Health
How Nigeria Beat Ebola
Nigeria has been Ebola-free since it narrowly avoided being sucked into the escalation of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever outbreak which devastated its neighbours, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone resulting in the loss of over 11,000 lives.
WHO has commended the Nigerian Government for its strong leadership and effective coordination of the response that included the rapid establishment of an Emergency Operations Centre headed by Dr Faisal Shuaib, an advisor to the Minister for Health, who was at the centre of the country’s efforts to eradicate polio.
Dr Shuaib said: “The Government’s quick action and deployment of the necessary resources was key to averting a disaster. The circumstances were hugely challenging but we hit the ground running and there was good collaboration across all sectors involved. We were also fortunate in that Nigeria has a first rate virology laboratory affiliated with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.”
The West Africa Ebola outbreak was the worst since the virus was first identified in 1976, and influenced the drafting of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction which emphasizes the need to enhance the resilience of national health systems and to integrate disaster risk management into health care.
Poverty, lack of preparedness and risk information, combined with inadequate health resources, made West Africa especially vulnerable, driving up exposure and fuelling the spread of the virus from March 2014 to January 2016 when WHO declared Liberia to be Ebola-free.
There was major alarm when the first case was reported in the sprawling Nigerian capital Lagos in July 2014, home to over 20 million people.
A diplomat who had been caring for a relative who died of Ebola in Liberia, and was already ill with the fever, managed to board a commercial fight to Lagos with the intention of visiting a faith healer.
He was admitted to a private hospital where he had to be physically restrained by a brave female doctor as he tried to flee the isolation unit. Both he and the doctor died. Matters were further complicated when another case was identified in the bustling oil centre of Port Harcourt.
Dr Margaret Lamunu, a veteran of WHO’s work on disease control in humanitarian crises, saw her family once during the 15 months she worked on the Ebola crisis. She was re-deployed from Sierra Leone to support the response in Nigeria when the news broke of the first case.
Commenting on the experience, Dr Lamunu said: “There was a huge difference in response capacity in Nigeria and what was possible in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia where you can almost count the numbers of doctors on one hand.
“In Nigeria we had people with Masters degrees doing the tracing work and there was no shortage of qualified medical personnel and lab facilities. All the resources necessary were mobilised quickly. The national Government, the public, partners, and the global community were concerned about it getting out of control.
“There was great detective work in tracking down hundreds of contacts and the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, CDC (US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention), Médecins Sans Frontières, the Nigerian Red Cross and many other partners deserve much credit for how they managed to contain the risk of a major health disaster.”
A total of 894 contacts were linked directly to the original case. A further 526 contacts were linked to a health care worker who died in Port Harcourt. Altogether 18,500 face-to-face visits were carried out to check for fever and other symptoms. The high rate of literacy in the general population made it easier to carry out information campaigns by comparison with Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
By the time Nigeria was declared Ebola-free in October 2014, there were 19 infected individuals in addition to the index case from Liberia, 7 of whom died. These included eleven health care workers, 5 of whom paid the ultimate price for their courageous and successful efforts at containing the epidemic.
Dr Chadia Wannous, UNISDR health focal point, noted: “The experience of Nigeria when contrasted with that of other affected countries underlines how important it is to enhance the capacity of low-income developing countries to manage not just emergencies and disasters but the underlying risks. This requires resilient health systems with trained personnel, risk information and risk communication systems, logistics and supply chain structures, financing mechanisms and solid health governance as we have seen in Nigeria.”
She also highlighted the significant role played by the community, with teams of “social mobilizers” reaching thousands of households with health information and facilitating understanding so that fear and mistrust do not hinder mounting an effective response.
UNISDR is currently collaborating with WHO, UNDP and other partners to implement a project in Ebola-affected Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea to “accelerate the implementation of the Sendai Framework with risk-informed health systems”.
The project, funded by the government of Japan, aims to enhance collaboration between disaster risk management and health authorities and integrate health into disaster risk management structures and at the same time integrate risk management into the health sector. By doing so, it is expected that the project will further contribute to reducing mortality due to health emergencies and other types of disasters.
Reducing global disaster mortality is the theme of this year’s International Day for Disaster Reduction, October 13.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) says the number of Nigerians enrolled in health insurance has risen to more than 22 million.
The Director-General of NHIA, Mr Kelechi Ohiri, said this resulted from the implementation of the mandatory health insurance, which has gained momentum nationwide.
He said this on Wednesday at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Association of Insurance and Pension Editors (NAIPE) in Lagos.
Mr Ohiri said enrolment had increased to 22.03 million, representing a 35 per cent year-on-year growth, attributing this to stronger collaboration with state social health insurance agencies, ministries, departments and agencies, organised labour, employers, the private sector, and the gradual implementation of the mandatory health insurance provisions of the NHIA Act.
He said that the country had moved beyond policy formulation to delivering measurable improvements in healthcare access, service quality and consumer protection in line with the federal government’s health sector reform agenda.
According to him, Nigeria already has the necessary policies and legislation to achieve Universal Health Coverage, positing that the key challenge was effective implementation.
“The decisive variable is now implementation- consistent, rigorous and accountable execution that converts political commitment into healthcare access for real Nigerians,” he said.
Mr Ohiri said that the transition from the former National Health Insurance Scheme to the NHIA had strengthened regulation, consumer protection, accountability and strategic purchasing, while providing the legal and operational framework for achieving Universal Health Coverage.
He added that improving the experience of enrollees remained central to the Authority’s reform agenda.
