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
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
Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari recently signed the country mental health bill into law. Described as groundbreaking, the new law aims, among others, to improve access to mental health care and services in Nigeria. The mental health bill aims to improve access to care and services for people with mental health issues. The bill, which has been long-awaited by mental health advocates, aims to address the significant gap in mental health services in the country. The new law will establish a National Mental
Despite the large number of lives threatened by unsafe practices, abortion remains a highly controversial issue in Nigeria, where it is mostly illegal except to save the life of the mother. Despite the restrictive laws, however, unsafe abortions continue to be a major public health concern in the country, with an estimated 3.5 million induced abortions taking place each year. This is due to a lack of access to safe and legal abortion services, as well as cultural and religious
Since February 2022, Nigeria’s federal ministry of health has not posted anything on its official Facebook and Twitter pages. The minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has also not posted on his official social media handle since March 2021. The health ministry’s last post on Twitter was on February 24 when the health minister received the Japan Ambassador to Nigeria, Matsunaga Kazuyoshi to discuss possible areas of collaboration as regards capacity building of medical personnel and health care reform. On
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
The United States Government, through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), launched the Accelerating Progress in Pediatrics and PMTCT (AP3) program in Oyo State to scale up HIV case identification among pediatric and adolescent populations and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Through AP3, the US CDC supports Nigeria’s efforts to close existing treatment gaps in these populations and work towards sustained HIV epidemic control. At the AP3 launch in Ibadan, US Consul General Will Stevens emphasized that “existing
New research from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) reveals that only 47% of people living with diabetes in Nigeria find their healthcare practitioner to be the most useful source for information to help manage their condition. This means people are turning elsewhere to receive education, with the figures – released ahead of World Diabetes Day on Monday 14 November – showing people in Nigeria using a number of other sources, with one in five (21%) turning to Google for
Nigeria has an impressive emergency response for disease outbreaks but victims of road accidents and other emergencies are at the mercy of ‘Good Samaritans’ for a chance at survival. Death tolls continue to rise in Nigeria with more than a hundred deaths reported secondary to multiple emergency-oriented incidents within a month. One of such recent outcries arose from the recent death of Patrick Fakoya, popularly known as Rico Swavey. Fakoya was a Nigerian lawyer and former housemate of 2018 edition