Maternal and Child Deaths: A Battle Gombe State Is Not Winning

By Auwal Ahmad, Gombe

Gombe State Government of Nigeria used to pride itself as running a free maternal and child health (FMCH) programme. Recently, the government allegedly suspended the programme for reasons that the public, particularly maternal and child survival activists, consider to hold no water. Analysts have expressed shock and dismay over this decision that the public see as insensitive to the plight of the poor. The question has been: why completely remove funding for a programme that was actually not fully addressing the problem because of the insufficiency of funding?

Everyday, Nigeria loses 2,300 under-five year old children and 145 women of child-bearing age, according to the 2013 edition of Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), which puts Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) at 576 deaths per 100,000 live births. The meaning, according to experts, is that out of every 100,000 live births, 576 women die within 42 days of childbirth of causes related to or aggravated by pregnancy or its management (excluding accidental or incidental causes).

With about 7 million births annually, Nigeria records 40,000 maternal deaths yearly, and ranks second highest in maternal mortality globally. According to reports by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the North East Zone, has the highest maternal mortality ratio of 1,549/100,000 live births, compared to 165/100,000 live births in the South West Zone. The highest neonatal mortality rate (death of infants within the first 28 days of life) is also in the North-East and North-West regions of the country.
Gombe State, in the north-east region, posts an MMR that is lower than the regional average but uncomplimentary all the same. With a projected population of 3,022,590, the state’s hospital-based maternal mortality rate is said to be much higher than the national average. For this reason, activists say the state government needs to restore FMCH immediately, otherwise the state’s maternal death ratio would follow the recent national pattern.
According to Dr. Ejike Orji, Chair of the Coalition for Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health Accountability in Nigeria (C4MAN), the national ratio, which was brought down to well under 500 by the national Midwives Services Scheme (MSS), shot up to the current level—576—after the abrogation of MSS last year. Most of the people our correspondent spoke with believe that if re-introduced, Gombe’s FMCH programme would help in reducing the death of pregnant women and children.

It is common knowledge that some of the underlying causes of maternal and child deaths in northern Nigeria are rooted in cultural and religious factors that make proven, effective modern healthcare inaccessible to women. However, poor funding and inappropriate government policies are more directly related factors.

Mr. Musa Abubakar, who describes himself as a maternal and child health stakeholder in the state, says that poor access to quality and affordable healthcare, and lack of emergency obstetric care are factors working against maternal and child health in the state. Suspension of free access to these services can only make matters worse, he says.

Experts point out that most maternal deaths are preventable, as the health care technologies to prevent or manage complications are well known. Pregnant women only need access to antenatal care, skilled care during childbirth, and care and support in the weeks after childbirth. It is important that all births are attended by skilled health professionals, as timely management can mean the difference between life and death for both the mother and the baby, Abubakar explains. He adds that unless there is urgent improvement in service access and timely release of funds budgeted for the health sector, the state would continue to record high numbers of maternal death.

Also speaking with our correspondent on funding, the State Chairman of Media Coalition on Neonatal and Child Health (MNCH), Alhassan Yahya, said that the allocation to the health sector is inadequate, and cannot “go round” in terms of providing health coverage for all.

“Looking at the approved budget in our health sector in 2016 and estimates for 2017, allocation to the health sector is grossly inadequate,” he also says. “From our analysis, the percentage allocated to health was 9.7 per cent in 2016. This was grossly inadequate, looking at the population growth rate of 3.2 per cent and the influx of internally displaced persons.”

The consequence of poor funding and inappropriate policies is wide-ranging, activists say. All the primary health care centres are in poor condition and without adequate numbers of doctors, midwives, nurses and other health workers.

Gombe State has 615 health facilities comprising 592 primary health care centres, 22 secondary facilities, and one tertiary facility. The number of health care workers in the public sector in the state is 4,081. At 1,209, community health extension workers (CHEWs) constitute the majority; nurses and midwives follow with a strength of 1,150. Others are junior community health extension workers - 605; doctors - 163; community health officers - 114; environmental health officers, environmental health technicians, and environmental health assistants - 560; and more than 1,000 village health workers.

“Most maternal deaths are due to lack of skilled attendance at delivery, lack of access to obstetric emergency care, and poor access to family planning, among others,” said Mr. Abubakar. He added that some of the maternal deaths occur due to a mix of harmful cultural practices, poor health services, poor health funding, transport difficulties, inadequate infrastructure, and social disorganization. He therefore urges government to improve services in the health facilities, adding that skilled attendance during childbirth will reduce the number of deaths and the number of women who develop obstetric fistula, another major maternal problem.

It is known, however, that facility utilization will not improve simply because access has improved; there will be need to persuade women to embrace orthodox medical services. He therefore urges government to step up behavior change communications in this regard.

Mrs. Hannatu Luka, a retired midwife, says that many women who live in rural areas have no access to good health facilities, adding that when they go into labour, they have to trek long distances to get to a health facility. This is inimical to maternal health, because delays and unduly prolonged labour lead to birth complications such as obstetric fistula. She said prolonged labour is one of the five major causes of maternal death. She also said that government needs to implement some of the reproductive health policies that tackle the root causes of maternal death and obstetric fistula—delays in accessing emergency obstetric care—and invest more funds in emergency obstetric services.

“There is also the need to increase awareness about obstetric fistula at the community level; improve the health seeking behaviour of women at the community level; institute girl child education, women empowerment, poverty reduction, road networks, and other infrastructure,” Mrs. Luka said.

Investigations in Gombe State’s central and northern senatorial zones revealed poor amenities in health facilities, and total absence of safe delivery kits. Most of the facilities lack trained health workers such as midwives, nurses, and doctors to handle critical cases and emergencies.

At Nafada General Hospital, the Acting Chief Nurse, Mr. Maruwa Fware said that the maternity ward, which shares the same building with two additional wards—the children’s and women’s wards—has only three midwives, while 17 nurses and two doctors serve the entire hospital. He said there is urgent need for additional midwives, nurses, and professional health workers, as well as delivery kits, manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) sets, emergency drugs like oxytocin and misoprostol to save the lives of women.

At Bajoga General Hospital, Chief Nursing Officer Saleh Gadam, said that the hospital has three midwives, three doctors, and 32 nurses, and that there is need for more health workers in all categories to cover all the units in the hospital. Human resources are required to detect and appropriately manage common life-threatening maternal health issues such as pre-eclampsia before the onset of convulsions (eclampsia), adding that drugs such as magnesium sulphate (for pre-eclampsia) and drugs for other emergencies should be available in all health facilities to save the lives of women. At the moment, such drugs are rarely available in the required quantities.

Deba General Hospital, which is a 57-bed facility, has three doctors, two midwives, and three nurse-midwives. One of the doctors, who asked for anonymity, said the hospital is in bad shape in terms of manpower, equipment, and other necessities. He explained that a major problem is that primary health centres lack manpower to handle proper care of pregnant women from rural areas, adding that government needs to make health its second priority after education, as an unhealthy population cannot develop meaningfully or adequately exploit the opportunities provided by education.

