Nigeria, WHO launch National Essential Diagnostic List

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May 10, 2022

The World Health Organisation has supported the Federal Government of Nigeria in launching the National Essential Diagnostics List.

The WHO list of essential diagnostic tests (EDL) is a World Health Organization priority list of medical tests that provides guidance for individual countries on which tests to use and which not to. It was first published in 2018, then revised in 2019, and a third edition was published in 2020.

The EDL aims to provide evidence-based guidance to countries to create their own national lists of essential diagnostic tests and tools, anticipating that the EDL would complement the List of Essential Medicines and enhance its impact.

Tests in community settings where there is no laboratory, are divided into general tests and tests that are disease-specific. Diseases that can be tested for in the community without laboratory facilities include: Chagas disease, cholera, COVID-19, diabetes mellitus, hepatitis B and C, HIV, influenza, malaria, Streptococcal pharyngitis, sickling disorders, syphilis, tuberculosis and visceral leishmaniasis.

Where there is a health care facility with laboratories, tests are divided into either general tests or disease-specific tests for clinical laboratories, and disease-specific tests for blood screening laboratories. For each group of tests, the EDL specifies the test’s name, purpose, assay format and type of specimen.

The WHO Public Health Emergency Advisor, Dr. Alexander Chimbaru, disclosed that following increased recognition of the importance of diagnostic testing in healthcare, particularly as it plays a major role in achieving Universal Health Coverage, the World Health Organisation developed an Essential Diagnostics List to address the lack of access to tests and testing services in many countries.

Chimbaru further noted the WHO Essential Diagnostic List, which was first published in 2018, was a list of recommended in-vitro diagnostics that should be available at the point of care and is intended as a guidance document for countries to create their own national list based on their local context and needs.

“The overall goal of the EDL is to improve access to testing, diagnostic capacities during the outbreak, affordability of test, regulation, and quality of the diagnostic test.”

“The National Essential Diagnostic List is anticipated to complement and enhance the impact of the Essential Medicines List, which has recorded a great improvement in availability and affordability of medicines and quality of patient management.”

In his remarks, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the flag-off of the dissemination of the Nigeria National Essential Diagnostics List marks another giant stride towards achieving the core mandate of the Federal Ministry of Health which is “to develop and implement policies to strengthen the national health system for effective, efficient, accessible and affordable delivery of health services in partnership with relevant stakeholders.”

Ehanire pointed out that policies and guidelines were developed to address needs and situations, adding that Nigeria was committed to attaining globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage.

“Over the past few years, there has been increased recognition of the importance of diagnostic testing in healthcare, and especially in achieving the goal of UHC, but until recently, there have been few strategic efforts designed to develop the evidence base on which policymakers can rationally increase and improve access to diagnostic testing.”

“To this end, after about four decades since the existence of the Essential Medicines List, WHO has seen the need to develop an Essential Diagnostics List,” he said.

Red Cross Chief On Iran Visit Talks Afghans’ Plight

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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The head of the Red Cross Robert Mardini says he has discussed in Iran the plight of Afghan migrants who fled their country after the Taliban took power last year.

After two days of talks in Tehran with Iranian authorities Robert Mardini said,” Afghanistan was very much present in the conversation, especially in the wake of the recent developments that we witnessed in August with the change in the government.

More than one million Afghans have sought refuge in Iran since the Taliban returned to power in August, according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

Thousands of Afghans daily try to cross into neighbouring Iran in search of work, or in a bid to reach Europe in the hope of asylum.

The Islamic republic now hosts a total of five million Afghans, according to Iran’s foreign ministry.

Mardini said the ICRC discussed with Iran’s Red Crescent ways of “providing critical health services to Afghan migrants and refugees”.

Mardini said he also discussed in Iran the situations in Yemen and Syria and the effects of the armed conflicts, as well as climate change, in those countries.

