Health
Senate president urges Nigerians to pray for leaders to overcome nation’s challenges
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has called for prayers for the leaders in government as they tackle the various challenges facing the nation. According to his Special Adviser on Media, Ola Awoniyi, Lawan made the appeal on Saturday at the launching of Pataskum Emirate Central Mosque Appeal Fund at Potiskum, Yobe State. The Senate President who announced a donation of N20 million to support the project said “every time leaders need prayers, particularly from the followership. “Our leaders, particularly our President, Muhammadu Buhari, may God grant him good health, God has given him the leadership of this country through you. “He is trying his possible best for you and we too that are part of his leadership, we are trying our best to ensure that things are okay for Nigeria. “I will therefore t...
YPP provides girls with sexual reproductive health information
Young people, especially girls and young women faced significant barriers in accessing sexual reproductive health information and services before the COVID-19 crisis. Now, due to the pandemic, there is a risk that young people accessing this life-saving information will move even further from their reach. To address this risk, a one-day Community Forum for adolescent girls and young women was organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Youth Participatory Platform (YPP) in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Youth in Abesan Youth Center, Alimosho, Lagos. At the event, the CDC Secretary, Mosan Okunola LCDA, Mr. Olufemo Ojo, said “We must continue to provide young girls with information that empowers them to make informed decisions regarding their health and wellbeing....
Exodus Drummer Tom Hunting Reveals Battle with Gastric Cancer
<span class="localtime" data-ltformat="F j, Y | g:ia" data-lttime="2021-04-13T15:43:32+00:00“>April 13, 2021 | 11:43am ET Tom Hunting, the founding and longtime drummer of thrash legends Exodus, has revealed that he is battling the form of cancer known as squamous cell carcinoma. The veteran metal musician insists he’s “gonna beat this like a f**king snare drum that owes me money.” While squamous cell carcinoma is most closely associated with the skin, Hunting is fighting a gastric form of the cancer, which is very rare. The drummer was diagnosed with the disease in February, but has a positive outlook as he begins his treatment. In a press release, Hunting delivered the following message to Exodus fans about his diagnosis and his mission to help raise ...
CDC & FDA Hit Pause Button On Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine After 6 Cases of Rare Blood Clotting
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Getty The effort to get Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 has just hit a significant roadblock. Injections of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine are halting across the country after both the CDC and FDA called for a pause in its use “out of an abundance of caution” after cases of a rare blood clotting disorder emerged in six recipients of the vaccine. “We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC both announced in a joint statement, they also made sure to point out “Right now, these adverse events appear to b...
MSF: Maiduguri, environs record 1,158 cases of measles
Médecins Sans Frontières Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) known as Doctors Without Borders said that 1,158 cases of measles were recorded within Maiduguri and environs within the past five months. A statement on Monday by Mr Abdulkareem Yakubu, Borno Field Communication Officer of MSF, said that the cases were recorded from December 2020 to April 3, 2021. According to the statement, Zabarmari, a village near Maiduguri, has the highest cases. “So far a total of 1,158 children with measles have been recorded in Gwange Paediatric Hospital in Maiduguri. “In response, MSF strengthened the hospitalisation capacity in both Gwange and Fori health facilities, increasing the number of beds from 65 to 105 in Gwange. “MSF has also launched activities in partnership with the authorities in the town of Za...
How love affair gone bad led to imprisonment of Prophet Israel Oladele
When the Lagos State Court of Appeal granted the Senior Shepherd-in-Charge of the Celestial Church of Christ, Genesis Global, Prophet Israel Oladele Ogundipe, a post-conviction bail last week, on grounds of failing health, quite a number of people, particularly members of his congregation, were very happy with the news. This is because the televangelist’s previous bail applications were all turned down. Oladele was arraigned on seven counts bordering on obtaining by stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretences, unlawful conversion of property and forgery, fraudulently collected N14m and £12,000 in various tranches from the complainant between August 30, 2002 and 2005. He was found guilty on two counts of stealing and unlawful conversion of property not delivered. And on November...