Currently, he explained, the attention given education makes it the first, second, and third priorities of the government. He also said the government needs to get its priorities right now that development partners – the international donors to the health sector – are pulling out. The assistance of development partners has traditionally helped to make up for financial lapses in the health sector.


Ibrahim BakoNafada Director Primary Health Care in the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, says that primary health care is the first line of service delivery, adding that the agency has concluded plans to recruit more nurses, midwives, community health extension workers, and junior community health extension workers to help address the problem of maternal mortality in the state.
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Breastfeeding is not a one-woman job Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director

SOURCE OF THE PICTURE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER





Virtually every country around the world observes World Breastfeeding Week each year for good reason: breastfeeding is one of the smartest investments that a country, a community, and a family can make.

The theme of this year’s World Breastfeeding Week is "Sustaining Breastfeeding Together," because all of us – governments, decision-makers, development partners, professional bodies, academia, media, advocates, and other stakeholders – must work together to strengthen existing partnerships and forge new ways to invest in and support breastfeeding for a more sustainable future.

Breastfeeding helps provide children everywhere with the healthiest start to life. It acts as the child’s first vaccine by providing antibodies. It contributes to healthy growth and development, protecting children during their critical first two years, as well as later in life. And breastfeeding also benefits mothers, decreasing their risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and diabetes.

Enabling the Sustainable Development Goals

Breastfeeding is good not only for mothers and babies. It is critical for achievement of many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It improves nutrition (SDG2), prevents child mortality and decreases the risk of noncommunicable diseases (SDG3), and supports cognitive development and education (SDG4). Breastfeeding is also an enabler to ending poverty, promoting economic growth, and reducing inequalities.

"Breastfeeding helps provide children everywhere with the healthiest start to life. It acts as the child’s first vaccine by providing antibodies."

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General
Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director

It also benefits national economies, by helping to lower health care costs, increase educational attainment and, ultimately, boost productivity. Indeed, breastfeeding is one of the most cost effective investments available. Every US$ 1 invested in supporting breastfeeding generates an estimated US$ 35 dollars in economic returns across lower- and middle-income countries (1). By contrast, low breastfeeding rates translate into billions of dollars’ worth of lost productivity and health care costs to treat preventable illnesses and chronic diseases.
Recognizing the crucial role of breastfeeding in global health and development, in 2012, the 194 Member States of the World Health Assembly committed to a target of increasing the global rate of exclusive breastfeeding in the first six months of life from a baseline of 37% to 50% by 2025. Subsequently, the United Nations proclaimed a Decade of Action on Nutrition (2016–2025), inviting countries to implement a Framework for Action that includes a number of measures in support of breastfeeding.

Rapid progress is possible with investments in policies and programmes that better support a woman’s decision to breastfeed and ensure that more of the world’s children have the opportunity to thrive.

Launch of the Global Breastfeeding Collective

Consequently, UNICEF and WHO have come together with 20 prominent international agencies and nongovernmental organizations to form the Global Breastfeeding Collective, to be launched on August 1, the first day of World Breastfeeding Week. The Collective is calling on governments, donors and other stakeholders to advance policies and programmes to enable more mothers to breastfeed.

These policies and programmes include:

enforcing the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes so that breast-milk substitute companies cannot mislead women;
strengthening policy provisions that support family leave and breastfeeding in the workplace to encourage more working mothers to breastfeed their babies;
improving the quality of maternity care to provide new mothers with breastfeeding support;
increasing access to skilled breastfeeding counselling in the health system;
fostering community networks that support women in breastfeeding;
strengthening information systems to track progress towards the global goal of increasing breastfeeding; and
increasing funding to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding is not a one-woman job. Mothers need assistance and support from their health care providers, families, employers, communities, and governments so they can provide their children with the healthiest start to life. Together, we can support women to breastfeed and protect the health and well-being of future generations.





An Investment Framework for Meeting the Global Nutrition Target for Breastfeeding, 2016. The World Bank Group.
Walters, D., Eberwein, J.D., Sullivan, L., D’Alimonte, M., and Shekar, M.

Eliminate hepatitis: WHO

News release

27 JULY 2017 | GENEVA - New WHO data from 28 countries - representing approximately 70% of the global hepatitis burden - indicate that efforts to eliminate hepatitis are gaining momentum. Published to coincide with World Hepatitis Day, the data reveal that nearly all 28 countries have established high-level national hepatitis elimination committees (with plans and targets in place) and more than half have allocated dedicated funding for hepatitis responses.

On World Hepatitis Day, WHO is calling on countries to continue to translate their commitments into increased services to eliminate hepatitis. This week, WHO has also added a new generic treatment to its list of WHO-prequalified hepatitis C medicines to increase access to therapy, and is promoting prevention through injection safety: a key factor in reducing hepatitis B and C transmission.

From commitment to Action

"It is encouraging to see countries turning commitment into action to tackle hepatitis." said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. "Identifying interventions that have a high impact is a key step towards eliminating this devastating disease. Many countries have succeeded in scaling-up the hepatitis B vaccination. Now we need to push harder to increase access to diagnosis and treatment."

World Hepatitis Day 2017 is being commemorated under the theme "Eliminate Hepatitis" to mobilize intensified action towards the health targets in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. In 2016, the World Health Assembly endorsed WHO’s first global health sectors strategy on viral hepatitis to help countries scale up their responses.

The new WHO data show that more than 86% of countries reviewed have set national hepatitis elimination targets and more than 70% have begun to develop national hepatitis plans to enable access to effective prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care services. Furthermore, nearly half of the countries surveyed are aiming for elimination through providing universal access to hepatitis treatment. But WHO is concerned that progress needs to speed up.

"The national response towards hepatitis elimination is gaining momentum. However, at best one in ten people who are living with hepatitis know they are infected and can access treatment. This is unacceptable," said Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, WHO's Director of the HIV Department and Global Hepatitis Programme.

"For hepatitis elimination to become a reality, countries need to accelerate their efforts and increase investments in life-saving care. There is simply no reason why many millions of people still have not been tested for hepatitis and cannot access the treatment for which they are in dire need."

Viral hepatitis affected 325 million people worldwide in 2015, with 257 million people living with hepatitis B and 71 million people living with hepatitis C - the two main killers of the five types of hepatitis. Viral hepatitis caused 1.34 million deaths in 2015 – a figure close to the number of TB deaths and exceeding deaths linked to HIV.

Improving access to hepatitis C cure

Hepatitis C can be completely cured with direct acting antivirals (DAAs) within 3 months. However, as of 2015, only 7% of the 71 million people with chronic hepatitis C had access to treatment.

WHO is working to ensure that DAAs are affordable and accessible to those who need them. Prices have dropped dramatically in some countries (primarily in some high-burden, low-and lower middle income countries), facilitated by the introduction of generic versions of these medicines. The list of DAAs available to countries for treating hepatitis C is growing.

