India’s apex medical education regulator has proposed that final year medical students from China and Ukraine who were not able to complete their practical training due to the pandemic or the war be allowed to sit for the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) – a screening test which foreign medical students have to clear to practice in the country.
The students who pass the examination will then have to complete a two-year internship to be eligible for permanent registration to practice medicine in the country.
According to the proposal of the National Medical Commission (NMC), this will be a one-time relaxation granted due to unforeseen circumstances.
Currently, foreign medical graduates have to complete their training and a one-year internship at the university they are enrolled in order to appear for the FMGE exams in India.
They then have to undergo a one-year long internship in India as well in order to get permanent registration.
A senior official said the relaxation will be applicable only for a year, so students should refrain from taking admission to courses in these countries this year even though China is now allowing very few students to return.
He said some of the students from China were given an internship completion certificate online and wondered how that can be accepted.
He added that the two-year internship will help in plugging the gaps in clinical training.
The proposal was submitted by the undergraduate medical board of the National Medical Commission (NMC) on orders of the Supreme Court.
The proposal states that the first and second year medical students, who joined their college after November 2021, can appear again for NEET to seek admission in Indian colleges.
These students, unlike the third and fourth year students, cannot take a transfer to universities in other European countries.
The new guidelines for foreign medical graduates that came into force November 2021 states that the students have to complete their entire training and internship from the same university.
Although the proposal does not explicitly mention it, the third and fourth year medical students will be allowed to take admission in colleges in other European countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, or Kyrgystan which offer courses that comply with Indian norms.
Around 18,000 medical students returned from Ukraine after the war started in February.
There are almost 65,000 students in India – mainly from China and Ukraine, but also from the Philippines – whose education was halted because of the new norms.
Indian Medical Students From China, Ukraine May Sit For FMGE – NMC
AGILE School Project: Governor Masari Approves N100 Million
Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, has approved the disbursement of 50 per cent of the N100m budgeted for the Adolescent Girls’ Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) school Project for their improvement plans to develop and implement the activities.
The State Coordinator of the AGILE Project, Shehu Mustapha, made this known during the celebration of the International Day of the African Child.
He told newsmen the State Government has already appropriated N100 million for the project in the budget for the implementation of some activities and so far N35m has been released for the project
The Coordinator further called on the communities to support the state government in ensuring the provision of access to quality education for all, adding that government cannot do it alone as education is for all.
He also appealed to wealthy individuals, civil society organization, philanthropists and other community members to support the project to ensure capacity building of adolescent girls.
UN Refugee Agency Records Highest Number Of Displaced People Since WWII At 100m
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has counted 100 million people worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes.
The figure is the highest number of displaced people recorded since World War II.
The UN body said in its Global Trends Report that displacement of civilians from Ukraine was the largest and fastest-growing refugee crisis since the UNHCR was established in 1951.
The Geneva-based UNHCR said that Russian invasion of Ukraine was among the multiple simultaneous emergencies, alongside that in Afghanistan.
Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said that numbers had climbed every year in the last decade.
He said that the “terrible trend” would continue unless the international community took action to resolve conflicts and find lasting resolutions.
The report addressed developments in 2021, but included the current refugee figure to highlight the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
The UNHCR counted 89.3 million people displaced by war, violence, persecution and human rights abuses by the end of 2021, eight per cent more than a year earlier.
The number has been rising for years, with more than double the number of people fleeing their homes in late 2021 compared to 10 years earlier.
Nigeria’s Debt Management Office Records 1,322 Successful Subscriptions, N1.7bn Allotment In June Bond Offers
The Debt Management Office (DMO) says it recorded 1,322 successful subscriptions and N1.7 billion total allotments in its two Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) bond offers for June.
This is contained in the FGN bonds allotment result released by the organisation.
The DMO offered two FGN bonds for subscription on June 6.
The first one was a June 2024 FGN bond at interest rate of 8.20 per cent per annum, while the second one was a June 2025 FGN bond at 9.20 per cent per annum.
Settlement date for both offers were June 15, 2022 and coupon payment dates are Sept. 15, Dec. 15, March 15 and June 15. They have a two-year and three-year tenor respectively.
According to the DMO, the June 2024 FGN bond offer received 701 successful subscriptions and N759.92 million total allotment, while the June 2025 bond received 621 successful subscriptions and N1.104 billion allotment.
Consulting Firm Train Procurement Department Of Nigeria Ports Authority
Dr Ibby Iyama, the Country Director, Renner and Renner Consulting Ltd., has tasked the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Procurement Management System (PMS) for International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification.
Iyama made this known at the NPA Procurement Strategic Retreat on Saturday in Lagos, South-west Nigeria.
The theme of the retreat organised by Renner and Renner Consulting Ltd was: ” Moving Procurement to Excellence: Changing the Narratives.”
