The Coordinator of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), in Edo, Mrs Frances Ben-Ushie, on Thursday launched a foundation to advocate for the eradication of sickle cell disorder in Nigeria.

The foundation, known as Flourish Foundation for Women and Youth, was unveiled at the ongoing orientation for the 2024 Batch C Stream II corps members in the state.

Mrs Ben-Ushie, who is the President/Founder of the foundation, said it was aimed to sensitise Nigerians on the dangers of sickle cell disorder, leveraging the spread of corps member volunteers.

The NYSC coordinator revealed that she was inspired to launch the foundation after discovering that Nigeria had a high prevalence of sickle cell disorder.

“I stumbled into the fact that Nigeria has a lot of people that have sickle cell disorder, and people are still, out of ignorance and carelessness, still having children with the disorder,” she said.

She noted that the foundation would target women and youth, who were the most vulnerable to the disorder.

“So what we are doing is that we want to start from Edo state and move to other areas, South and other parts of the country,” she said.

Mrs Ben-Ushie emphasised that the foundation would work with NYSC members to carry out the advocacy about the disorder in their respective host communities.

“We have 1,737 corps members for the 2024 batch C stream II orientation, and they will be carrying out the advocacy with the councils, ministries of health and education,” she said.

She noted that the corps members are a good demography to carry out the advocacy, as they are spread across all the 18 local government areas in the state.

The Edo NYSC boss lauded the Director-General of NYSC, the Minister of Youth, and Gov. Monday Okpebholo for their support in launching the foundation.

The birth of the foundation, she said, was as a result of a training on how to set up an NGO organised by the NYSC for some officers in 2022.

Mrs Ben-Ushie explained that the foundation was a private initiative, separate from her role as NYSC Coordinator.

“This is not the state coordinator or NYSC, though, because the next coordinator may not have been trained by NYSC to carry out this assignment,” she said.

Ben-Ushie announced free genotype tests for corps members, who did not know their genotype.

In his lecture, a medical practitioner, Dr Udi Ese educated the corps members on the causes, preventative measures as well as management of the sickle cell disease.

Ese blamed sickle cell disorder for most of the children-related diseases in Nigeria, usually attributed to witches or ogbanje.

Rokib Alata and Juliet Uzoma, who are corps volunteer advocates pledged their commitment to spread information about the disorder wherever deployed for primary assignment.

Uganda has started a trial vaccination programme for the strain of Ebola viral infection that is behind the country’s latest outbreak. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the number of confirmed cases has risen to three.

Earlier, the East African country announced an outbreak of Ebola in the capital, Kampala, with a single case, a nurse who died on Jan. 29.

Ministry of Health Spokesperson Emmanuel Ainebyoona told Reuters that the total number of cases has now risen to three, with two additional cases from the family of the deceased nurse.

In a post on the X platform, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO director for Africa, said Uganda had also started a clinical trial of a vaccine against the Sudan strain of Ebola.

Currently, there is no approved vaccine for that strain. The existing vaccination is for the Zaire strain, which is behind a recent outbreak in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.

“This marks a major milestone in public health emergency response and demonstrates the power of collaboration for global health security,” Moeti said.

“If proven effective, the vaccine will further strengthen measures to protect communities from future outbreaks.”

Bruce Kirenga, who heads Makerere Lung Institute, a research organisation that is doing the trial, told local media during the launch of the vaccination that it had been developed by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and that the institute had received about 2,460 doses.

The health ministry also said that the trial would target contacts of confirmed cases.

A high-fatality disease, Ebola infection symptoms include haemorrhage, headache and muscle pains. The virus is transmitted through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissue.

The Kano State Hospital Management Board has restated commitment to quality healthcare service delivery in the state.

The Executive Secretary of the board, Dr Mansur Nagoda stated this during the inauguration of the state-wide hospital inspection exercise, on Monday in Kano.

He said the board in collaboration with the ministry of health would inspect healthcare facilities in urban and rural areas of the state.

Nagoda said the exercise aimed at encouraging positive attitudinal change among medical workers, to ensure that interventions were properly utilised.

He said the exercise would also guard against alleged hoarding and diversion of medical commodities provided by the state government.

“We are also paying unscheduled visits to health facilities to mainly assess their sanitary conditions and see how the services are being rendered.

“The major issues we largely concentrate on will include checking of staff roster for all cadres to know professional relationships among staff to avoid unwanted rivalry,” he said.

Nagoda said the state government had rolled out free delivery kits; free accident and emergency items, free cleansing items for general sanitation of facilities and maintenance of proper hygienic condition, among workers.

The gesture, he said, would provide succour and improve the welfare of patients in the state.

Some of the facilities visited include Murtala Muhammad Specialists Hospital; Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Teaching Hospital, Sir Muhammad Sanusi Specialist Hospital, Sheik Muhammad Jidda General Hospital, and Yadakunya General Hospital.