He said Talks with Iranian officials at the foreign and interior ministries also focused on the fate of missing persons from the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

French Court Opens Hearing Into 2009 Yemenia Airways Crash

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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UGANCOMOROS-YEMENIA-PLANE REMAINS — A Comoran soldier looks at aircraft remains recovered from the Indian Ocean at a disused airport hangar in Moroni, Comoros on September 16, 2009. A ship scouring the Indian Ocean where a Yemenia Airlines flight crashed with the loss of 152 lives returned to shore on Monday carrying human remains and aircraft debris, a military official said. The disaster happened on June 30 as the Airbus A310 from France plunged into the Indian Ocean shortly after beginning its descent towards the Comoros carrying mainly French and Comoran passengers. AFP PHOTO/Ibrahim YOUSSOUF

A French court has opened hearings in the case of the 2009 crash of a Yemenia Airways flight that killed 152 people but miraculously left a 12-year-old girl alive.

The Yemeni national airline, whose representatives will not be in the dock due to the country’s still-raging civil war, faces a maximum fine of 225,000 euros for involuntary homicide and injuries in a trial expected to last four weeks.

On June 29, 2009, flight Yemenia 626 was on approach to Moroni, the capital of the Comoros islands which lie between Mozambique and Madagascar, after departing from the airport in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

France’s overseas territory of Mayotte is also part of the Comoros archipelago. Among the 142 passengers and 11 crew were 66 French citizens.

Rather than landing safely, just before 11:00 pm the Airbus A310 plunged into the Indian Ocean with its engines running at full throttle, killing everyone on board except Bahia Bakari, then just 12 years old.

In interviews and a book of her own, Bakari remembered “turbulence” during the approach, before feeling what seemed to be an electric shock and then blacking out — only to find herself in the sea.

She survived by clinging to debris for 11 hours until she was found by a fishing boat the following day.

Bakari was present as proceedings opened Monday, as were around 100 family members or friends of the crash victims. She is expected to testify on May 23 but refused to speak to the press.

Without The Queen, UK Govt Sets Out The Year’s Agenda

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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2J7KF15 Yeoman warders arrive for the ceremonial search of the Palace of Westminster in London, ahead of the State Opening of Parliament in the House of Lords, London. Picture date: Tuesday May 10, 2022.

Britain’s Conservative government made sweeping promises to cut crime, improve health care and revive the pandemic-scarred economy as it laid out its plans for the next year in a tradition-steeped ceremony in Parliament.

The event occurred however without Queen Elizabeth II, who was absent for the first time in six decades.

The 96-year-old monarch pulled out of reading the Queen’s Speech at the ceremonial State Opening of Parliament because of what Buckingham Palace calls “episodic mobility issues.”

Her son and heir, Prince Charles, stood in, rattling through a short speech laying out 38 bills the government plans to pass.

The speech, which is written by the government, promised Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s administration would “grow and strengthen the economy and help ease the cost of living for families.”

But it contained few immediate measures to relieve households struggling with soaring prices for domestic energy and food.

As well as bills on education, health care funding and “levelling up” economic opportunity to poorer regions, the speech promised laws to aimed at pleasing the government’s right-leaning voter base, including promises to seize “Brexit freedoms” by cutting red tape for businesses and overhauling financial services and data regulation now that Britain has left the European Union.

Some of the plans are already strongly criticized by opposition parties and civil liberties groups, including a contentious new law to outlaw disruptive protest tactics favored by groups such as Extinction Rebellion.

US Freeze Assets Of Suspected Isis Financial Enablers

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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The United States has imposed sanctions on a network of five Islamic State financial facilitators working across Indonesia, Syria and Turkey in support of members of the extremist jihadist group in Syria.

The US Treasury Department in a statement accused those designated of playing a key role in facilitating the travel of extremists to Syria and other areas where Islamic State operates.

It also accused them of conducting financial transfers to support the group’s efforts in Syria-based displaced persons camps.

The Treasury said the network collects funds in Indonesia and Turkey, “some of which were used to pay for smuggling children out of the camps and delivering them to ISIS foreign fighters as potential recruits.”

Brian Nelson, the Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement that the United States, as part of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, is committed to denying ISIS the ability to raise and move funds across multiple jurisdictions.