She said that they were working with the NPA procurement department to enable them get their systems right for ISO certification.
Iyama said that the company was not in charge of certification but the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS).
She noted that presently the Onne, Calabar ports and National Agency for Food and Drug Administration were the only ISO certified government agencies in the country.
“Part of the reasons why we have embarked on this retreat is to implement the PMS at the procurement department of NPA.
“The PMS is a system that will streamline, standardise and tighten up things, It will ensure job enrichment, rotation, nobody will be brought down or be high handed due to rewards.
“Everybody’s performance will be seen through the PMS, with PMS, there is transparency, accountability and it is going to be hard on crime, one cannot be promoted when not due,” she said.
Iyama said that they decided to change most of the Federal Government agencies procurement department starting with the NPA to change the narratives and ensure excellence.
She said that the move was also for the department to understand the Federal Government Procurement Act 2007 and recently 2022, which had new additions, changes to some fundamental part of 2007 Act.
Iyama said that the Procurement Act was the Bible of all procurement departments in government agencies.
She said that it was critical for all the staff to be up to date with the Procurement Act.
“So, NPA took the initiatives to move their procurement to excellence and we hope that other government agencies will follow suit because issues with procurement has put a lot of management in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission net.
“Renner and Renner Consulting Ltd is taking the lead to train and move the procurement department of the NPA to excellence in line with global best practice,” she said.
Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, the Managing Director, NPA, said that going forward, management expect the procurement department to be more proactive in terms of decisions on processes and procedures.
“The essence of the procurement retreat is for the department to sit and discuss the continuous changes with regards to the Procurement Act, understand and study the many ways they can initiate procurement.
“One thing they are looking at is the right way to do things, how quickly to do it and the best way within the Act and so we brought in a consultant who will discuss with them and teach them,” he said.
On the rewards for performance, Bello-Koko said that the system in the public service was vague, adding that the organisation would continue to comply with the civil service rules.
“Reward does not necessarily mean cash, there are many ways of rewarding an employee. This retreat and training is part of it, we are rewarding them for their good works,” Bello-Koko said.
Argentine Leader Denies Grounded Plane Has Any Terror Link
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez has insisted that a cargo plane with Iranian and Venezuelan crew members had been grounded due only to fueling difficulties, not because of any alleged link to Iran’s elite Quds Force.
Speaking on Radio 10, Fernandez said there was no irregularity” with the Venezuelan plane, adding that the sole problem was refueling difficulties linked to US sanctions on Venezuela.
Paraguay’s intelligence chief had said Friday that one man aboard the plane, which has been grounded since Wednesday at an airport near Buenos Aires, had ties to the Quds Force.
Intelligence chief Esteban Aquino told AFP that Captain Gholamreza Ghasemi did not merely share a name with a member of the Force — an arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards which the US lists as a terrorist organization — but is in fact the same man.
But Fernandez blamed his political opponents for spreading that notion, saying they wanted to show “something that is not — something dark” by suggesting a link to terrorism.
The Boeing 747 cargo plane is reportedly carrying car parts. Its 14 Venezuelan and five Iranian crew members have been prevented from leaving the country pending an investigation.
The plane arrived in Argentina from Mexico on June 6, before trying to fly to Uruguay two days later, where it was refused entry.
Uruguay’s Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber said his country had received a “formal warning from Paraguayan intelligence.”
The plane then returned to Argentina where it has been grounded ever since.
Nigerian Government, Stakeholders Seek New Strategies To Protect Children Against Harmful Practices
The federal government has called for new strategies to mitigate harmful practices against children in the country.
This is as stakeholders called for increased budgetary allocations to boost education, health and others areas that have direct impacts on the wellbeing of the children.
They made the call in Abuja at the 2022 commemoration of The Day of the African Child (DAC), organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Plan International Nigeria, Save the Children International Nigeria and other partners.
It was themed, ‘Eliminating Harmful Practices affecting children: Progress on Policy and Practice since 2013’, linked to DAC 2013 ‘Eliminating harmful, social and cultural practices affecting children: our collective responsibility’.
The Executive Secretary, NHRC, Dr Tony Ojukwu (SAN), called for an acceleration of collective efforts to improve the well-being of children and their protection against harmful practices.
Ojukwu, represented by Director Monitoring Department, Benedict Agu, said that there is a need for more deliberate interventions to improve the lots of children in the country.
He said it is another opportunity to reflect on policies and practices affecting children and the way forward.
On her part, a member of African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Aver Gavar, said the day is for introspection and stocktaking.
According to her, the committee is to lead continental efforts to address harmful practices and they have adopted the AU Agenda 2040 (Fostering an Africa fit for children) in 2015.