WHO has just prequalified the first generic version of one of these drugs: sofosbuvir. The average price of the required three-month treatment course of this generic is between US$260 and US$280, a small fraction of the original cost of the medicine when it first went on the market in 2013. WHO prequalification guarantees a product’s quality, safety and efficacy and means it can now be procured by the United Nations and financing agencies such as UNITAID, which now includes medicines for people living with HIV who also have hepatitis C in the portfolio of conditions it covers.

Hepatitis B treatment

With high morbidity and mortality globally, there is great interest also in the development of new therapies for chronic hepatitis B virus infection. The most effective current hepatitis B treatment, tenofovir, (which is not curative and which in most cases needs to be taken for life), is available for as low as $48 per year in many low and middle income countries. There is also an urgent need to scale up access to hepatitis B testing.

Improving injection safety and infection prevention to reduce new cases of hepatitis B and C

Use of contaminated injection equipment in health-care settings accounts for a large number of new HCV and HBV infections worldwide, making injection safety an important strategy.Others include preventing transmission through invasive procedures, such as surgery and dental care; increasing hepatitis B vaccination rates and scaling up harm reduction programmes for people who inject drugs.

Today WHO is launching a range of new educational and communication tools to support a campaign entitled "Get the Point-Make smart injection choices" to improve injection safety in order to prevent hepatitis and other bloodborne infections in health-care settings.

Injection safety tools and resources
World Hepatitis Summit

World Hepatitis Summit 2017, 1–3 November in São Paulo, Brazil, promises to be the largest global event to advance the viral hepatitis agenda, bringing together key players to accelerate the global response. Organised jointly by WHO, the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) and the Government of Brazil, the theme of the Summit is "Implementing the Global health sector strategy on viral hepatitis: towards the elimination of hepatitis as a public health threat".

The 2017 Sasakawa Health Prize of US$30 000 for outstanding innovative work in health development, has been awarded to Dr Rinchin Arslan for his remarkable lifelong contribution to the advancement of primary health care in Mongolia and specifically his work in fighting viral hepatitis.

As a young doctor, graduated from Szeged Medial University in Hungary in 1967, Arslan was confronted with viral hepatitis as a growing – but then unconfirmed – health concern.

"Viral hepatitis emerged in the 1960–1970s and was declared the number one health issue causing considerable sickness and death. Children under 4 years of age made up half of the cases. Many of them had a history of life-saving intravenous blood plasma or fluid therapy and injections. My analysis indicated the possibility of hepatitis B infection, but that hypothesis needed to be proven. At that time we did not know much about hepatitis viruses, including hepatitis C, or their mode of transmission. We had no idea that the younger the person exposed to hepatitis B or C virus infection, the higher was the risk of developing chronic hepatitis that could lead to deadly liver cancer."
Through his research in the hepatitis B surface antigen, Arslan was able to demonstrate that hepatitis B was indeed endemic in Mongolia, and affected mainly children.

Arslan then devoted the next years to tackling viral hepatitis, advocating for improvements in injection and blood safety, and increases in hepatitis B vaccination. He designed the Mongolia National immunization programme which was crucial in significantly reducing viral hepatitis transmission at birth and acute viral hepatitis infection in young children.

Arslan was influential in expanding this programme in the 1990s, with the support of JICA,WHO, UNICEF and later GAVI, to sustain other much needed childhood vaccines – polio, DTP, measles and etc., during a difficult period of transition to democratic reforms in the country.

“Mongolia has made significant progress in fighting hepatitis B, but much more needs to be done if we are to end hepatitis C and B in the near future.”

The constantly changing economic, political, and development environment in Mongolia, as in many countries, determines the evolving health challenges.

In addition, Mongolia is prone to natural disasters – extreme cold – called “dzud“ – flooding, earthquakes, and disease outbreaks (such as influenza).

“Our preparedness for relief operations to protect young children, women and the most vulnerable, as well as our counseling services and psychosocial support, has always been a central concern. In my life-time I would love to see a quality health service which is accessible and affordable to all, with improved health education and training of our medical doctors, public health specialists, and health staff in remote areas of our country.

In 2017, the Mongolian government included hepatitis C medicine into the national health insurance program, which today covers a large proportion of its population. In addition, Mongolia has been a model country in its implementation of the hepatitis B birth dose and infant immunizations, as highlighted especially today by the Sasakawa Award presented to Dr Rinchin Arslan.

The Sasakawa Health Prize was established in 1984 by Mr Ryoichi, Chairman of the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation and President of the Sasakawa Memorial Health Foundation for outstanding accomplishments in health development.

Funds from the prize will be used to support the Ministry of Health to implement Government programmes on the control and reduction of hepatitis B. They will also be used for activities to increase advocacy for better health services and laboratory testing in remote facilities, implement best practices to avoid infection, and reduce possible stigma in families, workplaces, and schools. Funds will also be dedicated to co-organizing, with non-State actors, World Hepatitis Day (28 July) and to provide financial support to young researchers in hepatitis B.

“I am proud and happy to become a laureate of the prestigious Sasakawa award in recognition of my contribution to tackling viral hepatitis and the immunization of children as part of primary health care in my country. I would also like to stress the importance of contributions of the specialists of the former USSR to fighting infectious diseases, including viral hepatitis in Mongolia, and recognize the exclusive leadership and role of WHO, particularly under Dr Chan, in raising awareness of viral hepatitis in member countries.“

SOURCE WHO

Nigeria: Gombe Flags-Off Own Nutrition Programme to Address High Prevalence

Gombe (Nigeria) — In an effort to curb malnutrition, Gombe state government in northeast Nigeria has flag-off its Food and Nutrition Policy, and a five-year work plan on malnutrition programme in the state.

The policy and the 5-year implementation plan was developed by the state government with support from Save the Children International, who provided technical and financial resources.

Investigation reveals that from January to December 2016, a total of 13,059 children (6,483 males and 6,570 females) aged 6 – 59 months were admitted in health facilities, out of which 11,031 were treated, 833 defaulted, 149 non-recovered and 105 died.

From January to June this year 6,330 malnourished children were admitted, 4,470 treated, 25 deaths while 101 defaulted.

Speaking at the flag-off, State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mohammed Danladi Pantami, said, malnutrition remained a great challenge particularly for mothers and children, adding the NDHS 2013 has revealed that half of million children death each year, or about one out of every 2 child deaths in the country are as a result of malnutrition.

Malnutrition statistics given by the NDHS 2013, which northeast has 43.5 percent and the state has the highest rate, he said that the government seeing the need to address the situation and prevent it.

He however said, “Throughout the years of our developmental efforts, Gombe state and Nigeria have undergone remarkable challenge, where more children are surviving, the economy is growing, girls are better educated, more children are completing school and mothers attending pre and post-natal care”, he said.

