Health
Achieving Healthy Society Through Family Planning
The Chief Executive Officer of the Association for Reproductive and Family Health, Prof. Oladapo Ladipo, says planned family is cardinal to managing the present economic recession and sustaining healthy society.
“Get out of poverty by planning your family, the present economic situation in the country is telling us we should not have more than certain number of children we can cater for”, he advised Nigerians in an interview.
Ladipo noted that although previously, people had many children because of the need to have people to work for them, the situation had changed due to increasing scarcity of resources.
He said they believed that the number of children they had then, some of whom they used to work on farms or elsewhere, would also determine their wealth and influence in the society.
He cautioned that such arrangement could be wrong presently for a family who had limited resources for two children and gave birth to more than those he could actually cater for.
Ladipo, therefore, called on the government at all levels to provide access to free family planning so that people would not blame giving birth to multiple children they could not train on lack of fund to access family planning services.
“There is no reason women should not have access to family planning just like the children have access to free immunisation.
“We need the government to provide free family planning for women, this is important so as to enable them have the number of children they can cater for and as well enjoy their sexual life without inhibition,” he advised.
Ladipo noted that providing a free family planning services for Nigerians would go a long way in salvaging the country future economically and socially.
He stated that the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) should be also included in making provision for affordable family planning, adding that the situation they found themselves had made them more vulnerable to unhealthy sex life.
Sharing similar sentiments, Dr Ejike Orji, Chairman, Local Organising Committee, 2016 Nigeria Family Planning Conference, said those in IDPs need family planning to prevent unintended pregnancy that could place additional burden on the society.
He noted that there were those who would not ordinarily want to get pregnant but who were being forced into sex in camps, insisting that advocacy on family planning should be stronger in IDP camps.
Orji appealed to Federal Government to redeem its three million dollar-pledge to boost family planning services in the country.
He noted that the government was not doing enough in term of public health information campaign which he said was responsible for the poor approach of the citizenry to family planning issues.
Orji said woman’s ability to prevent, limit or space her pregnancy through family planning information and services could reduce maternal mortality.
He stated that family planning had been universally recognised as one of the key pillars and most effective means of achieving safe motherhood.
Orji said every two years, the Federal Ministry of Health and Association for the Advancement of Family Planning used to bring together stakeholders to a national family planning conference.
He said the conference would deliberate on persisting issues, review emerging issues and chart new directions for preventing maternal deaths across the country through family planning information and services.
Similarly, the Global Family Planning (FP2020) notes that Nigeria has averted 1,450,000 unintended pregnancies and prevented 9,000 maternal deaths through the use of modern contraceptives in 2015.
The organisers of FP2020 conference, nonetheless, commend Nigeria for adding 1,628,000 modern contraceptive users since 2012.
The participants at the conference noted that the progress rate was slow due to limited access to information about family planning.
According to the organisers, only 12.5 per cent of women in Nigeria are provided with information on family planning during their most recent contact with a health service provider.
“This is an indication that Nigeria must dramatically expand family planning counseling, observing a wide difference between the rich and the poor on the access to family planning services.
“Nigeria is also committed to increase the percentage of women and couples using contraceptives by two per cent each year to reach 36 per cent by 2018.
“It also has to increase its total financial commitment for reproductive health commodities from N1.9 billion to more than N7.4 billion over four years and train more than 3,700 community health workers to deliver a full range of contraceptives,” the organisers advise.
They urge health service providers to deliver quality family planning services, improve counseling and education to increase demand for contraceptives.
In the same vein, Mr Charity Ibeawuchi, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), restated that the importance of family planning could not be overemphasised.
He said in a bid to ensure unhindered access to family planning services for the urban poor, NURHI undertook advocacy initiatives primarily at the states and local governments.
He observed that the states and local governments had committed increased budgetary support for family planning while the media advocacy had been more family planning-friendly.
According to him, with the support of various community leaders, there have been active advocacy in support of family planning services, especially in the first phase of NURHI campaigns in Ibadan, Ilorin, Abuja and Kaduna.
Ogunshola writes for News Agency of Nigeria.
Femi Ogunshola
Two United States scientists who unraveled the human micro RNA have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the coveted prize for their work on microRNA as their discoveries help explain how complex life emerged on earth and how the human body is made up of a wide variety of different tissues.
MicroRNAs influence how genes – the instructions for life – are controlled inside organisms, including humans.
Every cell in the human body contains the same raw genetic information, locked in our DNA.
