Monkeypox: NCDC Warns Nigerians Against Eating Bushmeat

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May 18, 2022

The Director-General of the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa has urged Nigerians to avoid bushmeat as a way to curb the spread of the monkeypox.

According to the NCDC boss, “I think it is important that we be careful, I’d prefer to shun but also careful in handling all bushmeat.

“The greatest risk to health security as you know is going to be zoonotic diseases and zoonotic illnesses are like Sars-Cov-2 like pathogens that primarily affect animals but acquire the capability to humans and what happens thereafter is if they change once they infect the first humans, they become more effective in person-to-person transmission. So we should be careful,” he said.

However, there have been cases of monkeypox reported, no death has been recorded from the disease and there’s no outbreak of monkeypox.

The World Health Organisation has also warned that Nigeria is at risk of ongoing transmission of monkeypox.

Monkeypox is a virus that is spread primarily from animals to humans. The accompanying symptoms could be fever, headache, body pain, malaise, enlargement of glands (lymphadenopathy), sore throat, and fluid-filled body rashes (vesicular rash). This may last for two to four weeks.

The CDC also said, Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name monkeypox.

The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo during a period of intensified effort to eliminate smallpox. Since then, monkeypox has been reported in humans in other central and western African countries.

Rapid Surveillance Team Tracks Monkeypox In Cross River State

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Olasunbo Okoromi

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May 18, 2022

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A Rapid Surveillance Team has been deployed to track any active case of monkeypox in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.

The Director-General of the Cross River State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Janet Ekpenyong announced in a chat with newsmen in Calabar over rumours of active cases of monkeypox in parts of the state.

She explained that people can contract monkeypox from animal bites or direct contact with rodents or contaminated foodstuffs by these animals, stating “it is easily transmittable from human to human.”

Early symptoms she noted, include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, and a general feeling of discomfort and exhaustion.

Dr. Ekpenyong, who debunked the rumour said, “there is no active case of Monkey Pox in any of the 18 Local Government Areas of the state. The state government is committed to the detection and management of related cases.

“We have deployed a health awareness and sensitization team as well as a rapid surveillance team to track any case of monkeypox.

“There is no need to panic as our teams are working hard using the preventive medical approach. I am strongly appealing to people to comply with all the medical advice given to them by our health teams as they go from house to house.

“Cross River State has always been a state with proactive approaches to outbreak responses. From the onset, we try to activate immediate search and border control measures like we are doing with poliomyelitis control, and as we did during the COVID-19 and Lassa fever pandemics.

“As of today May 16th 2022, there is no active case of monkeypox in Cross River State. We have ensured that the state manages every symptom of monkeypox, especially in those local government areas where we previously recorded a few cases,” she stated.

The DG disclosed that the state had two cases of monkeypox in February 2022 and tracked all those, who came in contact with the cases, noting “we will not relent in our efforts to prevent the spread of the disease since we are aware of how transmittable it can be with a lot of people coming into Cross River from other states where there are active cases.

“We are working with our partners like World Health Organization, UNICEF and others in surveillance activities, periodic training of our health workers on how to identify and differentiate phenomenal symptoms of these prevalent diseases as we do not limit our focus to Monkeypox alone.

“We are also aware of the purported Cholera outbreak, especially this rainy season. We are relying on our health promotion unit, the social mobilization team, the media and other relevant stakeholders to enhance sensitization so that people will adopt preventive measures and approaches to prevent it,” Ekpenyong further said.

The Director-General urged residents to maintain good personal and environmental hygiene and report any suspected case to the closest health facility for rapid response, investigation and possible management.

FG Reaffirms Commitment To Ending HIV In 2030

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Olasunbo Okoromi

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May 18, 2022

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The Nigerian government has reaffirmed commitment to achieving the global targets geared towards ending AIDS by 2030.

The Director General of the National Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, who also serves as the Chairman of the Council, Dr. Gambo Aliyu while addressing the council, said that looking back to two years ago since the 5th NCA which held in 2019, he realized how COVID-19 impacted on the economy and especially the community of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The theme of the sixth National Council on AIDS 2022 is, “Innovative Approaches towards HIV Epidemic Control and Programme Sustainability at State Level.”

The commitment was made at the sixth National Council on AIDS 2022 is ongoing in Abuja.

The meeting is a historical event which provides the largest forum for discussions on the way forward in the HIV and AIDS response.

The council considered the profound prayers geared towards important policy changes hinged on the new thinking of sustainability.

He said that, “The impact was due to inadequate emergency preparedness and response to COVID-19, long lockdown period that led to hunger and malnutrition, patients who were unable to access drugs, poor distribution of drugs to health facilities and health post, vulnerability of health workers to contract COVID-19 thereby impeding on service delivery.

“This slightly impacted on our 2030 target to achieve zero new infection, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-Related deaths.