Mr. Pantami said Federal government has set up National Council on Food and Nutrition chaired by the Vice President, and National Committee on Food and Nutrition which is coordinated by the Ministry of Budget and National Planning for strengthened multi-sectoral approach to the malnutrition issues in Nigeria

He urged all the line ministries and agencies to ensure that they capture their sectoral interventions in their respective annual budgets and make sure that they also apply to secure the release of the funds for implementation of these interventions.

In Nigeria, 3000 Women And Children Under 5 Years Die Daily From Preventable Disease — Official

By Iliya Kure


About 3000 women and children less than 5 years die daily from preventable disease in Nigeria despite efforts by government and other stakeholders.

Executive Director of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, stated this at the inauguration of a 21-member special committee to organise a national submit on Primary Health Care (PHC) to revamp the PHC system and mobilize needed resources for strengthening of the sector.

A statement by the Agency’s Spokesman, Saadu Salahu, says, the two day summit would also serve as a platform for cross fertilization of ideas arising from relevant stakeholders with responsibility for promoting primary health care in Nigeria.

The Executive Director identified significant gaps in technical coordination, system planning and integrated approach to policy implementation as some of the challenges facing the Agency and its partners in the achievement of its mandate on PHC.

He therefore charged all stakeholders on Primary Health Care to support the Committee for the success of their assignment.

In a remark, Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Health, Mohammed Usman assured the agency of the support of the National Assembly to the success of the summit, stressing that the House committee had been involved in advocacy to improve PHC.

Also speaking, the Executive Secretary FCT primary health care board Mathew Ashikeni expressed great delight in
the agency`s commitment to convening the National Summit on PHC at such a crucial time and pledged the support of all state primary health Boards to the success of the summit.

The 21-member committee for the national PHC Summit is headed by Oladimeji Olayinka, the Director Primary Health Care System Development in the Agency.


Members were drawn from NPHCDA, WHO, World Bank, BMGF, UNICEF, MAMAYE Evidence for Action, Preston Health Care Consulting, NGF, Association of Public Health Physicians, Nigeria Medical Association, National Association of Nurses and Midwives, National Association of Community Health Practitioners in Nigeria, Private Sector Health Alliance and other partners.

SOURCE: AFRICAN PRIME NEWS

More Than 7 Million Children Displaced In West And Central Africa Yearly

The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has on Wednesday revealed that more than seven million young people in West and Central Africa are displaced annually as a result of persistent conflict, poverty, climate change, rapid population growth/urbanization and inequitable economic development.

Other factors include weak governance and limited institutional capacity to support the most vulnerable populations.

UNICEF made this known in its latest report; ‘In Search of Opportunities: Voices of children on the move in West and Central Africa’.

According to the UN Agency, Children account for over half of the 12 million West and Central African people on the move each year, with some 75 per cent of them remaining in sub-Saharan Africa, and less than one in five heading to Europe.

UNICEF Regional Director, Marie-Pierre Poirier, while making the announcement said, “Children in West and Central Africa are moving in greater numbers than ever before, many in search of safety or a better life.

“Yet the majority of these children are moving within Africa, not to Europe or elsewhere. We must broaden the discussion on migration to encompass the vulnerabilities of all children on the move and expand systems to protect them, in all their intended destinations.”

According to the Report, “The region is projected to experience a three to four degree rise in temperature this century – more than one and a half times higher than anywhere else in the world. Severe flooding and drought is already causing the loss of livelihoods and displacement, while changing climate patterns are making some forms of agriculture increasingly unsustainable.

“Tensions over access to scarce resources for cattle and livestock are leading to hostilities in some rural areas, pushing greater numbers of people towards cities.”

The report finds that the region lacks sufficient protection systems – both within and across borders – to ensure the safety and wellbeing of refugee and migrant children, a gap which will become more pronounced with the projected increase in both national populations and migration.

The UN report which was based on a series of interviews with migrants and their families from several countries, states further that the factors if not addressed would continue to rise, hence, calling on policy makers to put children at the centre of any response to migration.

“This can be done by strengthening the chain of protection for children between countries of origin, transit and destination.

“The close cooperation of governments, UN, and non-governmental partners is critical to ensure children’s access to healthcare, education and other essential services, regardless of their migration status.

While urging the public to stand in solidarity with refugee and migrant children displaced by war, violence and poverty, UNICEF also called on all governments, in West and Central Africa, in Europe and elsewhere to adopt the six-point Agenda for Action for the protection of refugee and migrant children.

“The Protection of child refugees and migrants, particularly unaccompanied children, from exploitation and violence; End the detention of children seeking refugee status or migrating, by introducing a range of practical alternatives; Keep families together as the best way to protect children and give children legal status.

“Keep all refugee and migrant children learning and give them access to health and other quality services; Press for action on the underlying causes of large scale movements of refugees and migrants; and Promote measures to combat xenophobia, discrimination and marginalization in countries of transit and destination,” the Agency added.

Group Seeks Media Support For Women’s Participation In Politics

BY AUWAL AHMAD

A Non Governmental Organisation in northeast Nigeria, Wildan Care Foundation, is seeking support of media to make case for more women in elective positions in Gombe State in the coming 2019 general election.

Executive Director of the group, Zariyatu Abubakar made the call Wednesday when officials of the organisation paid an advocacy visit to the secretariat of Nigeria Union of Journalists (Correspondents’ Chapel) in Gombe.

She said, Wildan Care Foundation was on a sensitization visit to stakeholders across the state such as the media, political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) among others.

The Foundation decried the outcome of recently conducted local council election in the state where no single woman was elected, either councillor, or chairperson across the 11 local council areas.

“We want women to be part of decision making in both the formal and informal sector of the society,” she said.

She said the group apart from seeking improved participation by women in election matters, is also concerned on issues of women and children particularly those in conflict situations.

Commenting further, Jamila Suleiman, State Coordinator, Women Situation Room Nigeria, solicits men’s cooperation to allow women participate actively in election.

She recalled how during the 2015 general election, at a polling unit (in Kyari Primary School in Kwame local government area) with over 400 registered voters, no single woman came out to cast vote.

“I was monitoring the election in Kwame and I was shocked to see that no single woman came out to cast her vote in a particular polling unit. I sought to know from the women after noticing that they were actually registered as voters. They said their husbands prevented from going out to vote,” she narrated.

Mrs. Zariyatu who is also the Northeast coordinator, Women Situation Room Nigeria said Wildan Care Foundation is also working to provide care, support children and empower women.

She said the group is collaborating with the Women Situation Room Nigeria to harness the leadership resources of women for effective participation and contribution in peace building process, economic and human development.

Responding, Chairman of the Correspondent Chapel, Abdullahi Tukur of Federal Radio Cooperation of Nigeria, assured them that media would support their mission.

Nurses And Midwives Are Key Stakeholders To Healthcare Delivery System – Osinbajo

Nigeria’s Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said that Nurses and Midwives are key stakeholders to the healthcare delivery system and their contributions are crucial in improving health outcomes of individuals, families, communities, nations and the West African Sub-region as a whole.