House seeks refund of N308 million wrongly paid to resident doctors
The House of Representatives committee on health care services has directed the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) to return N308 million in salaries wrongly paid to its members in the past four months. Chairman of the committee, Rep. Tanko Sununu said the N308 million had been with NARD and they are in touch with relevant organs of government to make sure that the money is paid back to government treasury. He however said, the monies were not refunded because the account into which the refund to be made was not given to them. He disclosed this after a closed-door meeting with NARD members on Friday. “At this meeting, we resolved and the account number was forwarded to the President of the Resident Doctors for onward transmission to the members so that the money can be paid ba...
Reports: Governments ‘gender blind’ to coronavirus’ ‘greater impact’ on women
Governments are putting women and girls at greater risk of the health and socio-economic impacts posed by the coronavirus pandemic, two global studies released Wednesday show. They called on leaders to prioritise gender equity in their response to the health crisis. Two studies, one from a global research partnership led by the Global Health 50/50 Project in London and another by the Center for Global Development (CGD) in Washington, were released Wednesday to coincide with World Health Day that highlight major failings by national governments to consider sex or gender in their COVID-19 policies. Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, several studies have pointed to the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women. Many women have shouldered a heftier burden taking on more unpa...
Amnesty: Russia may be ‘slowly’ killing Alexey Navalny
Alexey Navalny, the prominent opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is imprisoned in conditions that amount to torture and may slowly be killing him, human rights group Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Navalny, who last year was poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent, was now being subjected to sleep deprivation and did not have access to a doctor he could trust in jail, it said. “Russia, the Russian authorities, may be placing him into a situation of a slow death and seeking to hide what is happening to him,” Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s secretary general, said ahead of the publication of the group’s annual report. “Clearly the Russian authorities are violating his rights. We have to do more,” she said. “[They] have already attempted to kill him, they are n...
UN projects Nigeria’s GDP to expand by 1.5 percent
Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to expand by 1.5 per cent this year, after a contraction of 3.5 per cent in 2020, a United Nations (UN) report said on Wednesday. In the latest World Economic Situation and Prospects report, the UN noted, that tighter foreign exchange (forex) liquidity, mounting inflationary pressures and subdued domestic demand clouded the medium-term outlook. Although last year, the global economy shrank by 4.3 per cent, this year’s projected recovery of 4.7 per cent will barely offset the losses of 2020, according to the report. The World Economic Situation and Prospects 2021 is a report produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), in partnership with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and the five UN regional ...
Nigerian government begs resident doctors to shelve planned strike
The Federal Government has appealed to Resident Doctors to shelve their threat of embarking on a nationwide strike in the country. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, made the appeal at a conciliatory meeting with the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) on Wednesday in Abuja. Newsmen recall that NARD had threatened to shut public health care facilities beginning from April 1, over unpaid salaries and other welfare packages. Ngige said that majority of the welfare issues under contention were almost resolved even before the letter of compliant and notification of a planned strike action was delivered at the ministry ”We are here because we have started solving your issues. We put up proposals with given timelines on how to deal with them. “We will look at thos...
Senate faults PTF conversion to PSC, laments doctors strike
The Senate Committee on Health said on Thursday that the Presidency should have consulted the National Assembly before converting the the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 to the Presidential Steering Committee. The panel also expressed surprise that the National Association of Resident Doctors embarked on strike despite the fact that their demands had been met by the Federal Government. Chairman of the Senate panel, Yahaya Oloriegbe, stated these during a public hearing on a bill seeking to establish a Federal Medical Centre in Mubi, Adamawa State. Oloriegbe said, “I was listening to the radio yesterday (Wednesday) and I heard that the PTF (on COVID-19) has been converted to a steering committee. “We were not consulted in terms of what will be the operational mechanism and so on. “I am ...