Tanzania has confirmed its first-ever cases of Marburg Virus Disease, after laboratory tests were carried out following reports of cases and deaths in the country’s north-west Kagera region. According to the country’s National Public Health Laboratory, eight people developed symptoms including fever, vomiting, bleeding and renal failure. Five of the eight cases, including a health worker, have died, and the remaining three are receiving treatment. A total of 161 contacts have been identified and are being monitored. In response to the
Nigeria has made significant advances in health policies development and legislation aimed at achieving health for all, but challenges remain for mental health services. An initiative is addressing the country’s monumental mental healthcare challenges by deploying a multi-pronged approach that includes conventional online and unique offline interventions. But challenges remain. Studies have shown that mental health, like physical health, is essential to overall well being, yet stakeholders argue it is often overlooked in Nigeria due to poor societal attitudes
Access to necessary medications for illnesses such as HIV/AIDS can be a struggle for patients in emerging markets like Nigeria and other African countries. With pharmacists being the first point of access, patients are often required to visit them every month to receive their medications and to keep track of their drug use. This creates a tedious process for patients, which can result in low adherence and missed doses. However, a new technology-based solution is aiming to improve this situation by
According to a new status report from the World Health Organization (WHO), five billion people globally remain unprotected from harmful trans fat, increasing their risk of heart disease and death. Despite the global goal for its total elimination in 2023, progress towards this target has been slow, with only 43 countries having implemented best-practice policies for tackling trans fat in food, protecting 2.8 billion people globally. Industrially produced trans fat is commonly found in packaged foods, baked goods, cooking oils and
The Central Public Health Laboratory (CPHL) in Lagos, Nigeria has achieved full laboratory accreditation status from the World Health Organization (WHO) for its contribution to the fight against measles and rubella in the country. The CPHL is one of the laboratories under the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Measles and Rubella laboratory network. “WHO full accreditation status attained by the laboratory is a great achievement for Nigeria as quality laboratory is critical to understanding the impact of a country’s vaccination
Five United Nations agencies are calling for accelerated progress on the Global Action Plan on Child Wasting, as increasing numbers of children suffer from acute malnutrition in the face of ongoing conflicts, climate shocks, and the impacts of COVID-19. Currently, more than 30 million children in the 15 worst-affected countries, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, the Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Yemen, are affected by wasting, or acute
An estimated 7 million children in Africa died before their fifth birthday, according to the latest estimates released by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME). The group also found that 1.9 million babies were stillborn in the same period. Many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable access and high-quality maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health care. “Every day, far too many parents are facing the trauma of losing their children, sometimes even before
Health authorities in Uganda have admitted that even though the country’s latest Ebola outbreak is over, the source of the outbreak still remains unknown. In her remarks at the event marking the official declaration of the end of the outbreak, Dr. Aceng Jane Ruth Ocero, Uganda’s Minister for Health, said the health ministry is working with its local and international partners to identify the source of the outbreak in addition to factors suggesting possible seasonal occurrences. “The source of this outbreak,
Uganda has declared the end of an Ebola outbreak caused by Sudan ebolavirus, just four months after the first case was confirmed in the country’s central Mubende district on September 20, 2022. The country’s Minister of Health, Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng Acero, praised the swift response to the outbreak, which included surveillance, contact tracing, and infection prevention and control measures. In total, there were 164 cases of the disease (142 confirmed and 22 probable), with 55 confirmed deaths and 87
There has been a significant setback in global progress towards achieving and maintaining measles elimination and the decline leaves millions of children susceptible to infection. Measles vaccination coverage has steadily declined since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, a record high of nearly 40 million children missed a measles vaccine dose: 25 million children missed their first dose and an additional 14.7 million children missed their second dose, a joint publication by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the