Prof. Osinbajo who was represented by the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole stated this on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of the 14th Biennial General Meeting, the 23rd Scientific Session and the 37th Council Meeting of the West African Council of Nursing at the ECOWAS Conference Centre Abuja.

According to him, in most Sub-Saharan Africa region, the responsibilities of Nurses have increased in line with expanding health services to meet local, national and global health targets, including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He said that in order to complement the efforts of the government, the role of Nurses and Midwives on the health systems need to be reviewed, delineated and recognized for better impact and optimum contribution to positive health.

Prof. Osinbajo disclosed that the Federal Government of Nigeria was putting Nigerian nurses and midwives at the forefront of revitalization of primary healthcare services in the country. “We will soon roll out mass engagement of nurses and community health extension workers in all our PHCs for effective and efficient 24-hour coverage of healthcare services’’. He stressed.

In her remarks, the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, who was represented by the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Oludolapo Osinbajo expressed her deep appreciation to the nursing profession describing it as a great profession that sacrifice a lot in their efforts to manage patients.

While applauding the role nurses played during the containment of Ebola disease that plagued the region in 2014 where nurses risked their lives to save others, Mrs. Buhari congratulated the Nurses for organizing such Conference that was aimed at sharing Ideas among the Nursing profession.

She said: “Through my pet project, ‘’ Future- Assured’’, I have witnessed great need to support the nursing profession to reach greater height and from all indications the profession will grow exponentially in the coming years’’. She noted.

Earlier, in his welcome address, President of the West African College of Nursing Dr. Victor D. Zoclanclounon, thanked Nigeria for accepting to host the 14th Biennial General Meeting adding that the choice of the theme of the Conference: Emerging Health Challenges: Community and Health Workforce Responsibilities in the Sub-region was apt considering the prevailing health challenges confronting the region.

He however underscored the importance of the nursing profession describing it as central to the healthcare delivery system adding that nurses and midwives are the frontline workers who are always caught in the cross fire of containing health emergencies.

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SOURCE AFRICA PRIME NEWS.

Yobe Governor Approves Recruitments 38 nurses in the state

 
 

In an effort to improved the health sector in Yobe State,Governor Ibrahim Gaidam, has approved the recruitment of 38 nurses who  graduated from the Dr. Shehu Sule College of Nursing and Midwifery, Damaturu into the state’s healthcare service.

 

A statement signed by the Director of Press Affairs to the Governor in Damaturu, Mallam Abdullahi Bego said that the recruitment was intended to boost the manpower needs of the state’s healthcare sector.

The statement said the Gaidam administration would continue with what it refered to as the biggest and most far reaching expansion of the sector in the history of the state. 

 

The statement said the governor had also approved the recruitment 32 doctors, pharmacists, radiographers, and physiotherapists into the healthcare service with commensurate professional allowances, from members of the National Youth Service Corps.

 

It also said the governor equally approved the recruitment of 386 doctors, consultants, nurses and other categories of specialists and professional medical workers for the newly established Yobe State University Teaching Hospital (YSUTH), in Damaturu, which has already commenced the provision of clinical services to the public.

Polio outbreak in Syria poses vaccination dilemma for WHO

GENEVA (Reuters) - Vaccinating too few children in Syria against polio because the six-year-old war there makes it difficult to reach them risks causing more cases in the future, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday, posing a dilemma after a recent outbreak.

Two children have been paralyzed in the last few months in Islamic State-held Deir al-Zor in the first polio cases in Syria since 2014 and in the same eastern province bordering Iraq where a different strain caused 36 cases in 2013-2014.

Vaccinating even 50 percent of the estimated 90,000 children aged under 5 in the Mayadin area of Deir al-Zor would probably not be enough to stop the outbreak and might actually sow the seeds for the next outbreak, WHO's Oliver Rosenbauer said.

Immunisation rates need to be closer to 80 percent to have maximum effect and protect a population, he told a briefing.

"Are we concerned that we're in fact going to be seeding further future polio vaccine-derived outbreaks? ... Absolutely, that is a concern. And that is why this vaccine must be used judiciously and to try to ensure the highest level of coverage," Rosenbauer said.

"This is kind of what has become known as the OPV, the oral polio vaccine paradox," he said.

The new cases are a vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, a rare type which can emerge in under-immunised communities after mutating from strains contained in the oral polio vaccine.

"Such vaccine-derived strains tend to be less dangerous than wild polio virus strains, they tend to cause less cases, they tend not to travel so easily geographically. That's all kind of the silver lining and should play in our favor operationally," he said.

All polio strains can paralyze within hours.

Syria is one of the last remaining pockets of the virus worldwide. The virus remains endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Source: Reuters

Child Spacing can avert maternal death in Gombe

A renowned Nigerian obstetrician and gynecologist, Prof. Emmanuel Otolorin has said that several issues and occurrences in Nigeria underline the importance of family planning.
Prof. Otolorin during a Media Roundtable on Family Planning and Maternal Health organized by MamaYe-Evidence for Action in Abuja in October 2016, that the most important, however, is that as many as 18,000 of the 40,000 women who die of pregnancy-related causes each year can be saved with the availability of family planning, says.

He said due to a complex mix of cultural, religious, economic and social factors, maternal and child deaths were common occurrences in Nigeria.
Also, experts say however that access to family planning (FP) can reduce the risk of death from pregnancy, and indirectly contribute to averting many child and infant deaths and ailments.
Speaking to our Correspondent in Gombe, Community Mobilization and Mark Officer with Marie-Stopes International Organisation Nigeria (MSION), Gombe State, Mr. Ibrahim Yusuf, said that increased access to Family Planning services could prevent about 1.6 million unintended pregnancies in Nigeria every year.
Mr. Yusuf said Family Planning could help save the lives of women and children by reducing unplanned pregnancies and promoting healthy child spacing.

“Evidence has shown that the high death rate is mostly due to unintended high risk pregnancies due to low use of Family Planning services. Increased uptake of Family Planning can avert up to 44 per cent of maternal deaths and 23 per cent of child deaths”, he said. He added that Family Planning is an essential component of reproductive health and key to safe motherhood. Its potential to contribute to maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity reduction is therefore enormous.

Mr. Yusuf explained that the Family Planning uptake in Gombe was hindered by a myriad of factors, ranging from lack of education, poverty and religious barriers, as well as poor access to services and commodities, traditional beliefs favouring high fertility, misconceptions, worries about side effects, lack of male involvement and poor coordination of health programmes, among others.

According to the 2013 edition of the National Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), the current contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) of Nigeria, i.e. the proportion of women using Family Planning, both traditional and modern methods, is 15 per cent, out of which modern CPR is 10 percent.

During the London Family Planning Summit in 2012, Nigeria announced a plan to increase its CPR to 36 percent by 2018. Once achieved, the authorities said 400,000 infants and 700,000 child deaths would be averted in the country by then.

Gombe State, in north-eastern region of Nigeria has a projected population of 3,022,590, and maternal mortality ratio that is one of the highest among the states of the federation. The NDHS 2013 survey pegs the maternal deaths in the North East at 1,549 per 100,000 live births. This means that for every 100,000 live deliveries, an estimated 1,549 women lose their lives. The ratio in Gombe State is 800 per 100,000 live births.

