Health
MSF Calls for Urgent Scale-Up of Humanitarian Intervention to Avert Severe Malnutrition in Borno
MSF Calls for Urgent Scale-Up of Humanitarian Intervention to Avert Severe Malnutrition in Borno
By: Michael Mike
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) otherwise called Doctors Without Borders has called for an immediate scale up of humanitarian intervention In Borno State to avert severe nutritional crisis in the troubled Northeast State.
MSF, in a statement on Thursday, said it has been witnessing an unprecedented influx of malnourished children to it’s nutrition centre in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital suggesting an alarming nutritional crisis in the state.
The statement read: “We are therefore calling for an urgent scale up of the humanitarian response in Borno in advance of the ‘hunger gap’ peak period, which could be much more severe than previous years if current trends continue.”
The statement quoted MSF head of mission in Nigeria, Shaukat Muttaqi,to have said: “It is critical that action is taken now, in advance of the seasonal malnutrition peak, to avoid an even worse situation.”
He said: “We are only at the very beginning of the hunger gap period and already our facility is overwhelmed with more patients than we’ve ever seen on a monthly basis since the project opened in 2017. Previous trends tell us the worst is still to come. This represents a big flashing warning sign. Unless urgent steps are taken to prepare for the looming peak, people in Maiduguri will suffer deadly consequences.”
The statement said: “So far this year, we have admitted 2,140 malnourished children for hospital care in our inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (ITFC) – about 50 per cent more than from the same period last year.
“For six weeks in May and June, even though the peak hunger gap season had barely begun, more malnourished patients arrived than at any time since the project opened in 2017 – including at the very peak of the season in previous years. Up until May, our outpatient therapeutic feeding programme saw a 25 per cent increase in enrolments compared to last year.”
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The statement further revealed that in response, “our teams extended the existing ITFC capacity from 120 beds to 200 beds. Even with that emergency measure in place, for some days in June there were not enough beds for all the malnourished children being admitted.
Other humanitarian organisations have also been operating at full or beyond their capacities. In some cases organisations have had to reduce services due to a lack of funding – including the closure of 16 much-needed outpatient therapeutic feeding centres. As a result and if current trends continue, services will be overwhelmed, and many more malnourished children will be at risk of dying.”
“Most urgently, we need to see an increase in hospital capacity for treatment of severely malnourished children, but that must also be met in parallel with a major scale up of interventions at the community level to get ahead of a potential worst-case scenario,” says Muttaqi. “That means expanding outpatient feeding programmes, food security, immunisation, and access to water and hygiene.”
Malnutrition is a chronic and multi-faceted concern in Borno State, driven by the cumulative impact of displacement, insecurity, poverty, lack of access to healthcare and other factors. It is historically most acute between late June and early September during the ‘lean season’ – the period between the planting of crops and the harvest period. The added stressors of low immunisation, lack of access to clean water, hygiene and healthcare, too often combine with chronic food insecurity to produce devastating effects for children.
Periodic outbreaks of diseases, particularly measles and cholera, as well as seasonal peaks of malaria, can further compound the situation. Last year, Nigeria experienced an exceptionally large outbreak of cholera while immunisation rates among children in Borno State are alarmingly low. Access to healthcare is also a daily challenge for people, particularly those who are displaced.
According to the statement, one Hussaina Ali, whose youngest child is now also malnourished and is undergoing treatment at the ITFC, said: “My children never got vaccinated apart from their immunisation at birth. My four-year-old son becomes sick during the rainy season every year. There is no free medical facility in our area, so I just take him to the pharmacy and get medicine there.”
MSF Calls for Urgent Scale-Up of Humanitarian Intervention to Avert Severe Malnutrition in Borno
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.”
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