By Adedapo Adesanya

A new pan-African mental wellness campaign, the Africa Wellness Voices Initiative (AWVI), is set to launch this February, bringing together voices from across Africa to promote mental wellbeing, reduce stigma, and encourage supportive conversations around mental health.

Led by SereniMind, a mental health and wellness organization, AWVI will spotlight different African countries daily throughout February by sharing short wellness statements from individuals, organizations, youth leaders, and institutions.

Each daily feature will highlight local perspectives on mental wellbeing while reinforcing a shared continental message: mental health matters, it said in a statement shared with Business Post.

Mental health remains a critical but under-addressed issue across Africa. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), depression affects more than 66 million people in the African Region, while mental health services remain limited in many countries. Young people are particularly affected, facing stigma, lack of awareness, and barriers to accessing support.

AWVI said it aims to address these gaps through a unified, prevention-focused awareness campaign that leverages digital platforms to reach communities across borders. In addition to featured voices, members of the public are encouraged to participate by sharing short wellness videos on social media, fostering grassroots engagement and peer-to-peer support.

Speaking on the initiative, Mr Oyenuga Ridwan, Founder of SereniMind, said: “Across Africa, too many people suffer in silence when it comes to mental health. Africa Wellness Voices Initiative is about unity, bringing together Africans from different countries, ages, and backgrounds to normalize conversations around wellbeing and remind people that seeking support is a strength, not a weakness.”

The February campaign is expected to reach 15–25 African countries, feature 60–120 individuals and organizations, and generate over 500,000 digital impressions across platforms including Instagram, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. The organizers hope to scale the initiative in future editions to include all 54 African countries.

AWVI says it aligns with broader continental and global priorities on health, youth empowerment, and wellbeing, contributing to conversations around preventive mental health, community resilience, and inclusive development.

Through technology, partnerships, and community engagement, SereniMind works to promote wellbeing and reduce stigma around mental health.

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said Africa was no longer in the grip of a public health emergency over mpox, but warned that it remains endemic in several settings.

The announcement by the Director General of the Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, on Saturday, comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) in September said mpox was no longer a global health emergency.

The organisation had declared its worldwide public health emergency over the viral infection — previously known as Monkeypox, and related to smallpox — in August 2024, after a two-pronged mpox epidemic broke out, primarily in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Dr Kaseya said Africa was lifting its regional emergency status for the illness because of boosted detection, therapy, and the roll-out of more than five million mpox vaccines in 16 countries since 2024.

The response contributed to confirmed cases dropping by 60 percent between early 2025 and late 2025, and the number of deaths among those infected dropping from 2.6 per cent to 0.6 per cent, he said in a statement.

The lifting of the regional public health emergency status “does not mark the end of mpox in Africa,” he stated.

“Rather, it signals a transition from emergency response to a sustained, country-led pathway toward elimination.

“Mpox remains endemic in several settings, and continued vigilance, targeted investment, and innovation will be essential to consolidate gains and prevent resurgence,” the CDC chief added.

According to the WHO, 78 per cent of mpox cases were detected in Africa, with the DRC, Guinea, and Madagascar most affected.

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigerian author, Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, via her solicitors, has written to Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital, Lagos, over the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu Nnamdi, seeking documentation of treatment before his untimely demise.

In a legal notice dated January 10, 2026, solicitors acting for the renowned author and her partner, Dr Ivara Esege, alleged that the hospital, its anaesthesiologist, and attending medical personnel breached the duty of care owed to their son, who died in the early hours of Wednesday, January 7, 2026.

The notice was issued on behalf of the parents by Pinheiro LP and signed by the founding partner, Prof Kemi Pinheiro (SAN).

According to the notice, the child was referred to the hospital on January 6, 2026, from Atlantis Pediatric Hospital for a series of diagnostic and preparatory procedures. These included an echocardiogram, a brain MRI, the insertion of a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC line), and a lumbar puncture.

The procedures were reportedly part of preparations for an imminent medical evacuation to the United States, where a specialist medical team was said to be on standby to receive him.

The solicitors stated that intravenous sedation was administered using propofol.

However, it was alleged that during transportation to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory following the MRI procedure, the child allegedly developed sudden and severe complications.

Despite being under sedation, he was said to have been transferred between clinical areas under conditions that raised “serious and substantive concerns” about compliance with patient-safety protocols.

He was later pronounced dead in the early hours of January 7, 2026.

The legal notice outlines multiple alleged lapses in paediatric anaesthetic and procedural care.

These include concerns about the appropriateness and cumulative dosing of propofol in a critically ill child, inadequate airway protection during deep sedation, and an alleged failure to ensure continuous physiological monitoring.

The parents further alleged that their son was transferred without supplemental oxygen, without adequate monitoring, and without sufficient accompanying medical personnel.

They also raised concerns over the availability of basic resuscitation equipment, delayed recognition and management of respiratory or cardiovascular compromise, and an overall failure to comply with established paediatric anaesthesia, patient-transfer, and safety protocols.

Another major grievance cited was the alleged failure of the hospital to adequately disclose the risks and potential side effects of propofol and other anaesthetic agents, thereby undermining the legal requirement for informed consent.

According to the solicitors, these alleged lapses amount to prima facie breaches of the duty of care and render the hospital and all medical personnel involved liable for medical negligence resulting in the child’s death.

As part of their next legal steps, the parents demanded certified copies of all medical records relating to their son’s treatment within seven days of receipt of the notice.

The requested documents include admission notes, consent forms, pre-anaesthetic assessments, anaesthetic charts, drug administration records, monitoring logs, procedural notes, nursing observations, ICU records, incident reports, and the identities of all medical staff involved.

The demand also covers internal reviews, safety logs from the MRI suite, and any other documentation connected to the child’s care.

The hospital was also formally placed on notice to preserve all relevant evidence, whether physical or electronic.

This includes CCTV footage from procedure rooms and corridors, electronic monitoring data, pharmacy and drug inventory records, crash-cart and emergency equipment logs, as well as internal communications and any morbidity and mortality reviews.

The solicitors warned that “any destruction, alteration, or loss of such evidence after receipt of this letter shall be regarded as suppression or concealment of evidence and obstruction of the course of justice, and will be relied upon accordingly, with attendant legal consequences.”

The letter concluded with a warning that failure or refusal by the hospital to comply with the demands within the stipulated timeframe would leave the parents with no option but to pursue all available legal, regulatory, and judicial remedies against the hospital and all medical personnel involved.

Euracare Hospital had noted in a Saturday statement that it had commenced “a detailed investigation” into the incident in line with its clinical governance standards and best practices, while pledging to engage transparently and responsibly with all relevant clinical and regulatory processes.

Also, the Lagos State Government on Saturday said it began an investigation into the incident, vowing to ensure the full weight of the law is applied.

Speaking yesterday, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Health, Dr Kemi Ogunyemi, said the doctor involved in the child’s procedure had been suspended by the hospital’s management, noting that the hospital was cooperating with the government in the investigation.

“The hospital itself is also doing its own internal investigation, and as far as we know, the anaesthesiologist involved has been suspended by the hospital,” she revealed.