Ekiti State has been given an award of excellence as the best performing state in Nigeria on disease surveillance at the 4th Annual Disease Surveillance Meeting of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) held in Abuja.

The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr. Oyebanji Filani, who made this known in Ado Ekiti said that the state earned the award through the commitment and untiring efforts of the government and the support of the leadership and staff of the ministry at ensuring health security of Ekiti residents.

He added that the state invested in health security through various projects including building a Molecular Laboratory to enable quick and accurate analyses of samples.

Mr. Akinjide Akinleye, Permanent Secretary in the ministry, commended the state government and the leadership of the ministry for providing the enabling environment, and technical and financial support to achieve the feat.

Akinleye said the routine review meetings at local government and state levels provided an avenue to critically analyse data and identify areas of concern to align policy decisions and activities to targets and set objectives.

He expressed joy at the award of excellence saying it was well-deserved having worked hard to curtail the spread of diseases and ensuring prompt responses to emergency outbreaks in the state,’’ Filani stated.

He quoted the Director-General, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, as saying that “all indicators used to measure performance showed that Ekiti scored highest in disease surveillance in the year under review.’’

Following the mysterious death of over 20 cows in Lokoja, the Kogi State Capital, the State government has warned members of the public to stay away from buying and consumption of cow meat in the next two weeks.

The State Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Salau Mohammed Tarawa who gave the warning on Thursday said upon receiving the report, officials of the Ministry swung into action and retrieved some of the dead cows that were discovered in the market.

Tarawa said other cows were said to have been taken to Osara, Ajaokuta, Obajana, Kotonkarfe and Kakanda for sale to unsuspecting members of the public.

He explained that the Ministry of Agriculture was collaborating with security agencies to invite the herders involved for questioning, while appropriate action would be taken against them.

The Permanent Secretary of the State Ministry of Agriculture, Mallam Abdulganiyu, appealed to the general public to cooperate with the ministry to address the situation without compromising their health.

Speaking on the development, Head, Agro Rangers Unit Kogi State Command, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Bayode Emmanuel, said the cows were discovered by some officials of the unit in Lokoja.

Emmanuel stated, “The cows emerged from the back of the state secretariat complex where they had grazed. All of a sudden, they started behaving funny, slumped and died within minutes.

The state Public Relations Officer, NSCDC, Alex Agiri, said the state Commandant, Suleiman Mafara, had directed a thorough investigation into the matter to ascertain where the dead cows had grazed and also prevent the possible sale and consumption of the infected beef in the state.

The Nigerian Government has commenced Psycho-social Trauma Clinic for Ukraine returnees.

Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NIDCOM, in collaboration with National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons and Project Victory Call Initiative, organised the preliminary session in Abuja.

Chairman, NIDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said  the profiling and detention of Nigerians and other African nationals in Poland detention centers is highly unacceptable and reprehensible.

She explained that though Nigerian Government had made necessary arrangements for its citizens to return home, some chose to remain in countries like Poland.

She however, noted that the most appropriate action for Poland to take was to return them back to their countries, rather than keep them in tortuous detention centers.

According to Mrs. Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, Federal-Comissioner, Refugees Commission, “We tend to ignore our mental health but mental health is key. As Nigerians we have a lot of resilience we have that ability, but not everybody has the same threshold when it comes to resilience and hence the need for this particular platform so that those that need extra support or extra care and assistance, can be able to access it”.

Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim said that the Commission is the focal organ for government for rehabilitation, resettlement and integration as such, psychosocial support is the core of rehabilitation.

She further explained that the Commission is making its offices in 14 locations available to make the counseling sessions accessible for the returnees resident in other States.

For his part, Dr Bolaji Akinyemi, Convener Project Victory Call Initiative, PVC, commended the NIDCOM and NCFRMI for initiating the program and for their immediate response stating that trauma cause a lot of mental and socio psychological damages.

He further notified the returnees that the services provided by the PVC Initiative will be free and accessible to any and every returnee with no cost to the government.

