By Beti Baiye (Lead Writer)

An adolescent or teenage girl is often described as a young person who is approaching womanhood. According to the World Health Organisation, an adolescent girl is between the ages of 10 and 19, a time when she is navigating puberty, discovering herself and her sexuality and all that makes her a woman. This is a time when she will be exploring with hopes, dreams, ambitions, and plans for her future. One thing that may not be in her immediate thoughts, is her sexual and reproductive health (SRH).

Adolescent pregnancy occurs when girls between the age…

By Thelma Chioma Abeku (Lead Writer)

Indo (not her real name) was just 15 years old when she became pregnant. Her boyfriend took her to the only general hospital in their community to terminate the pregnancy. The general hospital did not offer safe abortion services, so, the midwife advised them to formally inform their parents and make necessary arrangements to have the baby. Indo was afraid of her parents’ reaction and the stigma that she would face in the community for having a child before marriage. The midwife encouraged Indo to bring her mother to the clinic so she could…

By Anthonia Obokoh (Lead Writer)

The maternal mortality rate in Nigeria is 512 deaths per 100,000 live births, and according to the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), 61 percent of live births do not take place in a health facility. About 20% of global maternal deaths occur in Nigeria and more women especially those aged 15–19 die from pregnancy-related complications. Between 2005 and 2015, it is estimated that over 600,000 maternal deaths and no less than 900,000 maternal near-miss cases occurred in the country.

Most maternal deaths are preventable, as the healthcare solutions to prevent or manage complications…

Tosin Akinola (Guest Writer)

Technology was pivotal in ensuring that healthcare services could continue to operate even as the COVID-19 pandemic raged. Countries like South Korea leveraged on technology to support their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They used different tools for aggressive contact tracings, such as security camera footage, facial recognition technology, bank card records, and global positioning system (GPS) data from vehicles and mobile phones to provide real-time data and detailed timelines of people’s travel.

In Nigeria, hospitals and health systems launched and expanded telehealth innovations in a matter of weeks to contain the high demand for medical…

By Thelma Chioma Abeku & Aloysius Ugwu (Lead Writers)

“Achieving equity in health care depends on equity in health education” — University of Global Health Equity, Rwanda.

Since the global target of Health for All was declared in 1978, Primary Health Care (PHC) is universally recognized as the approach to achieving this goal. A primary health centre should be the first place where people seek healthcare. A functional PHC ensures people receive comprehensive care which begins from promotion and prevention to treatment, curative, rehabilitation, and palliative care that is accessible to everyone in the community.

The centrality of the PHC…

By Rabson Kondowe (Lead Writer)

Clara still vividly remembers the day in 2019 she felt unwell while at school.

“I was in Mathematics class, then all of a sudden my body was very hot, I was sweating and I had a headache. I felt weak,” says the 14-year-old. “I informed my teacher and he took me to a classroom to test me for malaria.”

In the classroom, Clara was handed over to another teacher who tested her for malaria. When Clara’s malaria test came back positive, she was given anti-malarial drugs and sent home to her parents who were told…

By Ibukun Oguntola & Gabriel Oke (Lead Writers)

The health security of a nation comprises the activities that lessen adverse public health incidents and ensures a healthy and productive population. It is vital to developing strong and resilient health systems that can prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats, wherever they occur. Nigeria has experienced outbreaks of infectious diseases such as Lassa fever, cerebrospinal meningitis, Ebola, COVID-19 and resurgences of yellow fever and monkeypox. The Ebola outbreak in the West African Democratic Republic of Congo was described as the second-largest outbreak of the strain. …

By Dr. Chijioke Kaduru (Guest Writer)

There is widespread consensus around the globe on the need to strengthen health systems and make them more resilient. A health system includes all of the different institutions, actors and resources involved in delivering healthcare to individuals. Despite this accord, there is continued debate exactly how individual countries should approach health systems strengthening, putting in place structures that enable them to sustain shocks. Throughout known history, there have been a series of epidemics or pandemics, with consequent deaths, adding up to a long list of shocks that health systems around the world, and low…