FG to Nigerians: Undergo medical tests before taking antimalarial drugs

 

The federal government has asked Nigerians to always undergo medical tests before taking antimalarial drugs as not all fevers are symptoms of malaria.

Chinelo Ogbodo, chief community development officer of the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), gave the warning at a meeting in Akwanga, Nasarawa state.

Ogbodo said treating every form of fever with antimalarial drugs is an abuse of the drug since such a person does not know the nature of the ailment.

She advised that medical tests should be done to ascertain whether the feverish symptom is malaria before taking antimalarial drugs.

“So you need to run a test; every individual presenting symptoms of malaria or fever must be tested before you give them antimalarial drugs, when they test positive,” she was quoted to have said by NAN.

”Nigerians must understand that malaria is not common, there are various types and levels of the disease, like complicated and uncomplicated malaria, we also have severe malaria.

”When you treat fever with malaria drugs, without going for a test before treatment, you have succeeded in treating blindly without knowing what you are treating or the level of what you are treating.

”When somebody has malaria, and treats without testing, he or she has abused the drugs because you do not know the level of the malaria you are treating. When death occurs as a result of malaria, people term it as witchcraft or spiritual causes.”

On her part, Samuel Owoya, a staff member of NMEP, asked Nigerians to sleep under long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) every night.

Owoya said malaria is a major cause of mortality in the country, adding that the country must adopt the right health-seeking behaviour to eradicate the disease.

- THECABLE

Doctors suspend surgeries at UCH as water scarcity hits facility

 

Medical doctors at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan have suspended all surgical operations in the hospital till further notice, DAILY POST reports.

Our correspondent reliably gathered that the reason for the suspension of the surgeries is due to lack of water supply to the hospital.

On Wednesday our correspondent discovered that the teaching hospital has been experiencing water scarcity in the last few days.

DAILY POST found that at the UCH, hundreds of patients on admission and their relatives have had to go through stress for the lack of potable water in the health facility.

Some of the patients who are currently on admission in the hospital said they buy bags of satchel water to bathe and flush the toilets in the hospital.

A relative of one of the patients told DAILY POST on Wednesday that doctors in the hospital told his family member that they have suspended surgical operations in the hospital as a result of scarcity of water.

He said, “Someone who has been on admission at UCH for days just called me now that there has not been water supply to UCH for four days now.

“Patients buy bags of satchel water to bath and flush toilet. He is on admission for surgery and because of the water situation, doctors told him no surgery for now.”

One of the patients in the hospital told DAILY POST on Wednesday that he was admitted on Tuesday but there is no water to bath or flush.

He said, “I was admitted to the haematology daycare unit in UCH yesterday. There was no water to even flush the toilet.”

The Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Toye Akinrinlola when contacted told DAILY POST that the water scarcity was caused by ongoing renovation in the hospital.

He added that the renovation is expected to be completed in the next three weeks.

“When you visited UCH what did you observe? You will observe that there is a massive renovation ongoing. We are replacing the sewage system, that is why we have to shut down some facilities.

“When such renovation is ongoing, we have to shut down five blocks. We do not admit patients except for a few critical cases.

“The renovation is to be completed in three weeks. The issue of water scarcity that came up this morning is very strange to me. We have shut down our water plant and we cannot bring water from outside because we have our own water treatment plant. The best is for our patients to be patient with us.”

DAILY POST recalls that the suspension of surgical operations in UCH occasioned by water scarcity is coming few hours after President Muhamadu Buhari left Nigeria for a medical checkup in London.

Buhari had on Tuesday left the country for his health needs despite the huge amount of money budgeted for the State House clinic and other health facilities in the country.

- DAILY POST

Law enforcement officers to start wearing body cameras in Lagos

 Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos governor, has rolled out the plan for law enforcement officers in the state to use body cameras.

The governor announced the plan to train the law enforcement officers on Tuesday.

He said they will be trained by the Lagos state Law Enforcement Training Institute (LETI).

Olajide Oduyoye, general manager of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), had in February said the officers will use cameras to capture traffic violations.

“This year, we are going to be having body cameras on officers to capture incidences because things happen so fast,” he had said.

“You can’t really say let me get my camera. But if you have your body camera on that is recording, then you can capture all sorts of different things that you can use against offenders.

“Those who willfully disobey traffic signs go in the middle of the night to remove those signs. When they are caught, they will say that there were no signs. They go and remove the signs to prove they aren’t aware of the signs. This happens all the time.”

- THECABLE

Nigerian high commission in UK unreachable via telephone — ALL eight numbers

 Nigerians in the UK have been unable to get through to the Nigeria High Commission via telephone to resolve important travel issues.

