Frontpage News (3259)
Polio: Immunise Your Children or Face Prosecution, Kaduna Warns Parents
The Kaduna State Government has asked parents to allow their children below the ages of five to be immunised against Polio or face prosecution.
The United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates that every single day, Nigeria loses about 2,300 under-fives and 145 women of child-bearing age, making Nigeria the second largest contributor to the under-five deaths and maternal mortality rate in the world. Also, UNICEF’s estimate showed that Nigeria has been adversely affected by Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) with the number of malnourished children put at 2,539,704.New Fertilization Without an Egg Technique Produces Healthy Baby Mice
For the first time, a study shows that female eggs may not necessarily be required to create offspring; scientists from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom have developed a technique that involves using sperm to fertilize embryos instead of eggs, and the method has resulted in the birth of healthy baby mice.
A study of the crystalline 3-D structure of insulin extracted from the venom of a marine snail reveals a potential way to make insulin for the treatment of diabetes act more rapidly. The venom of the marine cone snail contains fast-acting insulin that puts its prey into hypoglycemic shock.
The Lagos State Government has announced plans to curtail deaths resulting from cardiovascular diseases including hypertension and diabetes among others. A free exercise would hold in five local government areas and 11 Local Council Development Areas of the state. 
The Anambra State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Josephat Akabuike, has said that the bill on the State Health Insurance Scheme in the House of Assembly when passed into law will guarantee affordable and quality health care for the citizens.
Nigeria should work towards striking a balance between the number of people travelling in and out of the country for medical treatment, experts have advised.
A head of next week's election, the state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has called on the governorship candidates to address the challenges facing the health sector.
Nigeria Healthwatch has said most health related data about Nigeria are incorrect and misleading, making policies on healthcare difficult to implement. The consultant to Nigeria Healthwatch, Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor who spoke to Daily Trust in Abuja on Monday after a Press Briefing ahead of its second annual flagship event; “The Future of Health” Conference with the theme: “Health meets Tech”.
He said “there are a lot of challenges with data collection in Nigeria because data collected in the country were paper based. “What we do is we design questionnaires and people go around to fill it, there is always errors with that”, the medical expert noted. “What technology does is that it cuts out the errors and makes the process of transferring data fast because it’s done electronically”, he added.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control says there is no vaccine that is clinically proven to be effective in the prevention of Lassa fever at the moment. Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, the Chief Executive Officer of NCDC told the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja that the only medical tool available to combat the disease for now was called Ribavrin.
According to Ihekweazu, Ribavrin is a medicine if given early to patients who are infected with Lassa will protect, prevent death as well as further spread.
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As part of the efforts to regulate the drug distribution system in the country, Registrar of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN), Elijah Mohammed, has disclosed that come 2017, all open drug markets would be closed down.
At the investiture and awards ceremony of the Nigerian Academy of Pharmacy (NAP) in Lagos, Mohammed, said government would effect a big change in the drug distribution network by next year.
he Management of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), has threatened to stop the feeding of in-patients, if complaints against the gesture persisted.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Edmund Banwat, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos, on Wednesday, that the initiative, which was heavily subsidised by the hospital, might stop, if patients were not appreciative.
The National Association of Resident Doctors of Nigeria (NARD) has threatened to go on another round of nationwide strike if persecution of its members in some hospitals continued, the National President of the Association, Dr. Muhammad Adamu Askira, has said.
As this year’s World Heart Day holds tomorrow, Cardiologists have raised alarm over imminent epidemic of heart failure among Nigerians even as the World Heart Federation, WHF, called for action to prevent 80 percent of premature deaths from Cardiovascular Diseases, CVDs annually. 