The current CPR of Gombe State is 3.8 percent, according to NDHS 2013, while unmet need for Family Planning, i.e. the proportion of women who want to use Family Planning services but do not have access, is 19.4 per cent. According to the 2014 National Family Planning Blueprint, which set targets for states to attain by 2018, 7.5 percent CPR is being targeted.

With a total of 615 health facilities comprising 592 primary health care centres, 22 secondary health facilities, and one tertiary health facility, Gombe State would seem to have the structure to deploy to achieve its CPR target. However, only 349 of the health facilities provide Family Planning services. There are also other factors that militate against the achievement of the Family Planning goal: The number of health care workers in the public sector is just 4,081. Majority of the 1,209 are community health extension workers (CHEWS), who are not qualified to administer the most effective and most demanded Family Planning methods, the so-called LARCs—long-acting reversible contraceptives. Doctors number 163; nurses/midwives 1,150; community health officers 114; and junior community health workers 605; Environmental Health Officer, Environmental Health Technical, Environmental Health Assistance 560 and village health workers over 1,000.

Also, only 150 health workers are trained to provide Family Planning services. In spite of that fact, contraceptive commodities are available through the federal government supply chain as the Government of Nigeria introduced free commodity policy in 2011. Curiously, the free commodities have not translated into better access, as only about 4 per cent of women of reproductive age in the state access Family Planning services. One major reason is that at the average Family Planning clinic, there are charges for consumables like hand gloves, syringe and needle, detergent needed to administer the services on the women.
To make Family Planning service really free, consumables should ordinarily be provided by the state government.

The arrangement is that the Federal Government will provide Family Planning commodities like condoms, pills, IUDs, and injectables, while the state government should provide consumables. But a number of states, Gombe inclusive, have failed to provide those consumables. Analysts say the state government needs to create a budget line, like other states are beginning to do, to provide the effective implementation of Family Planning, an effective and proven way of reducing maternal deaths.

To address its challenges, the Gombe State Ministry of Health developed a policy called the Gombe State Framework for the Implementation of Expanded Access to Family Planning Services – 2013 - 2018, which provides the state with a road map, even though it needs review for current approach.

The Framework has an estimated cost of 1.019 billion Naira over a 6-year implementation period, with four goals, objectives, targets and activities. The goal is to improve access to and uptake of Family Planning methods in Gombe State such that the contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) increases to 7.5 percent by 2018.

A cardinal objective of the policy is to build the capacity of all CHEWs, doctors, nurses and midwives working in reproductive health (RH) and Family Planning to provide cadre-appropriate Family Planning services in the state by 2018. It will also expand the availability of Family Planning commodities offered by cadre-appropriate providers in the wards, primary health centres, as well as secondary and tertiary facilities. Increased use of Family Planning methods among men, women and young persons of reproductive age in Gombe State by 2018 is the ultimate goal.

Investigations revealed that out of the four objectives only the first was attempted. Forty-eight nurse-midwives and community health officers have been trained by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) to serve as master trainers.

Marie Stopes has trained 120 nurses and midwives while UNFPA and ARFH have trained another set of 172 community environmental health workers in Gombe, Yamaltu/Deba, and Shongom local government areas of the state. The state government is supposed to train the remaining health workers, but there is no indication that anything has been done in that regard.

Speaking to our correspondent, Ms. Rabi Umar, a stakeholder in the health sector, confirmed that the uptake of Family Planning is low in the state because of a combination of factors, particularly lack of a budget line for Family Planning; insufficiency of trained Family Planning personnel; shortage of consumables; non-involvement of men in the support for Family Planning programme activities; and lack of data tools.

Ms. Usman said the way forward is the creation of an Family Planning budget line, prompt release of the money budgeted, procurement of consumables by the state government, sensitisation of all men groups and training of nurses and midwives in each of the local government areas. She also spoke of the need for communication activities through radio and television programmes to dispel rumours and correct misconceptions related to Family Planning.
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Mid-Term Report: Meningitis outbreak headlines public health challenges of Buhari administration

