Health
MSF Calls for International Support to Tackle Worsening Diphtheria Outbreak in Nigeria
MSF Calls for International Support to Tackle Worsening Diphtheria Outbreak in Nigeria
By: Michael Mike
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called on the international community to immediately scale up support for treatment of diphtheria in Nigeria.
MSF in a statement on Monday said there is need to improve treatment, preventive measures and contact tracing to control the spread of diphtheria in Nigeria.
The statement read: “A serious diphtheria outbreak is tearing through Nigeria, where thousands of people have been infected and hundreds more have died. With low national vaccination coverage and a worldwide shortage of lifesaving antitoxin threatening to worsen the outbreak,
“Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges the international community to immediately scale up support to improve treatment, preventive measures and contact tracing to control the outbreak’s spread.”
MSF emergency project medical doctor, Dr Hashim Juma Omar was quoted to have said: “We’re currently seeing more than 700 people with suspected diphtheria and admitting more than 280 patients on a weekly basis in Kano state’s two diphtheria treatment centres,” adding that:
“Women and children aged under five are the most vulnerable groups and are the people most affected right now in Kano state. And they really need help.”
The statement said diphtheria is a highly contagious and potentially life-threatening bacterial disease which can present in respiratory or cutaneous forms. Without treatment, it can kill half of people infected; even with treatment, the disease is still fatal in five per cent of patients. Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control has declared an outbreak of the disease on 20 January 2023; between May 2022 and early September 2023, over 6,000 confirmed cases were recorded. Around 4,000 suspected cases were recorded in the country in August 2023 alone, with over three-quarters coming from Kano state.
MSF teams are responding to the outbreak in Kano, Borno and Bauchi states. However, responding to the outbreak has proved challenging, due to a worldwide shortage of lifesaving diphtheria antitoxin used in treatment, caused by dwindling production capacity.
Omar said: “While we provided 2,000 doses of diphtheria antitoxin last month in Kano, securing doses of the antitoxin has been one of the biggest challenges in this crisis,” noting that: “We have placed an urgent additional order of 5,000 doses to cover the needs in our projects, but still, it is not enough.”
He said in light of these challenges, improved efforts to reduce the disease’s transmission and to strengthen outbreak preparation and response in Nigeria are crucial. This includes vaccination; underlying the outbreak is a low vaccination rate, with only 70 per cent of children having received their first dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine. The decline in immunization led to a reported 25 million un- or under-vaccinated children in Nigeria in 2021. However, funding for vaccines and implementation costs remains a barrier to scaling up; with Kano State alone requiring millions of doses to target at-risk groups.
The statement added that in addition to urgent antitoxin and vaccination needs, we urge international organisations to immediately scale up improved surveillance and contact tracing, and measures to strengthen the local health system.
MSF in the statement said i”n Maiduguri, Borno state, we have added a 20-bed diphtheria treatment clinic to our paediatric hospital in Gwange III PHC, where over 110 people have been treated by our teams since January. In Kano state, our teams have seen 6,707 people with suspected or confirmed cases of the disease since January, working in treatment centres with a total bed capacity of 147. In Bauchi state, where we have already treated 21 cases with diphtheria during our usual medical activities in Ganjuwa, we are monitoring the situation there and in Jama’are, and are ready to start diphtheria-specific activities based on the needs.
Our teams are also responding to diphtheria in neighbouring countries. In mid-August, we started supporting the Ministry of Health in Guinea, where we work in an epidemic diseases treatment centre in Siguiri prefecture. More than 100 people have been admitted since the start of our activities.
“In collaboration with the Nigerien Ministry of Health, our teams conducted a first-round of a preventive vaccination campaign in Kantché and Amsoudou health areas in early September, vaccinating nearly 48,500 people. A second round of vaccinations will take place in early October.
“The number of suspected cases in other countries in the region adds to the urgency of increasing access to antitoxin drugs and vaccination initiatives.”
MSF Calls for International Support to Tackle Worsening Diphtheria Outbreak in Nigeria
NSCDC Takes Medical Outreach to Community in Nasarawa
By: Michael Mike
The Nigeria Security and Civil. Defence Corps have continued to strengthen collaborations with one of the best HMOs in Nigeria, the United Healthcare International Ltd., this is in a bid to improve the well being of the serving officers and some host communities and also improve on grassroot security techniques and effective information gathering to forestall criminality.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a medical outreach organised by the NSCDC Commandant General, Dr Ahmed Audi, said the partnership with the United Healthcare International has positively impacted the Corps hence in order to give back to the communities and further foster and improve on the existing synergy between NSCDC and host communities, the Medical Health Service Department of the NSCDC organized the medical outreach programme to promote effective collaborations.