Several UK-based Nigerians have made futile attempts to contact the high commission to resolve issues like passport processing, renewal, among others.

The development has heightened the worries of some diaspora Nigerians who have pertinent and urgent issues to resolve.

TheCable has observed the situation for the past one week and found that the complaints are justified

All the telephone numbers on the website of the high commission were out-of-reach when TheCable dialled them.

None of the five numbers listed for the immigration section, chancery, and consular services was reachable. Three other lines, including those for visa and general enquiries, also failed to connect.

Some of the numbers were switched off, while those that are voicemail-based responded with the comment that no personnel was available to attend to the caller.

Meanwhile, TheCable contacted the embassy via its email address and a response was received.

The embassy said it has “continually answered all calls and responded to all emails as received”.

In another email sent to inquire why the telephone numbers of the high commission were unreachable, TheCable got a response which said “all the lines are very active during working hours, however, you can send your request here”.

Subsequently, a series of calls were put through to the eight telephone numbers during working hours — but it was to no avail.

As of Wednesday morning, TheCable again tried the telephone lines but they were unreachable. - THECABLE

EPL: Guardiola takes decision on signing Messi as Aguero departs

 

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has abandoned his pursuit of Lionel Messi and the whole episode is now seen as “case closed”, according to Sport.

ManCity has been seen as favourites to be Messi’s next club, should he make an emotional exit from the Nou Camp this summer.

Messi tried to force his way out last summer, but under new manager Ronald Koeman and the returning president Joan Laporta, he appeared to be enjoying his football once more and looked set to stay.

City was keen on signing Messi last summer but “they are throwing in the towel, convinced that the Argentine will renew with Barca”.

Instead, Guardiola will now look to either Erling Haaland, Romelu Lukaku or Harry Kane to replace the departing Sergio Aguero.

The Etihad club confirmed on Monday that all-time leading goalscorer Aguero will move on at the end of the season once his contract expires.

- DAILY POST

UK fines Oyakhilome £125,000 over COVID-19 sermon

 

The United Kingdom’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) has fined Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his religious channel, Loveworld £125,000.

Ofcom in a statement said that the station was fined £125,000 (N65.6m) for breaching the country’s broadcasting code by disseminating misinformation on COVID-19.

The statement in part reads, “Today we have fined Loveworld £125,000 for this breach of the broadcasting code. This was the second time in a year that the broadcaster breached our rules on accuracy in news and harm in its coverage of the coronavirus.”

On December 1 2020, Loveworld aired a 29-hour programme called the Global Day of Prayer, during which claims were made about the COVID-19.

These claims according to the agency included the notion that the outbreak was ‘planned’, that the ‘sinister’ vaccine can be used to implant ‘nanochips’ that can control and cause harm to members of the public and the debunked theory that the virus was somehow caused by 5G.

The agency said it was unfortunate that the station could continue to spread such information despite previous warnings.

The statement further reads, “Ofcom stresses that legitimate debate about the official response to the coronavirus pandemic is fundamental to holding public authorities to account during a global health crisis - particularly when public freedoms are curtailed and complex policy decisions are being taken.

“However, the inaccurate and potentially harmful claims made during this programme were unsupported by any factual evidence and went entirely without challenge.

“Ofcom was particularly concerned that this breach followed previous, similar breaches in 2020 during the investigation of which, Loveworld Limited gave Ofcom a number of assurances as to how it would improve its compliance procedures.”

Oyakhilome, who is the Founder and President of LoveWorld Incorporated, also known as Christ Embassy, based in Lagos, has in the last one year encouraged his members to ignore COVID-19 protocols.

He recently asked his members not to take COVID-19 vaccines.

- PM NEWS

Oduduwa security outfit launched in Ogun State

 Oduduwa Nation Security Force with the code name “Operation Paramole”, meant to protect citizens of Oduduwa Nation has been launched.

The security outfit was launched on Wednesday, Mar 30, 2021, in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.

Operation Paramole was launched by a set of Yoruba Nation agitators who stormed the palace of the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo on Tuesday.

However, Alake was said to have travelled out of the state for a presentation at the Senate in Abuja.

Recall that Sunday Igboho’s spokesperson, Olayomi Koiki, had recently threatened that Yoruba youths would invade the palace of the Alake for not supporting Sunday Igboho’s call for a Yoruba Nation.

Tuesday’s march to the Oba’s palace was a peaceful demonstration devoid of any act of violence as the group affirms that they are not violent and can never support violence.

The Yoruba Nation agitators in series of tweets shared photos of the newly unveiled security outfit while giving details on how to join the squad to interested members of the public.

The group in a tweet said, “Yoruba Nation Warriors Ogun State Chapter. This is the first batch  - pmfrom Ogun State.”