President of Nigeria Students in Ukraine, Fehintola Moses, applauded the President Mohammadu Buhari and all the Government agencies for the prompt response and rescue of the students from Ukraine.

The two day clinic was a preliminary session and is expected to continue in the six geo-political zones across the country.

NiDCOM also partnered with The Sunshine Series by creating a 24 hours helpline (#112) for returnees who need counseling.

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate this year’s World Health Day, Authority of the Nigerian Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) said it has mapped out measures to prevent disease outbreak and improve residents well being.

The Mandate Secretary, FCT Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr Abubakar Tafida made this known while briefing Journalists as part of activities to mark the 2022 World Health Day in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

The Secretary explained that at the secondary health care level, most of the hospitals in the nation’s capital are being repositioned with increased drug evolving fund.

Dr Tafida also explained the disbursement and utilization of the Basic Health Care Provision fund in the 62 selected Primary Health Care facilities by the Secretariat which he said have also been harmonized.

He said the initiative was to strengthen the FCT health system through improved monitoring and supervision of service delivery and high level engagement of communities.

According to him, there are plans by the health secretariat to enroll FCT vulnerable in health facilities across the territory.

Tafida said in line with this year’s world Health Day with the theme, ‘Our planet, Our Health”, Abuja residents should be proactive in safeguarding the planet, and help the government with development partners in promoting hygienic practices.

The secretary also explained that the Federal Capital Territory has no cases of cholera and Lassa fever but the people must stop practices that would lead to the contamination of their water sources.

He disclosed further that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had estimated that more than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes.

Tafida said as the rains started in May last year, the cholera outbreak was confirmed in the FCT, which the significant number of the cases were in slum settlements that are due to contamination of their water sources by human waste washed into them by the rains.

According to him, “In line with ‘Our planet, Our Health’ theme, the FCTA is strengthening the health system in the FCTA, the hospitals are being repositioned”.

The Lagos state government says it has included treatment of tuberculosis into the state’s health insurance scheme.

The state governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, disclosed the development during a webinar organised by Stop TB Partnership Nigeria in collaboration with the National TB and Leprosy Control Program, Economic Summit Group (NESG), and Anadach Consulting Limited.

He said that the State government was determined to change the narrative of high TB prevalence in Lagos and its enviable position as the State with the highest TB burden.

He called on all stakeholders in the TB space and most importantly the private sector to key into the work the Stop TB Partnership Nigeria was doing to increase local resource mobilization and see a Nigeria Free of TB.

Mr. Sanwo-Olu also encouraged all hands to be on deck to fight TB just as it was done for Malaria. He appreciated stakeholders in the fight against TB, saying that TB was becoming more prevalent and that its control must be a global agenda in which everyone must show commitment and be part of the fight to bring the disease to an end.

Also speaking, the Director and National Coordinator, NTBLCP, Dr. Chukwuma Anyaike steps were taken in collaboration with the material, adolescent and new born child programmes, visiting of the child welfare and growth monitoring clinics across the country.

He noted that the stool of any malnourished child in the country was subjected to the Genexpert tests, adding that this had yielded good results and the programme and partners were planning to scale up nationally.

The Stop TB Partnership, a hosted entity of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), says it will ensure there are manufacturers producing test for latent Tuberculosis (TB), tools and making them available.

On her part, the Executive Director,Stop TB Partnership, Dr Lucica Ditiu, said that the new test for latent TB would become available in a few months.

She noted that the World Health Organization(WHO), has issued guidance on that.

She stressed that TB was a big health threat and TB was killing more people than COVID-19 pandemic.

The Executive Director said that the issue about TB was underplayed in Nigeria and proper awareness creation was needed to get this peace killer out of the country.

Dr. Ditiu noted that the populace understand the various kinds of TB especially the “drug-resistance-TB. She said that Lagos state has the power, energy and mindset to be regarded as a country of its own because it has a very participative state governor.

Facilitator Health Policy Commission, Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Dr Nkata Chukchi in his presentation highlighted the need for the private sector to contribute to stopping TB in Nigeria.