European Union proposes new 2-strain vaccines to boost COVID-19 protection

By Sola Charles

The adapted versions of established WHO warns against the use of 2 drugs for non-severe COVID-19 mRNA COVID-19 vaccines that address two variants in one shot will soon offer people better protection than vaccines that are now available, a European health official stated on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Moderna and the BioNTech-Pfizer alliance are working on vaccines based on a combination of the original Wuhan virus and an Omicron subvariant.
Referred to as bivalent shots, these are planned for use in the autumn vaccination campaign.
While the existing coronavirus vaccines continue to provide good protection against hospitalization and death, vaccine effectiveness has taken a hit as the virus has evolved.
In recent days, EU officials have sounded the alarm on a new wave of COVID cases in the continent, and an increasing trend in hospitalizations, driven by the Omicron offshoot called BA.5.
"We project that by the end of this month the BA.5 sublineage will be the dominant variant in most of the EU countries," Pierre Delsaux, the director of EU's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, told members of the European Parliament in a hearing.
At this stage, no final decision has been made on which Omicron variant BA.1 or BA.4/BA.5 the autumn vaccine campaign should use since none of the shots has been yet endorsed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), he said.
"Whatever bivalent vaccine is finally available in Europe. It will be a good vaccine, it will be a better vaccine, even against BA.4/BA.5."
The EMA expects new COVID variant-adapted vaccines to be approved by September but signaled
on Friday that it is open to using shots targeting the older BA.1 variant for that campaign, given the shots targeting the newer BA.4 and BA.5 strains have only recently entered clinical development.
The new COVID wave is already happening, and because most people in that age group had their booster more than three to six months ago, the risk is now - and the adapted vaccines will likely only be available from September onwards, said Andrea Ammon, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

NRHJN charges Sanwo-Olu to commence enlightenment on safe, legal abortion in Lagos

L-R: Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi 

By Sola Charles

IN the wake of the suspension of the Guidelines on Safe Termination of Pregnancy for Legal Indications in Lagos State, the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria, NRHJN, has called on Governor BabajideSanwo-Olu to empower the State’s Ministry of Health to commence an immediate enlightenment program on the relevance and importance of the guidelines in the management and care of women and girls of reproductive age in the state.

The  NRHJN, a media advocacy group on sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls, urged the State government through its Ministry of Health, not to allow the guidelines to become moribund or extinct as a result of the suspension.
In an open letter signed by its President, Yinka Shokunbi, and National Secretary, Sekinat Lawal, the Network commended the State Government for coming up with the guidelines, even as it argued that no woman should lose her life or compromise her physical or mental health from preventable conditions while trying to bring another life to being.
“We members of the Network of Reproductive Health Journalists of Nigeria, are urging the Lagos State government through the  State Ministry of Health, not to allow the guidelines to become moribund or extinct from its suspension.
“The Governor should direct the State Commissioner for Health to immediately initiate strategies and plans to re-train and equip the health care providers in the public and private sectors with the relevant skills and resources to carry out their roles as contained in the guidelines.”
The Network opined: “A guideline such as the one launched by Lagos State on safe termination of pregnancy for legal indications is most welcome at this time because it is not for use by everybody but only for medical practitioners in the business of reproductive health of women and girls.
“We also urge the Lagos State Ministry of Health to give adequate reference to the National guidelines on safe termination of pregnancy for legal indications that were similarly released and launched in 2018 during the tenure of former Health Minister, Professor Isaac Folorunsho Adewole.”
Further, the Network admonished stakeholders in the State to be availed with copies of the State Guidelines so as to be informed of the content and be properly guided on its application.
“As media stakeholders and reproductive health writers, we were excited at the launch of the policy document which gives the needed teeth to the safely engage initiative which the state launched in 2018.
It was in 2011 that the State reviewed the Criminal Code and replaced it with the Criminal Law, and has since then, operated with the backing of that Law.
Quoting the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Professor Ayo Atsenuwa,  who is the Senior Legal Consultant in the Policy Documentation,  the Network noted that missing in Lagos State since 2011, had been the policy guidelines to the relevant sections of the Criminal  Law that could guide service providers (medical doctors) in the medical care and treatment of patients.
Atsenuwa said the document is meant to help guide the medical service providers in Lagos State on how to recognize a pregnancy needing medical intervention for termination.

"The goal of the document is to serve as a tool for the provision of safe termination of pregnancy within the legal framework in circumstances whereby the continuation of such pregnancy threatens the life or physical and/or mental health of the woman thereby contributing to the reduction of maternal morbidity and mortality in Lagos State, and by extension, in Nigeria at large".

