Nigeria News

Lagos - Sometime in February, Kazeem Ade, age seven, was recuperating from diphtheria on a hospital bed in the children's ward at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), in Lagos Southwest Nigeria.  

His mother, Mrs Ade, can now smile after enduring a nerve-racking week at the hospital where her son including dozen other children have been receiving treatment for diphtheria – a vaccine-preventable disease that has killed 62 people (mostly children) in the country. 

Abuja ‒ In mid-March, 16-year-old Saifullahi Bulama, residing in Garin Mu’azu, located in Sule Tankankar Local Government Area (LGA) in Jigawa State, Nigeria, was healthy and running around with his friends.  Suddenly, he contracted cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM).

He recounts how he went to bed that night and could not stand up the next morning. 

“My legs were not working. I had a temperature and my body was aching. I was rushed to the hospital, where I was admitted and treated for four days,” he says. 

Abuja, 7 April, 2023 - Nigeria joins the globe to commemorate the 2023 World Health Day, which also doubles as the 75th anniversary of the World Health Organization (WHO).

On April 7, 1948, 55 member countries came together and founded the WHO, with the mandate to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable – so that everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health and well-being.   

Calabar, 4 April, 2023 - Cholera is endemic in Nigeria. It is highly contagious and occurs in places without safe water and proper sanitation. It causes profuse diarrhoea and vomiting, and without treatment can quickly lead to severe dehydration followed by death .

At about 6:40 pm on 17 January 2023, Gift Sunday-James, (35 years) shouts for help as she approaches the Primary Health Centre (PHC) located in Ovomum, Obabura Local Government Area (LGA), in Cross River State. 

Osun, 31 March, 2023 - “I was coughing out blood persistently for weeks, had fever, weakness, night sweats, severe chest pain. I had bought drugs from a patent medicine store, but it was not working. 

I was later diagnosed with TB at the National Youth Service orientation camp when I fell ill,” says 23 years old Adewale Adebukola, residing in Osun state. 

Adebukola has since been placed on treatment and is getting better. 

 Sokoto, 21 March, 2023 - Mohammadu Usman a 22-year-old noma survivor has found a home at the Sokoto Noma Children’s Hospital in Sokoto State, located in the northwest region of Nigeria.
Although he hails from Yobe, a state in Northeast Nigeria, he was brought in for treatment at the Noma Children’s hospital Sokoto by his father in 2017. 

“My face now looks better. When I first got here, my face had a hole in it, and eating or drinking water was a challenge. Anything I put inside my mouth was pouring out through the hole.

Yobe, 13 March, 2023 - As displaced residents and host communities in Yobe state, begin rebuilding their lives, the World Health Organization (WHO) supports the government to re-strategize and scale up its humanitarian health interventions. The objective is to ensure community inclusivity for all the people of the state. 

Maiduguri – 9 March, 2023 - The humanitarian support provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) in northeast Nigeria has continued to aid the displaced and vulnerable populations with access to emergency life-saving health services. 

Falmata Bukar, a 60-year-old woman residing in Dikwa Local Government Area (LGA), in Borno state, is glad to be alive after contracting cholera in December 2022. 

Abuja, 7 March, 2023 - “Being infected with COVID-19 is not an experience I wish to relive or wish on others yet to contract the disease, which was the reason I took the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it was available to the public because protecting myself is protecting my loved ones,” says Yecenu Sesetu, a journalist in the Federal Capital Territory ( FCT, Abuja), Nigeria. 

Narrating her experience, Ms Sesetu says she contracted COVID-19 in June 2020, when the country witnessed its first wave of the pandemic. 

The 39th Expert Review Committee (ERC) for Polio Eradication and Routine Immunization has expressed optimism that the Nigerian programme is on course to stop the transmission of the circulating Variant Polio Virus (cVPV2) with ‘impressive progress’ recorded.

The ERC meets periodically to evaluate progress toward the attainment of a polio-free Nigeria. The monitoring body comprising global and local experts on polio eradication guides the government and partners on how they can interrupt the residual risk of all forms of poliovirus and boost routine immunization in the country.