Nigeria News

...endorses Malaria Programme Review Declaration

The Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the development and private partners commemorated the World Malaria Day 2013 with a run down of events to create awareness on malaria control efforts in the country.

The theme for the year "Invest in the future; Defeat Malaria" is a call to action for all stakeholders, hence the choice of the slogan "Time is Now."

Nigeria has joined the rest of the world to commemorate the 2013 World Tuberculosis (TB) Day.

The slogan for this year's campaign is ''Stop TB in my lifetime" while the theme is "Nigeria free of TB".  The event was held at the Ladi Kwali Hall, Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja on Friday 22nd March 2013.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria officially Released the Results of its Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) on July 11, 2013.  The Honourable Minister of Health of Nigeria, Prof C.O Onyebuchi Chukwu Released the Report on behalf of the President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. GATS is a standard global  survey of adults aged 15 years of age or older that was conducted to monitor adult tobacco use and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke in order to be able to effectively  track  tobacco control interventions.

Count Down to polio eradication in Nigeria, July 2013

In a bid to fine-tune strategies for reaching more children during Immunisation Plus Days, polio survivors were engaged recently in Igabi Local Government Administration (LGA), Kaduna state as community mobilisers with special focus on non-compliant families and children found on the streets.

Serving as testimonials, polio survivors otherwise called victims of polio infection worked as forerunners of the street vaccination teams, educating parents on the dangers of rejecting polio vaccination.

Based on the recommendations of the Guinea Worm Eradication International Certification Team, (ICT) Nigeria may be declared a Guinea Worm free nation by December 2013.

Speaking at the ministerial debriefing, the leader of the ICT, Professor David Moleyneux stated that the team visited seventeen (17) states and FCT, interviewed 1630 individuals in 136 villages in 60 LGAs in Nigeria.

The Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria in collaboration with the WHO Nigeria country Office and the Senator Lee Maeba Foundation joined the rest of the world to mark the World Diabetes Day on 14th November 2013.

This year’s World Diabetes Day marks the fifth and final year of the 2009-2013 campaign on the theme: “Diabetes education and prevention” with the campaign slogan: Diabetes: Protect our future.

The WHO Nigeria organized a one-day stakeholders’ meeting on 30th January 2013 as part of the process to review WHO Country Cooperation Strategy CCSII (2008-2013) and development the 3rd generation of CCS (2014-2019). There was high level and wide participation of Stakeholders including key officials from the Federal Ministry of Health and its Agencies, Commissioners of health or their representatives from the 36 states and federal Capital Territory (FCT), development partners, the UN country team, civil society and the media. There were total of 119 participants.

The Federal Ministry of Health in the presence of WHO Country representative and other key partners, launched today (18th February, 2014) the Malaria and Lymphatic filariasis co-implementation guideline. 

The document provides a broad guideline for the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the co-implementation of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis programmes at the National, state and local government levels. The guideline seeks to harmonize key vector control strategies for both programmes to produce synergistic effect in a cost effective manner. 

Borno State of Nigeria has been facing security challenges because of stiff insurgency, resulting into loss of lives and property, crippling economic, social as well as commercial activities. The health sector is not spared and it is on record that some health workers made the ultimate sacrifice during one of the insurgents’ attacks.  The negative fallout necessitated the postponement of the March 2013 Polio Immunization plus Days (IPDs) round by the State government.

Abuja, Nigeria 6th March, 2014 -- The synchronization of immunization activity which lasted from 1st to 4th March 2014 along border settlements between Nigeria and Republic of Niger has been concluded. The activity is widely adjudged as very successful. For instance, between Sokoto State in Nigeria and Tahoua Province in Republic of Niger, 15,137 under-five children were vaccinated on Nigeria side and 16,320 on the Republic of Niger side.