She said the Agenda 2040 sets out ten aspirations to be achieved by 2040 and identifies action steps to be taken by AU member states towards its implementation.
Also, Country Director Plan International Nigeria, Charles Usie, represented by the Communications Advisor, Yunus Abdulhamid, called for stiffer punishment for every offence committed against children as part of measures to drastically reduce child abuse and other forms of violence against children.
He recalled that the commemoration recalls the 1976 uprisings in Soweto when a protest by school children in South Africa against discrimination in the education system resulted in the public killing of unarmed young protesters by police officials.
The Director of Programmes, ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), Suwaiba Muhammad Dankabo, who represented the AAN Country Director, Ene Obi, said that the present efforts on protecting children against harmful practices that have recorded some gains should be sustained in the interest of the country and future generations.
Dutch Prime Minister Apologizes To Srebrenica Peacekeepers
The Dutch government formally apologized Saturday to soldiers who were sent as U.N. peacekeepers to defend the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica with insufficient firepower and manpower to keep the peace.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte addressed hundreds of veterans of the Dutchbat III peacekeeping unit on Saturday at a military base in the central Netherlands, telling them that after nearly 27 years “some words have still not been said.”
The soldiers — veterans now — were overrun by more heavily armed Bosnian Serb forces led by Gen. Ratko Mladic who went on to massacre 8,000 Muslim men and boys in July 1995, in a bloodbath that an international war crimes tribunal labeled genocide.
The ceremony came after a report was published last year into the experiences of the roughly 850 troops who made up Dutchbat III.
The study made recommendations including that the government make a “collective gesture” to address what it called “the perceived lack of recognition and appreciation, given the exceptional circumstances in which the near-impossible has been asked” of the Dutch peacekeepers.
The Netherlands has long wrestled with the legacy of the Srebrenica massacre.
Then Prime Minister Wim Kok resigned in 2002 after a report harshly criticized Dutch authorities for sending soldiers into a danger zone without a proper mandate or the weapons needed to protect about 30,000 refugees who had fled to the Dutch base in eastern Bosnia.
In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled that the Netherlands was partially liable in the deaths of about 350 Muslim men murdered by Bosnian Serb forces during the massacre.
8 More Dead As India’s Assam State Reels Under Floods
Massive flooding and mudslides in northeastern India’s Assam state have claimed eight more lives, taking the death toll to 62 from weeks of heavy rains.
Assam’s disaster management agency said 32 of the state’s 35 districts were underwater as the swollen Brahmaputra River broke its banks, displacing more than 3 million people.
The Indian army was called in for rescue efforts and the air force remained on standby.
The Brahmaputra flows from China’s Tibet through India and into Bangladesh on a nearly 800 kilometer journey through Assam.
On Sunday, four people went missing when a boat carrying nine capsized in eastern Assam’s Dibrugarh district, 500 kilometers east of Gauhati, the state capital. Police said that search operations were ongoing but they were hampered by strong currents.
Forecasters are expecting a respite from rains after incessant downpours.
On Saturday, Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma toured flood-hit areas and described the situation as grim.
Annual monsoon rains hit the region in June-September. The rains are crucial for crops planted during the season but often cause extensive damage.
Flooding from swollen rivers has also spilled over to neighboring Bangladesh, where the government said the situation was likely to deteriorate in the worst-hit Sunamganj and Sylhet districts in the northeast as well as in the north.
Regular Exercise, Lifestyle changes could lower risk of Stroke –Report
Recent studies have shown the interconnectedness between a sedentary lifestyle and the high level it portends of having a stroke.
Stroke, medically known as cerebrovascular accident, as defined by John Hopkins Medicine, occurs when blood flowing to the brain is stopped or disrupted. The research structure lists Ischemic stroke; the commonest type of stroke caused by blockage of a major blood vessel in the brain, and Hemorrhagic stroke; linked to a burst of a blood vessel in the brain, as the two types of stroke.
Sedentary lifestyle, age, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, diabetes, previous history of stroke, race, and gender have been listed as risk factors for stroke.
The World Health Organisation stated that 60 to 85 per cent of people around the world lead sedentary lives. It is estimated that about two-thirds of children were insufficiently active and faced with the risk of serious future health complications.
Findings from a February 2022 research by American Heart Association, reported an 11 per cent increase in stroke cases among younger to middle-aged adults due to sedentary lifestyles.
The report, published in Daily Mail, stated that those who barely moved for 13 or more hours per day were 44 per cent more likely to suffer a stroke within seven years compared to those sedentary for 11 hours or less per day.
It stated, “Getting in three-and-a-half hours of light exercise per week was also shown to reduce the risk of a stroke by 26 per cent, compared to moving less than two hours per day. Light exercise could include doing housework or walking around the house.
