'Health Insurance Should Be Compulsory'

The Nigerian Health Minister Onyebuchi Chukwu has called for legislation to make health insurance mandatory, noting it would remove problems of affordability which denies millions of Nigerians universal access to health care.

His comments coincide with First Lady Patience Jonathan's lamentation on the death of hundreds of Nigerian women every year at childbirth, calling them "unacceptable."

Speaking at the flagoff of Maternal and NewBorn Child Health Week, coordinated by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Mrs. Jonathan said: "It is no more acceptable to make excuses for why one in 13 Nigerian women die in childbirth or why up to 157 out of every 1,000 Nigerian children may die before he or she reaches age five."

The MNCH Week, marked twice every year since the National Council on Health approved it three years ago, provides free medical services for women and children for seven days in all government-owned hospitals.

"The week is an opportunity to do something about this unacceptable situation, and remains our collective burden to ensure it is a success," Mrs. Jonathan said in statement read by Helen Mark, wife of the Senate president.

Health Minister Chukwu insisted that one way of achieving universal access to health was "some form of insurance" in reference to the National Health Insurance Scheme, which many state governments have been reluctant to accept.

"We need to make health insurance mandatory," he said in direct comments to the "Chairman (of the) Senate Committee on Health (Gyang Dantong), we need to work on this."

Chukwu said health insurance would make healthcare more affordable and accessible to individuals and move the country "to the next stage."

The free health package will include antenatal care, vitamin A supplementation, immunisation, birth registration and health education as well as distribution of antimalarials and nets treated with long-lasting insecticides.

NPHCDA Executive Director Muhammad Ado said the week was an "opportunity to reach every mother and child" and called on state governments to ensure citizens get the free services.

Source :http://allafrica.com/stories/201205290304.html

WHO: Emergency plan for polio eradication

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 24 (UPI) -- Funding shortages forced the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to scale back vaccination in 24 high-risk countries, officials meeting in Switzerland said.

Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said despite the dramatic drop in polio cases in the last year, the threat of continued transmission due to immunization gaps drove the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to begin an emergency action plan.

The plan aims to boost vaccination coverage in the three remaining polio endemic countries -- Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan -- to levels needed to stop polio transmission.

In addition, health ministers meeting at the World Health Assembly this week in Switzerland, are considering a resolution to declare "the completion of polio eradication to be a programmatic emergency for global public health."

India, long-regarded as the nation facing the greatest challenges to polio eradication, was removed from the list of polio-endemic countries in February.

But cases continue to occur in Nigeria, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Chad. Outbreaks in recent years in China and West Africa due to importations from Pakistan and Nigeria highlight the continued threat of resurgence.

"Polio eradication is at a tipping point between success and failure," Chan said in a statement. "We are in emergency mode to tip it towards success -- working faster and better, focusing on the areas where children are most vulnerable."

By some estimates, failure to eradicate polio could lead within a decade to as many as 200,000 paralyzed children a year worldwide, Chan added

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2012/05/24/WHO-Emergency-plan-for-polio-eradication/UPI-71001337864446/#ixzz1w0OVI0ja

Tanzania: Local Firm to Produce ARVs Soon

BY FARAJA MGWABATI, 21 MAY 2012

COMMERCIAL production of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in Tanzania will start in August, after over six months delay.

The Arusha-based, Tanzania Pharmaceutical Industries Limited (TPIL), was to commence productions earlier this year, but finalisation of compliance processes led to the delay.

It is expected that the project will provide medicines for half of 1.3 million HIV-positive Tanzanians and reduce importation.

The TPIL Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ramadhani Madabida, said the drugs to be produced at the Arusha factory would be among the cheapest in the world. Mr Madabida told the 'Daily News' recently that the company has finalised installation of machines and equipment.

"We have done trials of the generic drugs we are about to produce," he said during an interview on the sideline of the Regional Health Conference organised by Germany Agency for Development Cooperation (GTZ) in Dar es Salaam last week. Tanzania has a national HIV prevalence of about 5.7 per cent, but levels are as high as 15 per cent in southern areas of Iringa and Mbeya.

Source:Tanzania Daily News

International Scientific Conference Planned for Nodding Disease

The World Health Organization (WHO) is planning an international scientific conference on the causes and treatment of nodding disease – an illness that continues to ravage some parts of Africa. 
 
The meeting will be held in July and August and will be attended by medical experts from around the world, according to Dr. Charles Okot, the organization’s country advisor in Uganda on disease prevention and control.
 
The mystery disease affects only children.  It gradually devastates its victims through debilitating seizures, stunted growth, wasted limbs, mental disabilities and sometimes starvation

Source:VOA news

World Health Statistics 2012

World Health Statistics 2012 contains WHO’s annual compilation of health-related data for its 194 Member States, and includes a summary of the progress made towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and associated targets. 

This year, it also includes highlight summaries on the topics of noncommunicable diseases, universal health coverage and civil registration coverage.Full report available at http://www.who.int/entity/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/EN_WHS2012_Full.pdf

First Lady: Health sector on sick bed

By Frank Aman and Fariji Msonsa

Poor health services, lack of medical personnel and facilities have hampered service delivery in the sector in Sub-Saharan Africa countries, including Tanzania.

This was said at Mnazi Mmoja grounds in Dar es Salaam yesterday by First Lady Salma Kikwete during the launch of a new proggramme under the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF). The project will see at least 4,000 midwives in Tanzania trained in a period of three years. In association with the government, the foundation intends to raise about Sh20 billion for the training that would cost about Sh4 million per midwife. 

As a result of poor infrastructure and services, maternal and infant mortality rates are high in the region.
This comes as the countries experience a shortage of midwives, poor medical services and lack of awareness among communities. Only 50 per cent of expectant mothers in Tanzania give birth in medical centres.

Despite the efforts made by the government in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates, the ratio is still alarming due to inadequate professionalism and midwives.  For the past four centuries, she said, the world has had almost the same rate of maternal deaths. However, developed countries have managed to alleviate the situation as the developing ones struggle, especially sub-Saharan countries.

“The world report on the mothers’ situation shows that about 35,000 women experience maternal complications while 900 of them lose their lives. Also, the reports show that countries in the southern parts of Sahara register the highest rate, showing that only 40 per cent of women in the region have the possibility of delivering in health centres,” she said.
For his part, the minister for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Hussein Mwinyi, said the campaign comes at a time when the government wishes to have a rational number of health attendants among them midwives. The campaign will not only add the number of professionals, but also reduce other risks like HIV transmission from mother to child, malaria infection and loss of blood in expectant mothers.

He advised the expecting mothers to develop the habit of attending antenatal and postnatal clinics and shun the habit of delivering in their homes. This, he said, would also contribute to efforts towards alleviating the problem.

“Even as the government works to intensify the services and bring them closer to communities, the current statistics show that only 50 per cent of mothers deliver in hospitals or health centres. I call  on mothers to ensure they attend clinics at least four times during pregnancy and after delivery,” said Dr Mwinyi.

Source:The Citizen

Paying for health care: moving beyond the user-fee debate

A study in The Lancet reports on inequalities in receiving and paying for health services in three countries: Ghana, South Africa, and Tanzania.

HIV-prevention pill endorsed by U.S. health officials

(Gilead Sciences/Associated Press

The first drug shown to prevent HIV infection won the endorsement of a panel of federal advisers Thursday, clearing the way for a landmark approval in the 30-year fight against the virus that causes AIDS.

In a series of votes, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel recommended approval of the daily pill Truvada for healthy people who are at high risk of contracting HIV, including gay and bisexual men and heterosexual couples with one HIV-positive partner.