Nigeria News

Abuja 25th October 2016 - As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark World Polio Day, the Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Folorunsho Adewole, reiterated Federal Government commitment to once and for all interrupt polio virus transmission in the country. The Honorable Minister said this when he addressed a press conference in Abuja to commemorate the World Polio Day.

On 27 October, WHO supported Borno State Ministry of Health to train 37 health workers as part of its scale up plan for the Hard to Reach Teams (HTR) programme in Borno State. Those trained were selected from six newly liberated Local Government Areas including Dikwa, Gwoza, Kukawa, Mafa, Munguno and Ngala.

Abuja, 04 November, 2016- Experts and partners are in Abuja to access the response by countries in the Lake Chad Basin to the wild polio virus outbreak in north east Nigeria. Since August 2016, Nigeria has recorded four wild poliovirus (WPV) cases in Gwoza, Jere and Monguno local government areas (LGAs) of Borno state, Nigeria.

WHO and Borno State Ministry of Health have trained 89 participants including data collectors and rolled out data collection for Health Resources and Services Availability Mapping System (HeRAMS) in Borno targeting 360 health facilities.

As part of its efforts to control malaria in newly liberated areas, WHO has supported Borno State Ministry of Health to train 80 health workers including clinicians on the use of Rapid Diagnostic Kits (RDTs) and case management for malaria.

Maiduguri, 08 November, 2016 - The World Health Organization (WHO) and Borno state Ministry of Health are scaling-up Hard-to-Reach programme (HTR) with training of 36 health workers as part of teams to serve people in prioritized difficult to access areas in six local government areas (LGAs) in Borno State.

Abuja, 08 November 2016 - The Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole launched the  National Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) 2015 report in Abuja on 7 November, 2016. The survey was conducted by National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) in collaboration with National Population Council and National Bureau of Statistics, with technical support from ICF international, US Presidents Malaria Initiative, WHO and UKAid.

WHO and health partners helped vaccinate more than 10 000 children against measles in 2 days in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in the conflict-affected Borno State.

Since 6 June 2016, health clinics in IDP camps in Borno State have seen increasing numbers of measles cases. From early September until late October, 744 suspected cases of measles, and 2 deaths, were reported from WHO-established EWARS reporting sites. The majority of these children had never been vaccinated against measles and most of them were aged less than 5 years.

WHO has donated lifesaving medical supplies to three health sector partners responding to the emergency health needs of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Borno State, Nigeria.

Suspected Measles cases continue to spur across IDPs camps spite ongoing routine immunization activities. As part of a phase I measles campaign, Borno State Ministry of Health and partners conducted reactive measles vaccination in three camps: Muna Garage, Custom House and Fariya informal camp.

The total vaccinated children aged 6 months to 15 years was 13,537 with vaccination coverage of 98.2%.

Reactive measles vaccination campaigns are ongoing targeting 16 camps in MMC and Jere LGAs.

WHO has delivered two IEHKs (Interagency Emergency Health Kits) to the Maiduguri State Specialist Hospital and one IEHK to the Umaru Sehu Hospital in Maiduguri. Each kit contains essential medicines and medical supplies to treat 10,000 people for three months.

Malaria and Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) modules were also provided as part of these kits.

Moreover, WHO delivered 15,500 Malaria RDTs to the Malaria Control Unit of the Borno State Ministry of Health.