“An even greater protective effect was recorded in people who did harder physical activity. Those who did 14 or more minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise – like going on a brisk walk, cycle or even gardening – saw their risk fall by 47 per cent, compared to people who did less than three minutes per day.”
In Africa, as compared globally, stroke has been reported to have the highest incidence and case fatality. In Nigeria, several medical researchers highlighted the prevalence of stroke to 1.14 per 1000 with a higher prevalence of 1.51 per 1000 in males and 0.69 per 1000 in females. Due to lack of funding, the fatality rate of stroke patients within 30 days is as high as 40 per cent.
Research by Uchenna Okonkwo, Favour Uzuh, et al, on “Awareness of the risk factors of stroke among the non-teaching staff of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Anambra State, Nigeria,’’ stated that the primary medical cause of strokes was an underlying heart or blood vessel disease which includes hypertension.
Another recent study carried out by a team of researchers from the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College showed that people who engaged in little physical activities or barely moved for more than 13 hours per day were at the highest risk of stroke.
Read Also: Revealed! Why Students with Sickle Cell have Crisis during Exams
According to Daily Mail, the study which tracked 100,000 adults for over a decade, further revealed that those who were physically inactive and exercised for more than 12 hours weekly, reduced the risk of death to 17 per cent while those who exercised for less than two hours had a 50 per cent increased risk.
In his comment on the issue, a professor of Clinical Neurology and Internal Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ikenna Onwuekwe, stated that the burden of stroke in Africa was increasing and getting worse.
He attributed changes in lifestyle, diet and lack of exercise as some of the reasons for the increased cases.
Onwuekwe said, “Our ancestors did not have the extent of high blood cholesterol, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and heart attack as much as we hear currently. What has changed? A lot of research we have done has shown that factors that account for this include changes in lifestyle and diet. We have become westernised. We have left some of the traditional things we were known for and adopted the white man culture, food and way of life and so we have started having diseases and conditions we didn’t use to have before.’’
He added that the high risk of blood pressure, blood cholesterol and diabetes mellitus, which were the three commonest factors for stroke worldwide, accounted for the increase.
The neurologist further stated that a sedentary lifestyle was directly correlated with the increase in stroke cases as it was a known risk factor for high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases such as heart disease and high blood pressure.
On measures to prevent the increase, the researcher on epilepsy and stroke said, “It is going to be a multidimensional approach. There are things we can do as individuals at personal levels, organisations, industries, public, and government regulations.
“When you get to the office, occasionally, maybe every two or three hours, get up and walk around. If you walk in an office that is a high rise, walk down the flight of stairs and exercise for about 10 minutes and do so periodically till the close of work.”
He urged those who have a family history of high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, high blood cholesterol or obesity to have a personal lifestyle that encouraged a good lifestyle.
Onwuekwe added, “Walk briefly for about 30 minutes or one hour every week. Have a good diet, reduce foods that are known to increase weight, eat more fish, stop eating meat, moderate your level of alcohol, take more nuts and vegetables.”
He advised the government to ensure employers of labour created a working environment to enhance health and productivity.
He also urged them to subsidise available but costly medications that could reverse some of the features of stroke in persons who were brought in early to the hospital.
Also, a professor and consultant neurologist with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Yomi Ogun, said that a sedentary lifestyle was among the risk factors for stroke.
Ogun stated that the main cause of the stroke was high blood pressure and a closer cause was diabetes mellitus and high cholesterol among other factors.
The consultant added, “Some of the ways to prevent all those diseases is to control your blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol if you have it. There are other preventive measures. If you are obese, try and shed weight or do adequate exercise.
“If you have a sedentary job, which of course will predispose you more to being obese and not doing enough exercise, you have to make sure that you prevent and avoid all those. If your cholesterol is high, you should also try and control it as well.”
He added that the risk of blood clots in one’s vein was high for those with jobs making them sedentary.
Ogun also said, “If you have had a case of stroke, you must stick strictly to preventing a recurrence. In terms of prevention, we look at it at five levels. The first is primordial prevention, this cuts across everyone and you ensure you take a lot of green vegetables, and fish, adequate exercise, and weight and obesity control. Also, minimise alcohol and cigarette intake.
“Secondary prevention is for those who have had a stroke before to prevent a recurrence. Some of the drugs used for secondary prevention are blood thinners and statins. Tertiary prevention is for those who, when they have a stroke, must quickly be taken to the stroke unit where they can be given what they call clot busters for dry stroke. There is what we call a dry and wet stroke. For those who have a dry stroke, the pipe is blocked while a wet stroke meant the pipe is burst. So, those who have a dry stroke need to get a clot-buster or remove the clots by clot retrievers surgically. But this is possible if they present early enough. That way you improve the outcome and reduce the mortality.”
He added that early presentation of stroke cases in the hospital would prevent further complications.
