Nigeria Health Watch
“In Rwanda, a combination of community-based health insurance, community health workers, and good external partnerships led to the steepest reductions in maternal mortality ever recorded.” — President Kagame of Rwanda at the WHO General Assembly in Geneva, 2018 Despite several discussions around “maternal mortality”, how much do people really understand about this term? Why would the president […]
Editor’s Note: This week’s Op-Ed comes from Howard Catton, CEO of The International Council of Nurses (ICN). Ahead of World Health Day 2019, which is on Sunday, April 7th, he writes about the importance of the fight against counterfeit drugs through training and the use of technology and how this is critical if Nigeria and […]
Editor’s Note: This week’s blog is a personal story from a Nigeria Health Watch team member, Patience Adejo. She writes about her experience being diagnosed with Typhoid Fever multiple times using the Widal test, only to recently learn that the test does not give the most accurate diagnosis for typhoid fever. She delves into the […]
Water is life Imagine… 10-year-old Funke kicks up dust as she makes her way out of the door to the stream. You can barely see the dust because it is only 5am. Many other 10-year-olds are still safely tucked in bed, but not Funke; her morning chores include walking two kilometres to the stream to […]
Without good data, we’re flying blind. If you can’t see it, you can’t solve it – Kofi Atta Annan There are about 3.4 million Nigerians living with HIV- or at least that was what everyone thought. This figure was based on a prevalence estimate of close to 3%, derived from the last version of surveys […]
When we talk about gender equality in society, we often think of the pay gap or in public prominence. Some may also associate it with physical and psychological violence. However, reference is not often made to gender equality in health. Health is more than not becoming ill. It is, “a state of complete physical, mental and […]
In January 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities Prohibition Act, to provide for the full integration of persons with disabilities into society. It also establishes the National Commission for People with Disabilities, and vests in the Commission the responsibilities for their education, healthcare, social, economic and civil rights. […]
In about six months, Nigeria will achieve what will arguably be one of her recent greatest public health achievements; being declared polio-free. The journey has been lengthy and tough, and required sustained efforts of all stakeholders; from frontline workers identifying and reporting cases in states like Kano and Niger, to volunteer community mobilisers ensuring every […]
Editor’s Note: This week’s blog comes from Dr. Ikpeme Neto (Founder, Wella Health Technologies). He explores 10 tech ideas that may help transform Nigeria’s Health Sector. Dr. Neto is an internal medicine physician and digital health entrepreneur. I recently noticed a peculiar hashtag trending on Twitter. It was a hashtag for a telemedicine application that […]
Significant investment continues to be made to improve the health of women and children across Nigeria, especially in rural, disadvantaged locations. The necessity of investment is especially glaring in northern Nigeria, where maternal mortality rates are particularly high relative to the rest of the country. A deal of effort has been made to improve maternal […]
Cancer is the second most common cause of death in developed countries and among the top three leading causes of death in developing countries. The World Health Organisation (WHO) reports that about 24.6 million people live with cancer globally, with an alarming 12.5% of all deaths worldwide attributable to cancer. If this trend continues, it […]
“My name is Amos Nathan, I am making a creative statement, vote for health Naija” When Mr. Nathan made this statement, just outside the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa in Bayelsa State, people around him burst into laughter, possibly because of the frankness of his comment. Having spoken his mind, he walked away oblivious of the […]
Editor’s Note: This week’s blog piece comes from Adam Talsma, Regional Director for Africa, Reboot. He writes in this Op-Ed about the importance of accountability in governance to improving health outcomes, and how international donors are key partners to Nigeria’s citizens if good governance that makes an impact on our health indices… is to become […]
2019 in Nigeria is going to be quite a significant year, given the hotly contested presidential election taking place on February 16th and the governorship elections on March 2nd. For those of us in the health sector, it is important that we continue to champion health as an election issue. As a Nigerian citizen, as […]