“However,It is my hope that these policies, in relation to the different sub-themes, will ensure Nigeria moves towards achieving HIV Epidemic Control and Programme Sustainability in communities at the State Level in line with global targets,” Dr. Aliyu said.

He also said that some programme managers of the State Agency for the control of AIDS (SACA) were engaged as Epidemiology officers, distribution of ART drugs was still ongoing using drones in some states in order to minimize death rate within the HIV/AIDS communities and the NACA toll line was deployed for continuous sensitization on proper hygiene, social distancing and answering frequent questions from the public.

Dr Aliyu noted that Nigeria is moving towards HIV epidemic control and programme sustainability which is in line with global agenda and building on innovative approaches to exceed the 95:95:95 targets.

On her part, the Nigerian minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Paullen Tallen, said that the HIV statistics staring Nigeria in the face was not encouraging.

She called for the strengthening of women groups, especially the Network of Women Living with HIV/AIDs to curb gender based violence in the society.

The National Council on AIDS is a statutory body set up to provide guidance to the national HIV/AIDS response based on the Acts that established NACA.

A crucial subset of the council’s scope entails integration of lessons learnt, and implementation of approved resolutions to further intensify approaches to national response.

NMA Laments Over Poor Primary Healthcare System

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Olasunbo Okoromi

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May 18, 2022

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Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), laments over poor Primary Healthcare System in Nigeria, noting that it portends danger to the healthcare delivery.

President of the association, Dr. Innocent Ujah, said in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at a media chat ahead of the 62nd NMA’s Annual and General Conference and Delegates Meeting holding from May 15 to 21 in Rivers State.

According to him, the primary health care system is moribund, adding that leaders of the country ought to be strategic in reviving it.

NMA also vowed to mobilise its patients in the forthcoming elections to vote against candidates who do not have clear roadmap on improving the healthcare system of the country.

“The political climate is very hot now, we are saying all politicians that are coming, the presidential aspirants that will become candidates, governorship, senate, must define clearly what roles they will play in the health sector, otherwise, we may be forced to mobilise our patients and their spouse to vote against anybody who will not take health seriously,” he said.

He noted some of the reasons for doctors leaving Nigeria include poor remuneration, insecurity, inadequate working facilities and poor welfare.

More Than 100,000 People Officially Missing In Mexico

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Zoe Maven

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May 18, 2022

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United Nations rights chief sys over 100,000 people are now listed as missing in violence-wracked Mexico, a grim milestone that he called a tragedy of enormous proportions.

Rights groups appealed for urgent action to tackle disappearances that have skyrocketed during years of spiraling drug-related violence.

The National Registry of Missing Persons, which has been tracking disappearances since 1964, said that as of Monday, the whereabouts of 100,099 people were unknown. About 75 percent are men.

The Movement for Our Disappeared warned that the figure was “certainly well below the number” of actual cases, calling for the government to deal with the crisis “in a comprehensive and immediate manner.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the disappearances represented a “human tragedy of enormous proportions.”

Bachelet’s office said no effort should be spared to put an end to these human rights violations and abuses of extraordinary breadth, and to vindicate victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition.

It added that only 35 of the disappearances recorded have led to convictions — a “staggering rate of impunity” that is “mostly attributable to the lack of effective investigations.

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances described the situation as “heart-breaking.”

The UN committee, which is made up of independent experts, warned in April that Mexico was facing an “alarming trend of rising enforced disappearances.”

Nigeria Asks Facebook, Other Platforms To Curtail Separatists

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Zoe Maven

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May 18, 2022

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The Nigerian government has asked Facebook and other social media platforms to prevent the pro-Biafra separatist group (IPOB) on their platforms.

The government said members of the group use these platforms to incite violence and instigate ethnic hatred in the country but the social media platforms have not done much to prevent these occurrences.

At a meeting with a team from Facebook in Abuja, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said since IPOB had been proscribed and classified as a terrorist organisation by the government, Facebook has no justification for yielding its platform to the organisation.

Mohammed said that for whatever reason, they seem to have now chosen Facebook as their platform of choic and their tools include disinformation, incendiary statements, and hate speech.

He argued that the actions of the members of the proscribed group on social media have real-life implications.

Nigeria is facing secessionist agitation, which has given rise to regional calls for power-sharing between southern and northern Nigeria.

He said the government does not intend to prevent Nigerians from using social media but is advocating responsible use.

Nigeria lifted a six-months ban on Twitter in January after the social media company removed a post from President Muhammadu Buhari that threatened to punish regional secessionists.

Telecom companies subsequently blocked access to users in Nigeria.

Libya Arrests Hundreds Of Migrants In Recent Days

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Zoe Maven

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May 18, 2022

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Libyan security forces in the country’s western region said they have detained at least 300 migrants in the last week and 3,000 in the past three months.