Delivering a goodwill message while representing the CG at the opening ceremony, ACG Ilelaboye Oyejide reiterated the commitment of the Corps to enhancing the health and well being of not only officers and men of the Corps but also the host
communities.
“In carrying out our statutory mandates, it requires the supports of the host communities for positive results and this is why the NSCDC is concerned about the state of health and wellness of the people.
“As an agency with the roles and responsibility of Disaster mitigation we belief that the free medical outreach organized for the people will go a long way to further cement the existing working relationship of the Corps and the entire community”.
The NSCDC Boss hinted that the Medical outreach would be carried out in various communities as time unfolds he noted that the Corps medical officers alongside the United Healthcare HMOs would be at Laminga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State for the first phase in the year.
NSCDC Takes Medical Outreach to Community in Nasarawa
Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break
By: Michael Mike
The Korean Embassy in Nigeria has commenced the Korean Film Festival in Nigeria after it went on break during the CIVID-19 pandemic.
The latest edition is the 12th Edition of the festival and was hosted at the Silverbird Cinema, in Abuja between 19th September to 21st September 2024 with several movies screened.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Korean ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Pankyu, expressed delight with the return of the festival after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
He said: “I have come to deeply feel that South Korea and Nigeria share a strong cultural affinity, especially in their love for music and dance.
“Due to this cultural affinity, various elements, such as fashion and cuisine, along with music, are resonating in Nigeria.
“Particularly, there has been a significant surge in the spread of dramas and films.”
He added that: “Along with the global hit ‘Squid Game’ in 2021, the most-watched drama series on Netflix Nigeria in 2022 was ‘Alchemy of souls’.
“Thus, I have come to realise the importance of introducing Korean films to Nigeria, one of the world’s top 3 film-producing countries.”
Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr Obi Asika, said millions of Nigerians had fallen in love with K-pop [Korean music] and K-drama [Korean drama].
He said Nigeria would continue to learn from the Koreans to improve its entertainment industry.
Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break
New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa
By: Michael Mike
Growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance health and critical HIV services, a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).
The report said domestic revenues, debt relief and development aid: Transformative pathways for ending AIDS by 2030 Eastern and Southern Africa/ Western and Central Africa, shows that the debt crisis is putting in jeopardy progress made towards ending AIDS.
It added that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the largest number of people living with HIV, with more than 25.9 million people of the 39.9 million living with HIV globally. The region’s success in having reduced new HIV infections by 56% since 2010 will not be sustained if fiscal space is constrained.
The report, released ahead of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, showed that the combination of growing public debt payments and spending cuts set out in International Monetary Fund agreements in the next three to five years will, if unaddressed, leave countries dangerously under resourced to fund their HIV responses.
The UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “When countries cannot effectively look after the health care needs of their people because of debt payments, global health security is put at risk,” adding that: “Public debt needs to be urgently reduced and domestic resource mobilization strengthened to enable the fiscal space to fully fund the global HIV response and end AIDS.”
The report said debt servicing now exceeds 50% of government revenues in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, adding that even after debt relief measures, Zambia will still be paying two-thirds of its budget on debt servicing between 2024 and 2026.
It said there has been a noted decline in HIV response spending since 2017 in Western and Central Africa, from 0.3% of GDP in 2017 to just 0.12% in 2022.
It said Western and Central Africa will need to mobilize US$ 4.18 billion to fully fund the HIV response in 2024. This will climb to US$ 7.9 billion by 2030 unless efforts are scaled up today to stop new HIV infections.
While US$ 20.8 billion was available for the HIV response in 2022 in low and middle-income countries through both domestic and international sources, this funding was not enough to sufficiently finance the HIV response. Western and Central Africa for example had a funding shortfall of 32% in 2022.
In 2024 alone, Eastern and Southern Africa will need to mobilize almost US$ 12 billion to fully fund the HIV response. This amount will climb to around US$ 17 billion by 2030 unless new HIV infections are reduced.
It said to enable increased domestic resource mobilization for countries to respond effectively to their pandemics, sub-Saharan African countries will need to strengthen their tax systems, including closing tax exemptions which currently cost countries an average of 2.6% of GDP in lost revenue across the region. Donors need also to scale up financial assistance for health and the HIV response between now and 2030, while creditors should offer debt relief to heavily indebted countries to ease the burden.
Byanyima said: “World leaders cannot let a resource crunch derail global progress to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”
New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa
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