Nigeria News

Lagos, 26 November 2007 -- The 51st National Council on Health (NCH) meeting held in Lagos from 19 – 23 November 2007. The meeting, which is the highest national policy making and advisory body on health matters in the country, had in attendance the Minister of Health, Minister of State for Health and State Commissioners for Health as well as top management staff of both the Federal and State Ministries of Health and their parastatals and agencies.
        

19 February 2008 | Abuja - The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Margaret Chan, will pay her first official visit to Nigeria from 20 to 23 February at the invitation of the Nigerian government, Nigeria’s Health Minister, Prof. Adenike Grange announced at a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.

Accompanied by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo, the visit will provide Dr Chan an opportunity to discuss the main challenges and needs in the health sector in the country, and to strengthen technical cooperation between WHO and Nigeria.

25 February 2008 | Abuja - WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan on Saturday ended her first official visit to Nigeria expressing optimism that polio can be kicked out of the country this year with the government and partners keeping up their hard work and commitment. She praised the commitment of Nigeria’s traditional and religious leaders to polio eradication, and pledged WHO’s support to make it happen.

2 May 2008 - What started as a Routine Immunization (RI) revival mission by the wife of the Governor of Adamawa State, Dr Halima Hammanyero Nyako, has led to the declaration of free medical service for children under five years of age and pregnant women in the state. At the State Specialist Hospital, Yola, and 26 other general and cottage hospitals in the state, the scheme has taken off, following the release of 60 million naira by the government for the purchase of vehicles, drugs, devices, and for monitoring and supervision.

Nigeria joined the rest of the world on June 14th 2008 to mark the world blood donor day with theme aptly coined “Giving Blood Regularly”. Activities for this year’s world blood donor day started on the 13th of June with a ministerial press briefing, national live radio discussion programme (Saturday Morning Live) and blood donation drive at the residence of the Saudi Arabia ambassador in Abuja on Saturday 14, June 2008.

23 July 2008 | Abuja - The International Joint TB and TB/HIV monitoring mission (JIMM) begins work across all geopolitical zones in Nigeria today.

The 2008 mission is of particular importance because it is coming a year after the TB control programnme received the first $25M tranche of a Global Fund (GFATM) grant that will eventually total $65.2M. The team of 62 consultants will visit 14 states over a two week period to assess the implementation of TB control activities, in particular the implementation of the Stop TB strategy, and surveys of TB prevalence and drug resistance.

1 August 2008 | Abuja - The Nigerian Minister of Health, Dr Hassan Muhammad Lawal, formally opened the country’s activities commemorating World Breastfeeding Week with a call for more support and empowerment for mothers to encourage breastfeeding. Noting its benefits he said, ‘the first suckle marks the beginning of the human stimuli and response process that is important for the survival and development of every human being’ adding that ‘breastfeeding enables babies to exhibit remarkable capabilities that last a lifetime’.

2 October 2008 -- At 10.30pm, Friday May 9, 2008, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi Nahuche, Chairman, Bungudu Local Government Area (LGA), handed N400,000 cash to the Director, Primary Health Care (DPHC), Mohammed Rabiu Bungudu, to support activities for the Immunization Plus Days (IPDs) starting the following morning in his home state of Zamfara. He was delivering on his promised support earlier in the day after having to source the cash from the community, as a last resort. That amount was only surpassed by the LGA contribution when it piloted the IPDs nationally in 2006.

Nigeria commemorated the 2009 World Stop TB Day on Tuesday 24th March 2009, The slogan ‘I am stopping TB’ was adopted as the national theme for this year’s celebration. At a press conference to mark the occasion, the Honourable Minister of Health Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, said that TB is still a major public health problem in Nigeria, with the country ranking 5th among the 22 high TB burden countries which collectively bear 80% of the global burden of TB.

7 August 2009 | ABUJA -- In a ceremony held on August 7, 2009, Dr Peter Eriki, the WHO representative in Nigeria, formally handed over a consignment of anti-TB drugs to the Hon. Minister of Health, Prof Babatunde Osotimehin. The drugs, a donation to Nigeria from the Global Drug Facility (GDF) worth $ 1,75 million dollars, will cover the treatment of over 30,000 TB patients, including children.