The arrests come as attempted sea crossings from Libya to Europe are expected to increase in the summer months and as the country faces growing political uncertainty.

Colonel Ashraf Issa, commander of the Surman Directorate’s Support Force, a local security body, said his force had arrested 300 in the dawn raids targeting smuggling operations on May 10 in the towns of Surman and Sabratha.

He said that at least 3,000 migrants had been arrested in the past three months, as part of a wider operation.

Libya has in recent years emerged as a popular, if extremely dangerous, route toward Europe for those fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East.

The North African nation plunged into turmoil following the NATO-backed 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

The country has been without a functioning government and fragmented for years between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by armed groups and foreign states.

Most recently, it has been divided by two rival governments who both claim Tripoli as their rightful seat.

Many of those who have been intercepted and returned to Libya — including women and children are held in government-run detention centers where they suffer from abuse, including torture, rape and extortion, according to rights groups.

Sri Lanka Honours Tamil War-Dead After 13 Years

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Zoe Maven

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May 18, 2022

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Thousands of Tamils killed in Sri Lanka’s decades-long separatist war were commemorated on Wednesday for the first time outside the minority’s heartland in the north and east of the country.

Any remembrance of Tamil war victims had been banned under Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa family which is currently under siege over the country’s dire economic crisis.

The head of the separatist Tamil Tiger movement, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was shot dead by security forces on May 18, 2009, bringing a formal end to the bloody ethnic war.

Current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa led the government’s military campaign against the Tigers as the head of the defence ministry under his president brother Mahinda.

Mahinda stepped down as prime minister last week after weeks of protests over severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

The government defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt last month as it ran out of dollars to finance even the most essential imports.

On Wednesday, volunteers offered porridge to passers-by as a symbol of the humble food that tens of thousands of Tamils were left with during the final stages of the war.

Government forces imposed an economic embargo, ordered civilians into what they called “no-fire zones” and allegedly bombarded them killing an estimated 40,000 Tamils.

Clergy from Buddhist, Hindu and Christian communities offered prayers in Colombo and lit a clay lamp for those who perished between 1972 and May 2009 when fighting ended

First War Crimes Case Against Russian Soldier To Open In Kyiv

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Zoe Maven

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May 18, 2022

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The first war crimes trial since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, against a Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed civilian, got underway in Kyiv on Wednesday.

The trial, expected to be followed by several others, will test the Ukrainian justice system at a time when international institutions are also conducting their own investigations into abuses committed by Russian forces.

Vadim Shishimarin, will appear at Kyiv’s Solomyansky district court from 2:00 pm local time over the death of a 62-year-old man in northeastern Ukraine on February 28.

Charged with war crimes and premeditated murder, the soldier from Irkutsk in Siberia faces a possible life sentence.

Ukrainian authorities say he is cooperating with investigators and admitting the facts of the incident which came just four days after the Russian invasion began.

Prosecutors said Shishimarin was commanding a unit in a tank division when his convoy came under attack.

He and four other soldiers stole a car, and as they were travelling near the village of Shupakhivka in the Sumy region, they encountered a 62-year-old man on a bicycle.

Shishimarin then fired a Kalashnikov assault rifle from the window of the vehicle and “the man died instantly, a few dozen metres from his home”, they added in a statement.

In early May, Ukrainian authorities announced his arrest without giving details, while publishing a video in which Shishimarin said he had come to fight in Ukraine to “support his mother financially”.

Two Russian servicemen are due to go on trial from Thursday for firing rockets at civilian infrastructure in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

Libya Head Of National Unity Govt Visits Tripoli Residents

By

Zoe Maven

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May 18, 2022

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Libya’s heads of National Unity government -PM Abdulhamid Dbeibah- met with the residents of the capital Tripoli, which was rocked early on Tuesday by gunfights after forces of the rival Tobruk-based government withdrew following heavy fighting between opposing militias.

Hours after clashes between backers of two rival administrations in Libya, signs of the gunfights were still visible in the capital.

Tripoli residents woke up Tuesday to scenes of destruction in different parts of the city and children stayed at home as the education ministry announced schools would remain closed.

During the day, the Prime Minister of the Government of National Unity Abdulhamid Dbeibah met with inhabitants.

It is an attempt by his rival Fathi Bashagha to seat his government in the capital that triggered the clashes.

Bashagha arrived in Tripoli with a number of Cabinet ministers early Tuesday. He later withdrew, citing the “security and safety of citizens.”

Libya’s eastern-based parliament appointed Bashagha three months ago. Lawmakers argued Dbeibah’s mandate had ended and cited his failure to hold presidential elections in December.

Dbeibah has since refused to hand over power except to an elected administration. Both men are from the western city of Misrata and are backed by different armed groups in the capital.

Pro-Bashagha armed factions had already deployed in March on the edges of Tripoli, raising fears that a ceasefire in place since October 2020 would collapse.