Health

GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Novartis AG will contribute research funds to an almost $4 billion global effort to combat malaria as drug-resistant strains of the disease threaten to undo years of progress.

The commitments are part of a wide-ranging initiative, led by a pledge of $1 billion from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to quell the insect-borne disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year. Glaxo, the U.K.’s largest drugmaker, is investing an additional $250 million, while Switzerland’s Novartis will allocate more than $100 million, the companies said before a meeting Wednesday in London.

Urgency is rising as malaria cases grew significantly in 2016 for the first time in a decade, according to the World Health Organization. Emerging resistance to drugs and insecticides is making efforts to eliminate the disease more difficult, and some regions are experiencing a resurgence.

Dr Auwal Salihu, a neuro-psychiatric consultant has advised Nigerians not to stigmatise people with mental health condition after they had been treated. Salihu, the Coordinator, Mental Health Awareness Programme, a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), gave this advice at an enlightenment campaign in Katsina state, northern Nigeria.

Doctors in Australia have called for urgent research into why a flesh-eating ulcer has become a "worsening epidemic" in the state of Victoria.

Local cases of Buruli ulcer, a skin disease most commonly found in Africa, have surged by 400% in the last four years, experts say.

Infections have also become more severe and spread to new areas.

MedShare, a U.S.based non-profit organization, says it has made donations of new medical supplies and biomedical equipment to the tune of $40 million to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare systems in the last 20 years.

Vice-President, International Development of MedShare, Nell Diallo, made the disclosure at the Nigeria Day at Atlanta to celebrate MedShare 20 years of strengthening healthcare in Nigeria.

The event was attended by Nigeria’s Consul-General in Atlanta, Kayode Laro; his wife, Innocent Iwejuo; Consul, Information and Economics, representatives of Nigerian community organisations in the U.S. and members of the Nigerian diaspora.

Scientists say they have identified genes that cause a deadly heart condition that can only be cured by transplants of the heart or lungs.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension kills 50% of those affected within five years, but little was known about what caused the condition in certain people.

Currently, experts say they have discovered five genes that cause the illness.

The findings could result in earlier detection of the disease and ultimately new treatments, researchers say.

The Borno State Government has confirmed three persons dead in fresh cholera outbreak in Kukawa Local Government area of the state.

Commissioner for Health, Dr Haruna Mshelia made the disclosure when the Director General, World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Ghebrayesus, visited the WHO’s Emergency and Response Centre in Maiduguri.

He said that about 700 cases of cholera were recorded in Baga, Doron Baga and Kukawa in the past weeks.