However, despite starting with the identical genetic information, the cells of the human body are wildly different in form and function.
The electrical impulses of nerve cells are distinct from the rhythmic beating of heart cells. The metabolic powerhouse that is a liver cell is distinct to a kidney cell, which filters urea out of the blood.
The light-sensing abilities of cells in the retina are different in skillset to white blood cells that produce antibodies to fight infection.
So much variety can arise from the same starting material because of gene expression.
The US scientists were the first to discover microRNAs and how they exerted control on how genes are expressed differently in different tissues.
The medicine and physiology prize winners are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
They said: “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.
“It is now known that the human genome codes for over 1,000 microRNAs.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has begun acting to curb effects of antibiotic pollution.
The new guidance on wastewater and solid waste management for antibiotic manufacturing sheds light on this important but neglected challenge ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) taking place on 26 September 2024.
The emergence and spread of AMR caused by antibiotic pollution could undermine the effectiveness of antibiotics globally, including the medicines produced at the manufacturing sites responsible for the pollution.
Despite high antibiotic pollution levels being widely documented, the issue is largely unregulated and quality assurance criteria typically do not address environmental emissions. In addition, once distributed, there is a lack of information provided to consumers on how to dispose of antibiotics when they are not used, for example, when they expire or when a course is finished but there is still antibiotic left over.
“Pharmaceutical waste from antibiotic manufacturing can facilitate the emergence of new drug-resistant bacteria, which can spread globally and threaten our health. Controlling pollution from antibiotic production contributes to keeping these life-saving medicines effective for everyone,” said Dr Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for AMR ad interim.
Globally, there is a lack of accessible information on the environmental damage caused by manufacturing of medicines.
“The guidance provides an independent and impartial scientific basis for regulators, procurers, inspectors, and industry themselves to include robust antibiotic pollution control in their standards,” said Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Health, WHO. “Critically, the strong focus on transparency will equip buyers, investors and the general public to make decisions that account for manufacturers’ efforts to control antibiotic pollution.”
In a concerted effort to curb brain drain, the Kebbi State Government has harmonised medical doctors’ salaries to be at par with their colleagues in the federal government’s tertiary health facilities.
Kebbi State Commissioner for Health, Musa Inusa-Isma’il, disclosed this at the handing over of ambulances to the state-owned health facilities at the Ministry of Health in Birnin Kebbi yesterday.
Inusa Isma’il, according to a statement by Ahmed Idris, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, said the essence of the harmonisation was to retain the existing medical doctors and attract more to the services of the state.
According to him, the doctors across the state had already started enjoying the new salaries from August 2024.
He said the release of the vehicles was in fulfilment of Governor Nasir Idris’ promise to uplift health care services in the state.
“His Excellency said I should inform you, the beneficiaries of this gesture, that the vehicle should be strictly used for the intended purpose. It should not be used for anything else.
“If there is no referral case, each of the vehicles must be parked at the hospital by 6 pm. The governor said you should warn your drivers against reckless driving as well as violating the instructions.
“We should also do everything possible to reciprocate the gesture by working according to the terms and conditions attached,” he advised.
The benefiting health facilities included Sir Yahaya Memorial Hospital, Birnin Kebbi; State Teaching Hospital, Kalgo; General Hospital, Argungu; General Hospital, Yauri; General Hospital, Zuru; and General Hospital, Bunza.
In his speech, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Dr Shehu Koko, recalled that the ambulances were handed over to the ministry last Friday by the governor for the onward handover to the benefiting hospitals.
He observed that the ambulances would go a long way in improving the referral system in the state, adding that delays in reaching the secondary and tertiary facilities would be eliminated.
The permanent secretary attributed the high rate of maternal mortality in the country to delays in getting to the health facilities for proper medical care.
“We believe with the provision of these ambulances, part of the gaps we have in our referral system will be addressed, whereby patients who require secondary healthcare could be easily transported to secondary and tertiary health centres, where they can get such help,” he said.
In a goodwill message, Commissioner for Information and Culture Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed expressed gratitude to the governor for the support he has given to the ministry to excel.
While advising the beneficiaries to use the vehicles judiciously, the commissioner advised that services and maintenance of the vehicles must be prompt to derive the maximum benefits from the vehicles.
The commissioner also highlighted some achievements recorded by the government in the last year, including beautification of the state capital, completion of a multimillion-naira ultramodern state secretariat, road construction, construction and renovation of classrooms and upgrading of some health facilities, among others.