BY PREMIUM TIMES

The health sector in Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari has had a lot of media attention. Not much of this has however been about the government delivering on its promise to provide functional healthcare system to Nigerians. Instead, the headline has been grabbed by epidemic outbreaks in parts of the country, underlining the challenges that still face the sector.
During the electioneering campaign, candidate Buhari essentially promised to reposition healthcare service delivery in the country. After his election, his government said it would reduce import dependence by providing incentives for domestic manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, ensure that unadulterated drugs are easily available and affordable, get states to provide free ante-natal and maternal care for pregnant women, and free healthcare for children up to 12 years of age.
It also promised to collaborate with states to raise the gross national health expenditure per person per annum from less than N10,000 to about N50,000 and raise the quality of federal government-owned hospitals to global standard within five years through investment in infrastructure, diagnostic equipment and continuous professional development.
However, the government later focused its health agenda on reviving primary health facilities so as to bring healthcare closer to the people. This, it said, would ensure that the poor have access to qualitative and affordable health care services as the health system in Nigeria has only favoured the rich.
PRIMARY HEALTHCARE
The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, a professor of Medicine and former University of Ibadan Vice-Chancellor, has since constantly emphasised the goal of revitalizing the primary health care sector which the government believes to be the bedrock of healthcare provision in the country.
“If all primary centres were functioning well, at least 70 percent of Nigeria’s problem would have been solved”, Mr. Adewole had stressed.
Early in January during the commissioning of the Model Primary Healthcare Centre in Kuchingoro, Abuja to kick off the revitalization scheme, Mr. Adewole said the exercise would touch about 10,000 primary healthcare centres, with at least one in every ward across the country. He said the scheme would avail poor Nigerians with qualitative and affordable healthcare services.
The National Primary Healthcare Revitalisation Initiative is to be carried out through the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA. The facility in Kuchingoro, as the model for the revitalization scheme, was adequately staffed and provided with all the medical equipment necessary at the primary healthcare level, ambulances and drugs.
Since the flag off and in spite of the minister restating the plan several times, special investigation by PREMIUM TIMES in May revealed that the scheme has yet to take off across the country. Most of the PHCs visited remained in dilapidated buildings and lacked manpower, equipment and power supply. The health workers and their patients generally decried the poor state of the facilities and work environment.
OUTBREAK OF MENINGITIS
The epidemic outbreak of Meningitis C and its spread to 24 states was attributed to the lack of functional primary healthcare facilities which should have quickly detected the disease when it broke and nipped it in the bud.
And despite the revitalization project being a priority of the administration, the NPHCDA, which is overseeing implementation of the project, was allocated only N19 billion in the 2017 Budget.
Response to public health emergencies in the country was put to test by the outbreak of different types of diseases such as measles, Lassa fever, cholera and meningitis.
Though most of these diseases were not of epidemic status, the meningitis C outbreak, however, exposed the low level of response and lack of preparedness for health emergency situations by the country.
The Meningitis outbreak started in Zamfara in November 2016 and recorded over 1,114 deaths and 14, 005 suspected cases before it was contained.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control, the agency under the Federal Ministry of Health in charge of disease control, claimed that it became aware of the disease very late. The ministry said it did not know about the epidemic until three months after the outbreak, because the health workers on ground were not able to identify the disease and alert the government.
Trying to provide explanation for the anomaly, the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire, said the drugs and vaccines are “extremely expensive” and have short shelf life. He added that there was limited stock of the meningitis type C vaccine around the world, as it is not in much demand.
Nigeria did not get enough vaccine before nature mercifully intervened to contain the disease: meningitis ravages only during the dry season and washes away when the rain season begins.
POLIO SETBACK
Polio eradication effort in Nigeria also suffered a setback last year as two new cases were reported in Borno State. This means that the country will not get the polio-free certificate which was expected to be issued in July this year.
The new cases were attributed to the Boko Haram insurgency which had made it difficult for immunisation process to be carried out in some communities. The federal government has, however, restated its commitment to eradicating the disease in the country by making funds available early for the purchase of vaccines for immunisation, more so that Boko Haram has been beaten back.
NIGERIA STILL DEPENDENT ON DONORS
Nigeria has over the years depended heavily on international agencies and donors for most of its activities in the health sector.
This was evident in the meningitis type C case whereby the government relied on foreign intervention for the vaccines. Many of the vaccines for immunization activities in Nigeria are still imported and largely come from foreign donors, as the country is not producing them locally.
The Federal Vaccine Production Centre in Yaba used to produce some of the vaccines used in the country and exported to some neighbouring countries, but it has been moribund since 1987.
Most of the drugs used in Nigeria are also imported as the pharmaceutical companies operating in the country do not have capacity to meet the need of the sector.
Mr. Adewole, however, raised hope of local production of vaccines by 2019. He said the federal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with May and Baker Nigeria Plc for the production of vaccines Nigeria under a Public Private Partnership.
The President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Mike Ogirima, also said most hospitals are under-equipped and short-staffed. This, he said, has had an effect on the training of doctors to become specialists and is affecting the quality of healthcare service in the country.
HEALTH WORKERS DEMAND BETTER WELFARE
Health workers across the country at federal government and state levels also embarked on strikes, protests among others, over their working conditions, state of amenities in government hospitals and their welfare packages.
The NMA had called on the Federal Government to shelve its plans to harmonise salaries of health workers, in another face of the crisis in the country’s health sector.
Mr. Ogirima noted that although other health workers also face many health hazards in the discharge of their duties, their output could not be compared to those of doctors who perform the bulk of the work. He said the government’s attempt to harmonise salaries in the sector was causing a lot of disharmony in the sector.
SOURCES: PREMIUM TIMES
http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/232757-mid-term-report-meningitis-outbreak-headlines-public-health-challenges-of-buhari-administration.html

GOMBE SUSPENDS FREE ANTENATAL SERVICES AMIDST HIGH MORTALITY RATE

By Vincent Ekhoragbon, Gombe

The continued implementation of free Antenatal care and treatment programme for all pregnant women and children under the age of five has been suspended by Gombe state government, notwithstanding the high maternal and children mortality rate in the northeast sub-region which Gombe state a part of.

Residents have in turn expressed dismay over the decision which they described as insensitive to the plight of the ordinary citizens of the state.

“Government said antenatal and postnatal care is free but I took my wife to the Specialist Hospital for child delivery recently and paid for virtually everything.

“Only a few of the small, small drugs that cost next to nothing were available,” said a colleague who did not want his name in print.

Reacting, the Director, Gombe State Hospital Services, Dr. James Mahdi said the state had in place a free antenatal care programme for all women who are pregnant but had been laid aside for about a year running due to paucity of funds.

“Once a woman is positively pregnant to the time she delivered, it (antenatal care) is meant to be free of charge.

“But because of the economic recession in the country, we are not able to access it (free antenatal services) for sometimes,” Dr. Mahdi explained.

He said even situations where approvals have been received to fund the services, the non-releases of the funds in good time affect also the programme.

“So it is a positive thing if funding can be access and then it can be continued,” he said, adding that free services had been suspended for about a year now.

He also admitted the high maternal and children mortality rate in the state, saying there was the need to address it with a lot of determination in order to bring it down because is quite unacceptable as it is.

World Health Assembly elects Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as new WHO Director-General

Press release 23 MAY 2017 | GENEVA - Today the Member States of WHO elected Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the new Director-General of WHO. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was nominated by the Government of Ethiopia, and will begin his five-year term on 1 July 2017. Prior to his election as WHO’s next Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia from 2012–2016 and as Minister of Health, Ethiopia from 2005–2012. He has also served as chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; as chair of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership Board; and as co-chair of the Board of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. As Minister of Health, Ethiopia, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus led a comprehensive reform effort of the country's health system, including the expansion of the country’s health infrastructure, creating 3500 health centres and 16 000 health posts; expanded the health workforce by 38 000 health extension workers; and initiated financing mechanisms to expand health insurance coverage. As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he led the effort to negotiate the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, in which 193 countries committed to the financing necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As Chair of the Global Fund and of RBM, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus secured record funding for the two organizations and created the Global Malaria Action Plan, which expanded RBM’s reach beyond Africa to Asia and Latin America. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus will succeed Dr Margaret Chan, who has been WHO’s Director-General since 1 January 2007.

Stakeholders validate National Strategic Health Development Plan for cohesive implementation framework

Abuja 18 May 2017 - This week, stakeholders converged in Abuja from 15-16 May, 2017 to validate Nigeria’s draft National Strategic Health Development Plan Framework II (NSHDP II). The framework will guide government at both states and federal levels to develop specific plans that will feed into the overall Health Strategic Plan. The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, in his address encouraged states to develop state-specific plans using NSHDP II framework as a guide to achieve coherence between local operational plans and the national strategic plan. “For the NSHDP II to be effective, it must be linked to sub-national operational plans, at the state or local government level”, Professor Adewole emphasized. The NSHDP II framework founded on the eight pillars of the health system, links health service delivery with system strengthening which include: Leadership and Governance for Health; Health Service Delivery; Human Resources for Health; Financing for Health; National Health Management Information System; Partnerships for Health; Community Participation and Ownership; and Research for Health. World Health Organization (WHO) actively supported the validation of NSHDP II framework, as part of the larger process that aims to align country priorities with the real health needs of the population so that people across the country will have access to quality health care, and live longer, healthier lives. It will also generate buy-in across different tiers of government, health and development partners, civil society and the private sector in order to optimize the utilization of available resources for health. However, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu the WHO country Representative to Nigeria, reminded participants at the workshop that the implementation of the NSHDP II will require ownership, oversight, resourcing and accountability. He stressed that WHO will continue to support the NHSDP II implementation process by providing appropriate technical assistance and platforms for policy dialogue as well as ensuring evidence based costing. The validation workshop was attended by the Minister of Health, the Minister of State for Health, Commissioners of Health from all 36 States, Development Partners and other stakeholders.