Monday’s move, which targeted Dwi Dahlia Susanti, Rudi Heryadi, Ari Kardian, Muhammad Dandi Adhiguna and Dini Ramadhani, freeze any of their US assets and generally bar Americans from dealing with them.

Dozens Killed As Armed Clashes Ravage S’Sudan’s Leer County

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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South Sudan Violence — In this handout image provided by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan, taken on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013, a United Nation soldier stands guard as civilians arrive at the UNMISS compound adjacent to Juba International Airport to take refuge. Sporadic gunfire rang out in the capital, Juba, overnight as the military "cleared out remnants" of a faction of soldiers accused of mounting a coup attempt, the country's foreign minister said Tuesday amid an ongoing hunt for the former deputy president who is accused of leading the failed plot. (AP Photo/UNMISS/Rolla Hinedi)

Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in continued violence in northern South Sudan, according to the United Nations on Tuesday.

Pan-Arab News Website Arabi 21 reported that the deaths occurred amid armed clashes in Unity State’s Leer County, which has seen devastating attacks in recent months,.

The county has witnessed people being burnt alive, beheadings and dozens of cases of sexual violence since mid-February, causing 40,000 people to seek refuge elsewhere.

In late April, UN South Sudan chief Nicholas Haysom said: “I am strongly appalled by these horrific attacks on civilians in Leer.

The UN’s South Sudan mission in the same statement said that “armed youth” from Koch and Mayendit counties, also in Unity State, had been responsible for a wave of violence.

The UN also said it had sent more peacekeepers to Leer.

South Sudan has been plagued by unease since it gained independence from neighbouring Sudan a decade ago.

By 2013, the young country had already been launched into a civil war only brought to a close in 2020.

Egypt’s Inflation Rate Continues To Surge Amid Ukraine War

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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Egypt’s annual inflation rate continues to surge amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine that has shaken the global economy, the country’s statistics bureau announced Tuesday.

The inflation rate was up 2.8%, reaching around 14.9% in April, up from 12.1% in March, the Central Agency for Mobilization and Statistics said.

Prices have increased in many sectors — from fuel, electricity and food items to housing, medical services and entertainment.

The hikes are driven by Russia’s war on Ukraine, which rattled world markets and caused oil prices to soar, threatening food supplies and livelihoods of people across the world.

Food and beverage prices increased by 8.1% in April, compared to March. Prices of bread and grains increased by 3.6%, while housing, electricity and energy prices increased by 1.1% , the data showed.

The higher inflation has inflicted heavy burdens on consumers, especially lower-income households, and particularly for everyday necessities. Nearly 30% of Egyptians live in poverty, according to official figures.

Most of Egypt’s more than 103 million population have suffered from price hikes since the government embarked on an ambitious reform program in 2016 to overhaul the country’s battered economy.

That program included painful austerity measures like flotation of the national currency and slashing subsidies of fuel, water and electricity. A March decision by the Central Bank’s decisions to raise its main interest rate and to devalue the local currency against the U.S. dollar has added to people’s sufferings. The bank said its decision was meant to fight inflation.

Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan Rejects APC Nomination

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Zoe Maven

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May 10, 2022

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Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has rejected a presidential nomination form, saying it was bought without his consent.

The form was for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that defeated Jonathan in 2015 after he had been in power for five years.

A supporters’ group bought the nomination form on his behalf on Monday, continuing the trend of aspirants using proxies to purchase the form.

But a statement by the former president’s spokesman said Jonathan “was not aware of this bid and did not authorize it”.

Nigeria’s main political parties are expected to hold their primaries later this month to meet the election commission’s dateline of 3 June for the submission of their candidates for the February 2023 election.

It costs 100m naira to purchase the APC’s nomination papers.

Whoever gets the APC’s nomination for the election will expect a stiff contest from the PDP.

Its aspiring candidates such as Peter Obi, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Rivers state governor Nyesom Wike are hugely popular, especially in southern Nigeria.