SCI, GSK upgrade 27 PHCs, 2 General Hospitals in Ikorodu with N50m medical equipment, consumables

Deputy Director, Programme Operations, SCI Nigeria, Ms. Nwamaka Ifionu (2nd from right) officially presenting the donated items to the representative of the Lagos State Ministry of Health, Mrs Deborah Afolabi (left) and some officials of the beneficiary health facilities in Ikorodu. Looking on (3rd from left) is the Chief of Party, INSPIRING Project, Dr Isa Adamu.

   

By Sola Charles

 Towards the reduction of deaths from childhood pneumonia and other preventable infectious diseases in Ikorodu Local Government Area, in Lagos State, Save The Children International, SCI, Nigeria, with support from GlaxoSmithKline recently donated hospital equipment, medical consumables, and other essential materials with an estimated value of N50 million to 27 primary health care facilities and two General Hospitals in the LGA.

The items which were donated through the INSPIRING project, a partnership between SCI and GSK, included medical equipment such as incubators, infrared thermometers, pulse oximeters, and Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), among others. Infection prevention control supplies, such as hand sanitizers, gloves, and face masks were also donated to the health care facilities.

At the presentation ceremony, the SCI Deputy Director, Programme Operations, Ms. Nwamaka Ifionu, described the presentation of the items as a part of the cardinal intervention of SCI and its partners toward scaling up childhood services at health facilities in Ikorodu and its environs with focus on prevention of pneumonia.

Ifionu who spoke on behalf of the SCI Country Director stated: “When we thought of what we could do in the states that we have been commissioned and Lagos is one of those states, we decided to find out what their needs were and where we would make the most impact with the resources that we have from our esteemed donor, GSK.

Deputy Director, Programme Operations, SCI Nigeria, Ms. Nwamaka Ifionu who represented the Country Director, Mr. Famaro Barro at the presentation 

“Working with the Lagos State Ministry of Health through the Primary Healthcare Board, we decided on Ikorodu LGA which we have decided to really support and saturate with these services. Essentially we are looking into working with the LGA to support the integrated and sustainable reduction of childhood illnesses in the LGA, and we are doing it through a number of efforts that support capacity strengthening at the health capacity level.”

She said SCI and its partners have consistently supported the training of health workers, immunization services, and efforts to improve the number of resources, equipment, and tools that the health workers have at their disposal to do the work that they do and do it well.

“We are donating all these infection prevention and control items as well as medical materials to support that effort as well in continuing the primary focus and the work that we have done includes training as well as providing equipment towards the attainment of the goal. We want to make sure that Ikorodu LGA and its health facilities are equipped with medical products to save lives when needed.  

Further, Ifionu explained that the intervention by SCI and its partners in Ikorodu was essential for curbing incidences of misdiagnosis of childhood pneumonia and ensuring drastic improvement in the ability to diagnose pneumonia by the health workers.

“The intervention is to ensure that community, caregivers, and health workers are well aware of the signs and symptoms of pneumonia. It has also meant that children who come in with symptoms of pneumonia are able to get the required and appropriate treatment in a timely manner, and the facilities have the right equipment including oxygen to administer the treatment and ensure that unlike before they are not dying of preventable illnesses like pneumonia.

Chief of Party, Inspiring Project, SCI, Dr. Isa Adamu during the official presentation of the donated items 

Also speaking, Dr. Isa Adamu, a public health physician, and the Chief of Party, Inspiring Project, said the whole initiative was about improving child health, especially pneumonia in Ikorodu LGA.

He remarked: “This is the 4th time we are making this donation. The fulcrum of the intervention is related to the approach that we take in Ikorodu, which is a pilot out of all the LGAs in Lagos. The overall objective is that we want to give everything that Ikorodu requires to reduce death among children under the age of 5. 

"We want to make a difference to lead to the reduction of death in pneumonia. We want to pilot every scheme that we know and every strategy that works with the 27 primary health centres and another two General hospitals in Ikorodu LGA.

“The original idea was to do a pilot and find that is there is a way that we can improve child health in the LGA, especially pneumonia, we saturate it with all that it needs, and after five years we do an evaluation whether it has reduced the number of deaths among children after these number of years and after this intervention. 

"If the answer is yes, we see improvement; it means the approaches have worked. It means we can go back to I and say if we get an opportunity we can cover the whole of Lagos state,” he asserted.

Adamu said there will be an endline survey in early 2023 after two solid years of intervention in Ikorodu to show to the donor, SCI, and other child health communities to say that as a result of the intervention, the mortality rate of pneumonia has been reduced by a specific margin.