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Ngige Threatens To Stop Salaries Of Striking Doctors

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Ngige Pleads For CONUA, NAMDA As NLC Insists On Stopping New Unions

The disagreement between the Federal Government and resident doctors is taking a turn for the worse.

The government through the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, on Friday threatened the doctors that their salaries may be stopped if they do not resume work.

He said during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today that the Federal Government was empowered by labour law to stop paying salaries of the striking workers.

He also said the Federal Government had an option of employing local doctors.

READ ALSO: Govt Moves To Stop Resident Doctors’ Strike

Members of the National Association of Resident Doctors began “a total and indefinite strike” on Thursday.

The doctors are demanding the payment of salaries of house officers and an upward review of their N5,000 hazard allowance among others.

Ngige, however, said the Medical Council and the Office of the Accountant General had been told “what to do” to ensure that the doctors suspend their industrial action.

He said: “Immediately after the holiday, I will talk to them again. I have told the medical council and accountant general what to do to make sure. Only 23 institutions are involved, not all institutions. I want to know what they (medical council and accountant general) have done by Tuesday.

“By Tuesday, I will invite them back. If they become recalcitrant, there are other things I can do. There are weapons in the Labour Laws, I will invoke then. There is no work, no pay.

“Their employers have a role also to keep their business afloat, to keep patients alive. They can employ local doctors. We won’t get there but if we are going to get there, we will use that stick.”

The minister added that the Federal Government would review the hazard allowance of N5,000 in five weeks without disclosing the proposed figure.

He said : “It is the last NMA President Faduyile that called my attention that the hazard (allowance) was ₦5,000. I raised it with the Finance Minister and the Vice President in the Economic Sustainability Meeting.

“The new hazard allowance will be done in the next five weeks. It is in the Memorandum of Action that we signed. Immediately after the Easter break, I will convene a meeting to look at it holistically.”

Before the doctors began the strike, government had on Wednesday night signed a memorandum of action with them.

The agreement was signed after a seven-hour meeting between the government side and the leadership of NARD at the office of the Minister of Labour and Employment.

However, the strike was effective in hospitals despite the agreement and efforts by the National Assembly as well as the Ministry of Labour and Employment to prevent it.

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Health

WHO Urges Global Surveillance As Over 300 Children Die

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WHO Urges Global Surveillance As Over 300 Children Die

The World Health Organisation (WHO), has appealed to countries to conduct more surveillance following a reported death of over 300 children from the use of contiminated cough syrups in three countries.

The world health agency on October 5, 2022, had issued a medical product alert which focused on the Gambia regarding four Indian products, Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup, and Magrip N Cold Syrup.
The alert came following the death of over 60 children in the West African country after consuming the cough syrups.

Again in November 2022, the WHO also issued another warning focused on Indonesia concerning eight products including Termorex syrup (batch AUG22A06 only), Flurin DMP syrup, Unibebi Cough Syrup, Unibebi Demam Paracetamol Drops, Unibebi Demam Paracetamol Syrup, Paracetamol Drops (manufactured by PT Afi Farma), Paracetamol Syrup (mint) (manufactured by PT Afi Farma), and Vipcol Syrup.

READ ALSO: Why Over One Billion People May Become Deaf – WHO

In another warning contained in a statement on Wednesday, the UN agency said over the past four months, several countries had reported incidents of over-the-counter cough syrups for children, with “confirmed or suspected contamination with high levels of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol.”

“Last year, WHO raised the alarm by issuing medical alerts in October focused on the Gambia, in November about Indonesia, and earlier this month regarding Uzbekistan.

“The cases in these three countries are associated with more than 300 deaths, but we know that at least seven countries have been affected. Most of the deaths have been in children under the age of five.

“WHO’s medical product alerts were rapidly disseminated to the national health authorities of all 194 WHO member states,” the warning said.

 

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How Long Fasting Harms Kidneys – NAFDAC DG

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How Long Fasting Harms Kidneys - NAFDAC DG

Nigerians who subject themselves to long-hour fasting are doing so much harm to their kidneys.

The Director General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the warning on Monday.

Prof. Adeyeye, who attributed the high rate of kidney problems in Nigeria to prolonged fasting by some religious adherents, insisted that those subjecting themselves to prolonged fasting on religious grounds must moderate the act.

READ ALSO: NAFDAC Warns Of Fake Augmentin In Circulation

She spoke in Abuja yesterday, while briefing the media on the breakthrough by her agency in tracking consignments of Tramadol and other pharmaceuticals to the Republic of Benin.

On the high rate of kidney problems in the country, she said  “Kidney failure, we are a very religious country- Muslims and Christians fast a lot and it is part of the kidney problem.

“Your body has to have homeomistatic balance, meaning that the water level in your body must be enough to make your organs to function.

READ ALSO: Govt Speaks On Alleged Fatal Flu From China

“Some people will fast for 10 or 20 days and drink only little water, the kidney is being punished. Now, if you put chemicals in it, it triples in exponential manner, it damages the kidney because the kidney doesn’t have water to dilute and filter.”

Adeyeye, who tasked Nigerians to fast but with common sense, added:  “I fast but with common sense. We have to fast with common sense, otherwise we will pay with our kidneys.”

 

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Govt Speaks On Alleged Fatal Flu From China

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Govt Speaks On Alleged Fatal Flu From China

The Federal Government has made clarifications on reports of a fatal flu that broke out in China and that has spread to Nigeria.

The government through the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said that the World Health Organisation and other world health bodies had not informed Nigeria of any deadly flu from China.

He said this on Monday in Abuja, during a ministerial bi-weekly meeting on the update of COVID-19 response and development in the country’s health sector.

According to him, when there is an outbreak of any flu or disease anywhere in the world, WHO will announce it to the world and send an advisory on how it can be handled, but there is no such alert in the case of the strange flu.

“So the Ministry of Health finds the message going round in social media, odd and strange.

“By default, when there is an outbreak of any flu or disease anywhere we will hear it first from WHO and WHO has not said anything about it, we will also hear from the US Centre for Disease Control, but there’s nothing like that also from there and we have not even read anything from the Chinese people.

“Usually, their embassy will send somebody to come and inform us if there is anything. So I begin to wonder about the authenticity of that paper going around the place because up till today no confirmation of anything like that,” he said.

The minister also said that foreign media outlets were also silent about the flu from China, an indication that the news making the rounds was a fabrication.

He, however, said that the Federal Government was on the lookout for anything suspicious.

READ ALSO: China Opens Overseas Police Service Stations In Nigeria, Others

“This is a season where people generate stories, throw them into the media and everybody starts panicking, whilst those who generated such stories are laughing at the chaos that they have created.

“So we are watching the situation, everything we hear we take seriously, but I want to assure you again that any outbreak of such a character, first of all, is announced by WHO, they will then send us advisory and information about it.

“The US CDC, the equivalent of CDC in the UK, in Europe, they have not said anything. So reports of that nature I also want you to take with a big pinch of salt,” he added.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that there have been trending reports that amid the resurgence of COVID-19 in China, there has been an outbreak of an unknown deadly flu in China, which has led to the death of residents, including three Nigerians.

According to the reports, though the initial clinical analysis ruled out COVID-19, the symptoms of the fatal flu include dry throat, fever and difficulty in breathing.

 

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