Lagos govt trains Drivers in modern technology

By

Cleopatra Okohai

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May 10, 2022

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The Lagos State Drivers Institute has stressed the need for professional drivers to be trained in specialised skills and modern technology.

According to a statement made available to Newsmen on Monday, the General Manager of LASDRI, Mrs. Afusat Tiamiyu, disclosed this at the opening of a four-day structured training programme for professional drivers of the Lagos State Ambulance Service at the institute’s headquarters in Oshodi.

She said, “The four-day structured training is part of efforts at ensuring that all drivers of both private and public organisations are well skilled in specialised driving and up-to-date with modern technology.

“The administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu has invested so much in the capacity building of Lagos State civil servants across all cadres and we urge all participants to imbibe the culture of responsible, responsive and professional ambulance drivers that would be taught during the training exercise.”

Responding, LASAMBUS Drivers’ Coordinator, an Assistant Chief Administration and Human Resources Officer, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Mrs. Azeezat Ogoma, stated that the drivers were brought to the institute to acquire specialised skills for the protection and maintenance of some newly-acquired ambulance vehicles.

“The mobile healthcare service of the Lagos State Ministry of Health deemed it necessary that the drivers be conversant with the modern technology of the ambulances, expecting the trainees to update their driving skills and acquire knowledge to detect vehicular faults,” she said.

Dieting cannot cure stomach ulcer, seek appropriate treatment

By

Cleopatra Okohai

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May 10, 2022

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A Consultant Public Health Physician, Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike, has urged stomach ulcer patients to seek appropriate treatment, noting that dieting cannot cure the health condition.

Dr. Anyaike who is also the National Coordinator of the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme, said stomach ulcer is a wound on the walls of the intestine, stressing that the wound cannot heal with mere dieting.

Anyaike said it is risky for people to trivialise stomach ulcers, warning against self- medication.

According to him, some people have lost their lives to stomach ulcers, as a result of self-medication and their refusal to seek help from experts.

“It’s very wrong for someone to say that there is no drug for a stomach ulcer.

“For the wound to heal, the person has to take a drug. It is not true that you will just take food for the wound to heal.

“Ulcer is a wound on the walls of the intestine. The wound cannot just go like that without treatment,” the physician explained.

Dr. Anyaike noted that a stomach ulcer could cause internal bleeding if left untreated.

He said, “That is why some of those suffering from it die of internal bleeding. So, some people die of bleeding ulcers. That is why people should stop commonising it. There is no scientific evidence to show that ulcer has no treatment.

“So, how does the ulcer come about? Your body secretes a kind of fluid sometimes that is acidic. If it doesn’t see any food, it will start corroding the walls of the gut and if it corrodes the walls of the gut, that is how the wound starts. Although there is also a worm said to usually cause that too.

“Now, when you eat food and the food touches that place, you will start having pain.”

The expert said people suffering from stomach ulcers usually experience pain when the food that they eat touches the wound.

Dr. Anyaike said there are basic things that those battling ulcers could do to avoid the wound escalating.

“They should make sure that they prevent anything that will touch the wound; they should take something that will reduce the effects of acid.

“And they should take some treatments, antibiotics and others that can help in the healing of the wound.

“When people say there is no drug for ulcers, I do not think it is correct information.

“Any drug that will help the wound to heal takes care of it. The wound cannot just go like that without treatment.

“That is why if you are sick of ulcer, you have to go to the hospital and they will give you drugs and those drugs will reduce the pain and then give room for healing”, the physician added.

The physician advised people struggling with the health condition to avoid stress.

He said, “If you have an ulcer, you must make sure you don’t stress yourself.

“Eat well and avoid things that will trigger it. Take something mild, like milk, to reduce the effect of that acid.

“Eat at intervals and don’t keep your tummy empty. If you keep your tummy empty, once you take food, it will go and trigger the pain there.”

According to an online portal, the most common remedy for stomach ulcers is a combination of antibiotic drugs to kill the H. pylori bacteria and medications to get rid of acid in the stomach.