According to him, NHIA has strengthened its complaints management system, introduced faster resolution timelines, and intensified compliance monitoring of Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs) and healthcare providers.
He further added that NHIA had sanctioned facilities that failed to meet the required standards, adding that his organisation had resolved 3,878 complaints, representing an 87 per cent resolution rate, while 95 per cent of the cases were concluded within prescribed timelines.
Mr Ohiri noted that more than N14.2 million had been refunded to enrollees, while non-compliant healthcare facilities had been sanctioned.
He said NHIA had also introduced service standards, including a one-hour treatment commencement target for enrollees requiring urgent care, to improve access to timely and quality healthcare services.
The NHIA boss further disclosed that capitation payments to healthcare providers had been increased by 93 per cent.
He said fee-for-service reimbursements rose by 378 per cent to enable providers to invest more in personnel, equipment and infrastructure.
According to him, 7,592 healthcare facilities have been assessed under the SafeCare quality framework as part of efforts to institutionalise continuous quality improvement across the country.
Mr Ohiri also highlighted interventions targeted at vulnerable groups, including support for more than 48,500 pregnant women, expanded maternal and newborn healthcare services, the Vulnerable Group Fund, and improved access to healthcare for pensioners and retirees.
He said Universal Health Coverage could only be achieved if every Nigerian, regardless of income or location, had access to quality healthcare services.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The new one-hour authorisation response time ultimatum policy introduced by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has received the full backing of SUNU Health Nigeria Limited.
This policy was introduced by the agency to ensure enrollees get prompt approval codes to access care.
Healthcare service providers have been urged to report any Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) that violates this initiative through an email, with the HMO in copy and a timestamp attached as evidence of the request. They may proceed to offer services to enrollees thereafter.
Speaking at the company’s second-quarter Providers’ Forum for the Lagos-Ogun region in Lagos recently, the chief executive of SUNU Health, Dr Moyosore Olomola, expressed optimism that this policy would improve healthcare delivery in the country, especially for enrollees, who crave quality service.
At the event themed Improving Quality and Access to Care Through Stronger Provider Network, and held at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) in Yaba, Lagos, Mr Olomola reaffirmed the HMO’s commitment to operating within legal and operational frameworks to guarantee adequate care for enrollees.
“Access to care and quality of care remain key priorities in our healthcare systems. We know quite well that deliberate collaboration, strategic partnerships, and a shared commitment to excellence are required to achieve these priorities.
“A strong provider network is doubtless the backbone of any effective healthcare system. It ensures that our mutual enrollees receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place, and at the right price,” Mr Olomola, represented at the programme by the organisation’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Dr Faith Nwachi, stated.
He further assured that SUNU Health would strictly adhere to the one-hour authorisation limit, stressing that this aligns seamlessly with one of the organisation’s core values—promptness and its corporate slogan, Humanity is the centre of our initiatives.
In a bid to further improve access and quality of care, SUNU Health also demonstrated its new operational software and Mobile app, aptly named SUNU Legacy.
Also speaking at the event, the NHIA Lagos State Coordinator (Ikeja), Dr Bethuel-Kasimu Abraham, noted that the forum’s expected outcome is to significantly reduce delays in accessing medical care.
Other key expectations include ensuring continuity of care, improving patient outcomes, and strengthening accountability among HMOs.
Addressing specific pain points faced by enrollees, the NHIA Ogun State Coordinator, Mr Dare Adefeso, acknowledged that the agency had received complaints regarding out-of-stock drugs and the discrimination of enrollees by certain providers.
He affirmed that the NHIA is actively addressing these issues, stressing that moving forward, every facility must ensure enrollees are properly catered to regardless of their status, provided they have an active health insurance plan.
Corroborating the long-standing legacy of SUNU Health, the Ogun State Director of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mrs Aishat Tiamiyu, shared that her agency is responsible for public information dissemination and has been enrolled with SUNU Health for over 25 years.
Commending the HMO’s stellar service over two decades, she called for the immediate enrollment of new NOA staff into the scheme.
The Providers’ Forum remains one of the strategic channels employed by SUNU Health to consistently engage healthcare providers, understand their operational challenges, introduce new software updates, and solidify partnerships aimed at fostering premium healthcare delivery across Nigeria.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has announced the recall of a sexual enhancement product known as WAP Sensual Enhancement Capsules.
In a statement on Monday, the Nigerian agency disclosed that the recall is due to “undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients” in the product, whose country of origin is unknown, but is marketed and distributed online in the US through eBay.
It was emphasised that the recall is being “voluntarily” made by the manufacturer, Best Supplements Best Prices Company.
The detection of the undeclared pharmaceutical ingredients was made by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Laboratory analysis by the US FDA revealed that the product contained undeclared sildenafil, tadalafil, and flibanserin, which were not mentioned on the product label. Such substances may include phosphodiesterase type-5 (PDE-5) inhibitors or related compounds commonly used for the treatment of erectile dysfunction, the statement by NAFDAC stated.
Sildenafil and tadalafil are ingredients in FDA-approved prescription drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction.
It was noted that these undeclared ingredients may interact with nitrates found in some prescription drugs, such as nitroglycerin, and may lower blood pressure to dangerous levels. Consumers with diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart disease often take nitrates.
Flibanserin is the active ingredient in an FDA-approved prescription drug used to treat low sexual desire in women. Flibanserin can cause drowsiness, sedation, dangerously low blood pressure, and fainting, especially when combined with alcohol.
Consumers have been encouraged to report compromised products (medicines or medical devices) to the nearest NAFDAC office, call 0800-162-3322, or send an email to sf******@********ov.ng.
