamp out this outbreak,” he added.

     

  • WHO prepares for worst case Ebola scenario

    … Hopes to deploy vaccine

     

    The WHO is preparing for the worst case scenario in an Ebola outbreak in a remote area of Congo, including spread to a major town.

    WHO Deputy Director-General of Emergency Preparedness and Response Peter Salama on Friday told a regular UN briefing in Geneva that he hoped the Democratic Republic of Congo would give the green light within days for the deployment of an experimental vaccine, but warned that the drug was complicated to use and was not a magic bullet.

    He said the WHO had alerted the nine neighbouring countries but currently regarded the risk of regional spread as “moderate”.

    NAN reports that on May 30, 2017, the regulatory and ethics-review boards in the DRC approved the use of an experimental Ebola vaccine to combat.

    The vaccines is called “rVSV-ZEBOV”.

    NAN reports that the WHO said 17 people have died since inhabitants of a village in the country’s northwest began showing symptoms resembling Ebola in December,

    This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo since the disease made its first known appearance – near the vast central African country’s northern Ebola river – in the 1970s.

    “One of the defining features of this epidemic is the fact that three health professionals have been affected,” Health Minister Oly Ilunga said in a statement. “This situation worries us and requires an immediate and energetic response.”

    Most of the cases so far have been recorded around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the northwestern town of Bikoro.

    Congo’s long experience of Ebola and its remote geography mean outbreaks are often localised and relatively easy to isolate.

    But Ikoko Impenge and Bikoro are situated not far from the banks of the Congo River, a major artery for trade and transport upstream from the capital Kinshasa.

    The Congo Republic is just on the other side of the river.

    A spokesman for the director of epidemiology in Congo Republic said government experts would meet on Thursday to discuss measures to prevent it crossing the border.

    Nigeria’s immigration service said on Thursday it had increased screening tests at airports and other entry points as a precautionary measure.

    Similar measures helped it contain the virus during the West African epidemic that began in 2013.

    Officials in Guinea and Gambia both said they had heightened screening measures along their borders to prevent the spread.

    Democratic Republic of Congo’s health ministry said it had dispatched a team of 12 experts to the northwest to try to trace new contacts of the disease, identify the epicentre and all affected villages and provide resources.

    Ebola is most feared for the internal and external bleeding it can cause in its victims owing to damage done to blood vessels.