Major research funders and international NGOs to implement WHO standards on reporting clinical trial results

Major research funders and international NGOs to implement WHO standards on reporting clinical trial results News release 18 MAY 2017 | GENEVA - Some of the world’s largest funders of medical research and international non-governmental organizations today agreed on new standards that will require all clinical trials they fund or support to be registered and the results disclosed publicly. In a joint statement, the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Norwegian Research Council, the UK Medical Research Council, Médecins Sans Frontières and Epicentre (its research arm), PATH, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Institut Pasteur, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wellcome Trust agreed to develop and implement policies within the next 12 months that require all trials they fund, co-fund, sponsor or support to be registered in a publicly-available registry. They also agreed that all results would be disclosed within specified timeframes on the registry and/or by publication in a scientific journal. Today, about 50% of clinical trials go unreported, according to several studies, often because the results are negative. These unreported trial results leave an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of the risks and benefits of vaccines, drugs and medical devices, and can lead to use of suboptimal or even harmful products. "Research funders are making a strong statement that there will be no more excuses on why some clinical trials remain unreported long after they have completed," said Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation at WHO. The signatories to the statement also agreed to monitor compliance with registration requirements and to endorse the development of systems to monitor results reporting. "We need timely clinical trial results to inform clinical care practices as well as make decisions about allocation of resources for future research," said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director-General of the Indian Council of Medical Research. "We welcome the agreement of international standards for reporting timeframes that everyone can work towards." In 2015 WHO published its position on public disclosure of results from clinical trials, which defines timeframes within which results should be reported, and calls for older unpublished trials to be reported. That position builds on the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki in 2013. Today’s agreement by some of the world’s major research funders and international NGOs will mean the ethical principles described in both statements will now be enforced in thousands of trials every year. "Requiring summary results of clinical trials to be made freely available through open access registries within 12 months of study completion is good for both science and society," said Dr Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust. "Not only will this help ensure that these research findings are more discoverable, but it will also reduce reporting biases, which currently favour publication of trials which have a positive outcome. Today’s statement is in line with Wellcome’s broader ambition to make all research outputs which arise from our funding more findable, accessible, and re-usable." Most of these trials and their results will be accessible via WHO’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, a unique global database of clinical trials that compiles data from 17 registries around the world, including the United States of America’s clinicaltrials.gov, the European Union’s Clinical Trials Register, the Chinese and Indian Clinical Trial Registries and many others. International Clinical Trials Registry Platform "We fully support this statement and look forward to working towards increasing the availability of results from clinical trials,” said Dr John-Arne Røttingen, Chief Executive of the Research Council of Norway. “The public disclosure of results from clinical trials will improve resource

Seventieth World Health Assembly

Seventieth World Health Assembly

Gombe set to domesticate National Health Act

BY DANJUMA WILLIE, GOMBE A draft bill for the domestication of the National Health Act in Gombe State is set for presentation to the Gombe State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo who is expected to forward it to the Gombe State House of Assembly. The draft bill is known as “A law to provide for the regulation, development and management of Gombe State health system and for other matters connected therewith, 2017”. The Chairman for the sub-committee for the State Technical Working Group on the National Health Act, Dr. James Mahdi, stated this to newsmen shortly after a validation meeting of the committee in Gombe. He said the committee drafted the bill out of the National Health Act of Nigeria and that it must go through the State House of Assembly before an executive assent just the same way the National Health Act went at the national level before being passed into law during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. “The Act is needed to be domiciled in the thirty six states of Nigeria. Gombe and Lagos States are taking the lead in this domestication and what we have done in the committee is to draft a bill out of the national Act of Nigeria. It is now a Gombe State Health System Bill which must go through the processes that it went at the national level to be passed in to law”, Dr James stated. He added that, “We are now at the stage where by the draft bill has under gone so many processes, all stake holders have been sensitized about it and all inputs are been brought in in-view of peculiarities to the culture and traditions of the people of the state so that we can now have a health system that is workable within the national health act of Nigeria at Gombe state, finally as an act in Gombe state health system”. He explains further that the act is achievable because it has now defined the role and functions of all tiers of government at the primary health care as well as the state level and the federal level in view of primary, secondary and tertiary health care. It also revealed the roles of all health workers. Dr. Mahdi said, the act equally tells about linkages within the system stressing that, “a health personnel refer cases that are beyond his capacity to the next capacity and to the highest capacity as the case might be, I’m sure it is going to be workable and implemented with the support of the people of Gombe state”.

New Ebola death confirmed; 300,000 doses of vaccine ‘ready’

The GAVI global vaccine alliance said on Friday some 30

0,000 emergency doses of an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck could be available in case of a large-scale outbreak of the disease, after the World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed a fatal case in Congo. The vaccine, known as “rVSV-ZEBOV”, was shown to be highly protective against Ebola in clinical trials published in December 2016. A spokesperson for the WHO told Reuters on Friday that a person in the Democratic Republic of Congo had died after becoming infected with Ebola, a contagious virus that causes hemorrhagic fever. The experimental vaccine was highly protective against the deadly virus in a major trial in Guinea, according to results published in The Lancet. The vaccine is the first to prevent infection from one of the most lethal known pathogens, and the findings add weight to early trial results published in 2016 The vaccine was studied in a trial involving 11 841 people in Guinea during 2015. Among the 5,837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination. In comparison, there were 23 cases 10 days or more after vaccination among those who did not receive the vaccine. The trial was led by WHO, together with Guinea’s Ministry of Health, Medecins sans Frontieres and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with other international partners. “While these compelling results come too late for those who lost their lives during West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, they show that when the next Ebola outbreak hits, we will not be defenceless,” said Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director-General for Health Systems and Innovation, and the study’s lead author. The vaccine’s manufacturer, Merck, Sharpe & Dohme, this year received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration and PRIME status from the European Medicines Agency, enabling faster regulatory review of the vaccine once it is submitted. Since Ebola virus was first identified in 1976, sporadic outbreaks have been reported in Africa. The 2013–2016 West African Ebola outbreak, which resulted in more than 11 300 deaths, highlighted the need for a vaccine. The trial took place in the coastal region of Basse-Guinée, the area of Guinea still experiencing new Ebola cases when the trial started in 2015. The trial used an innovative design, a so-called “ring vaccination” approach, the same method used to eradicate small pox. When a new Ebola case was diagnosed, the research team traced all people who may have been in contact with that case within the previous three weeks, such as people who lived in the same household, were visited by the patient, or were in close contact with the patient, their clothes or linen, as well as certain “contacts of contacts”. A total of 117 clusters (or “rings”) were identified, each made up of an average of 80 people. (Reuters/NAN) Source http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/231070-ebola-death-confirmed-300000-doses-of-vaccine-ready.html