Nigeria News

Abuja, 31 March 2021 - “We should be recognized while making health decisions and not all should be made for us especially the girl child. The government should create more youth friendly centres where youths can feel free to discuss issues regarding their health, this will help the youth not to go into depression, if they have place where they can let out their agitations and have competent counselors to attend to them”, Isabel Anani a teenager and representative of Stand With A Girl Initiative said.

Abuja, 31 March 2021 - “Nine days after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, I am yet to experience any negative side effect and I was among the first set of health workers in Nigeria who received the vaccine. The vaccine is safe as I have not felt any different or ill”, says Mary Yarda, a Nursing officer at the National Hospital, Abuja. 

For Nurse Yarda, receiving the vaccine is mind-settling working in an environment that makes health workers susceptible to contracting the virus. 

Jigawa, 29 March 2021 - On a recent weekday, community health worker Hajiya Balkisu Yahaya bared her arm and felt the small prick of the needle as she got her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from a colleague. In return, Hajiya Balkisu vaccinated her colleague too. The two are health workers deployed as vaccination teams to immunise against the COVID-19 disease in Nigeria’s Jigawa State and are some of the first to get the jab. 

Abuja, March 22 2021- “Every morning, I walk for about 4.5 Kilometers to get water from a neighboring village, I have to do this every day to provide water for my family. This is because we do not have access to freshwater and using the contaminated one we have can affect our health” stated Falmata Goni, a nine–year old girl from Konduga Local Government Area (LGA), Borno state. 

She added that “I want to become a water engineer to help other people like me get sustainable access to freshwater.”

Abuja, March 26 2021 - “This Tuberculosis (TB) is curable, it goes away completely if you take your drugs constantly without skipping a day in the treatment you can be completely free” stated 38-year-old TB survivor Ekong Francis Ubong, a Political Science and International Relations graduate that resides in FCT, Abuja.

Abuja, 25 March 2021 - Health workers in Osun State heaved sighs of relieved as the state government flagged off the COVID-19 vaccination campaign with vaccines received through the COVAX facility. 

Abuja, 25 March, 2021 - Frontline health workers in Lagos State who have received the Oxford/AstraZeneca Vaccine expressed optimism that the vaccine will boost the level of their immunity against the disease. They also said receiving the vaccine has increased their level of confidence in discharging their duties efficiently.

Abuja, March 22 2021 - “I would like to appreciate the collaboration and commitment of the Department of Health Planning, Research and Statistics of the Federal Ministry of Health over the years towards the development of the National Health Workforce Registry”, stated Dr Kofi Boateng who represented WHO Nigeria country Representative during the technical handing over of the Health Workforce Registry to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) on March 19 2021.

Jos 23 March 2021 - The Plateau State Ministry of Health with the technical support of WHO and partners has conducted an Intra Action Review (IAR) of the current COVID-19 response in the state. The IAR provides key COVID-19 responders, an opportunity to collectively review strategies, share experiences and identify current challenges, as well as identify actions that are working in order to guide adjustments in programmatic decisions for controlling the pandemic. 

Abuja, 15 March 2021 – After Yunusa Thairu became one of Nigeria’s earliest vaccination recipients, his mother received a text message that her son had taken the COVID-19 vaccine and something bad might happen to him. 

“She got super worried and gave me a call,” the doctor recalls. “I had to drive down to go see and assure her that I am fine, [that] there is nothing wrong with taking the vaccine. Upon seeing how healthy I was, she agreed to take the vaccine when it is available.”