Health

Inside Abuja Area One IDP Camp where hunger and sickness prevail

Inside Abuja Area One IDP Camp where hunger and sickness prevail

By Daniel Adaji Hajia Bintu Ali, a 53-year-old mother of ten, fled to the Abuja Area One Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp for refuge after a deadly Boko Haram attack in her community in Gwoza local government area, Borno state. Everyone fled for safety. Many persons were killed, and several others are missing to date. I lost my husband and three of my children. I escaped with the next available vehicle to Abuja where I decided to seek refuge in the IDP camp,” she told The Insight. While narrating the horrors she’d experienced, Bintu also expressed concerns over her mother’s…
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Report:  34 States fail to meet the 15% adequate health funding benchmark between 2020 and 2022

Report: 34 States fail to meet the 15% adequate health funding benchmark between 2020 and 2022

Nigeria's health budget as a percentage of the total budget is declining Public health allocations by state governments per person have fallen from $10.8 per person in 2020 to $8.5 per person in 2022 By Daniel Adaji Federal and several state governments in Nigeria continue to fall short of the 15 percent continental health funding benchmark for African countries, despite the threats of the COVID pandemic, healthcare challenges, and poor health outcomes in the country. A new health report released today by The ONE Campaign revealed this. Nigeria continue to fall short of the 15 percent continental health funding benchmark…
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Oversight: Zulum shows up 10pm at Bama hospital

Oversight: Zulum shows up 10pm at Bama hospital

… Demands to know hospital’s problems … To spend days in Bama for humanitarian activities By Daniel Adaji Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, on Monday night showed up unannounced at the General Hospital in Bama for on-the-spot monitoring of healthcare services’ delivery to the public. Professor Zulum visited the hospital at 10pm, not long after arriving Bama town by road from Maiduguri. The governor has since formed the habit of paying surprise visits at night to general hospitals and primary healthcare centres while he goes to schools early mornings and at other times to observe quality of public…
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Here are countries to where Nigerian doctors flee, and why

Here are countries to where Nigerian doctors flee, and why

By Theophilus Abbah Though emigration of doctors from Nigeria to developed countries is not a new phenomenon, a recent survey has revealed that the current rate of emigration by doctors which intensified in that last three years may be injurious to the country’s health sector. The survey conducted NOI Poll and Nigeria Health Watch showed that out of 72,000 medical doctors registered with the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, only approximately 35,000 are practising in the country. This is in spite of the fact that an estimated 3,000 doctors graduate from the medical schools of Nigerian universities annually. The…
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10 Takeaway from Buhari’s second speech on Covid-19

10 Takeaway from Buhari’s second speech on Covid-19

 92% of all identified contacts with Covid-19 positive persons has been identified. Testing capacity doubled – 1,500 tests could be conducted daily 7,000 health care workers trained in ‘infection prevention and control’ Health care workers across all the treatment centers have been provided with the personal protective equipment NCDC team deployed in 19 out of 36 states. Special focus will be on Abuja and Lagos Isolation facilities are being provided at airports, Abuja, Lagos, and some states. Quarantine Order will be signed into law soon Policy on Economy under Covid-19 to be worked out by ministers. Governors will now be…
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‘How they survived Covid-19’

‘How they survived Covid-19’

As Covid-19 pandemic is ruining the lives of thousands of persons across the world, some survivors are telling their stories, which span the signs and symptoms of the virus attack, quality of medical support they received, the height of fear they suffered, some common social and health solutions, and how they eventually recovered from the ailment. The stories of three survivors, published by The Sun of London on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, are inspiring and encouraging. Mum Mendy Charlton said she went to the hospital when she began to feel feverish and tested over 100F (37.7C). The other symptom she…
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10 Main Points in Buhari’s Covid-19 Speech

10 Main Points in Buhari’s Covid-19 Speech

Whole instrument of government mobilized to tackle pandemic Covid-19 has no cure to date Three preventive measures are (i) regular hygiene (ii) sanitary practice (iii) social distancing N15 billion set aside as response Citizens in Lagos, FCT and Ogun should stay at home Air travels suspended Relief materials for satellite towns in Lagos and Abuja IDPs to receive food ration for two months Stadia, pilgrims camp, etc to be converted to makeshift hospitals Hundreds of adhoc staff recruited all over the country. Fellow Nigerians, From the first signs that Coronavirus, or COVID-19 was turning into an epidemic and was officially…
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Benue ‘strange’ illness: No test results after 2 months; death toll now 16

Benue ‘strange’ illness: No test results after 2 months; death toll now 16

  ‘Bacteria count in the water was high’ I n January, this year, the Oye-Obi rural community of Igede-speaking natives in Obi Local Government Area of Benue State, came under surveillance by health officials after an ‘unknown ailment’ reportedly caused the deaths in the area. At least, 16 people have been reported dead but villagers in the affected community claimed there had been rise in the death toll. The State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Sunday Ongbabo, told our correspondent on Friday by telephone that, "there are no new cases presently. Five people are now remaining on admission…
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[Health] How to prevent Corona virus

[Health] How to prevent Corona virus

On February 27, 2020, the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed the first case of the corona virus in Nigeria. The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said in a statement that an Italian citizen who worked in Nigeria returned from Italy on February 25, 2020 and tested positive for the virus. Here are some tips on the corona virus and how to prevent it from spreading. How Corona virus spreads In a document circulated by the World Health Organisation, the following are some of the way this virus is spread: When someone who has Corona virus coughs or exhales, he/she…
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Clinics with nothing :  How millions meant for the sick are never spent

Clinics with nothing : How millions meant for the sick are never spent

Healthcare in Nigeria is incredibly complicated. Large budgets are trapped on different government levels, only accessible to those who know how to work the system. The Primary Healthcare Centre in Ugbamaka-Igah village in Kogi State, Nigeria, is overgrown with grasses. The labour and patient wards as well as the other rooms of the clinic are covered with dust and cobwebs and the lab is void of equipment and chemicals. Health personnel at the facility idle around. They do have some medicines for common conditions, they say, which they could dispense if a patient would show up, but for many ailments…
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India: 2,050 diagnostic equipment arrives Borno

India: 2,050 diagnostic equipment arrives Borno

A total of two thousand and fifty light weight medical equipment, amongst them sets of tools for Laparoscopy surgeries are expected to arrive Maiduguri next week, following Governor Kashim Shettima's trip to India, where he led negotiations with Indian manufacturers, secured discounted prices and gave necessary approvals for the medical equipment that are of German quality. Dr Salisu Kwayabura, a consultant gynecologist and Borno's Commissioner of health coordinated and supervised selection of equipment and negotiations in India.‎ Laparoscopy, which soon commence in Borno hospitals, is a modern surgical procedure in which surgeons use specific instruments to create access to the…
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