Health

Proposed GMO Mosquitoes: Africans Advised To Be Wary Of WHO

Published

1 year ago

September 16, 2024

By Chinasa Obidi

Kenyan Dr Wahome Ngare, the founding Director of Mercy Health Services, Nairobi, Kenya, has advised Africans to be wary of the World Health Organisation, WHO’s proposed introduction of GMO mosquitoes into Africa to eradicate malaria, as well as the malaria vaccine which he says will be made compulsory.”

But malaria is a treatable disease which we have been using our herbal teas to treat, plus we are unaware of the risks such GMO mosquitoes would bring,” he said, calling on Africans to exercise caution in this regard.

He said that while the WHO has done a lot of good things for the continent, it has equally done things that have affected Africa and Africans negatively making him advice African countries to exercise caution.He expressed this warning while addressing Ugandan President, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in a trending video.

He gave his reasons for sounding the warning this: “In 2014/2015, WHO brought tetanus eradication campaign in our country; a campaign to eradicate neonatal tetanus.

“The vaccine that was used is a different type of tetanus vaccine that is fertility regulating, where they take tetanus and a hormone called Human Chorionic Conadotropin, and when you inject a woman with that vaccine, she produces antibodies against that hormone and is therefore rendered sterile.

“So we are now seeing an increase in infertility cases amongst young couples who are certified okay when examined, but cannot get children, or couples who are losing three to five pregnancies before they are able to cary any pregnancy to term.

“We were able to expose this through a paper we published, and fortunately in 2017, WHO said Kenya is now free of neonatal tetanus and they left our country.”But they developed this vaccine in an over twenty year period of research from 1972 to 1992 and used that vaccine in South America and possibly many other African countries.

“Responding to this call, Benjamin Amodu, a professor of Phytho-medicine from the Triune Biblical University, USA, who has been at the forefront of advocating for the use of herbal medicine, said Nigerians and Indeed Africans should also evaluate and verify any treatment or vaccine that is given to them before going ahead to use them.

“I think this is a very common view all around . I think we can cooperate with the WHO in most of the things and we can also evaluate to see that is in line with our own aspiration as a country just like the Ugandan and Kenyan doctors did to their president.

“It is a welcome development. We should ensure that whatever is being brought upon us should be well evaluated to see and if there are needs for modification, they should be modified to the interest of who they are introducing the the programme to.

” Even their comment on malaria, I think the WHO should be more open. Irrespective of where whatever treatment or vaccine is coming from, so long as it meets the requirements should be accepted and adopted so we move forward.

“I therefore call on African leaders and people to exercise faith in our God given natural herbs , carry out extensive research and promote it because even diseases for which the cures have eluded modern medicine for decades are being effectively cured with the use of Traditional, Complimentary and Herbal Medicines, TCAM, without any side effects.”

It would be recalled that Prof Amodu’s malaria cure was evaluated by the United Nations and found to be more effective than chloroquine and palaudrine.

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Health

Stakeholders Applaud A360 Impact On Adolescent Health

Published

3 days ago

November 28, 2025

The Gleamer

Stakeholders in Nigeria’s health and development sector say the institutionalisation and scale-up of the Adolescent 360 (A360) Amplify project have greatly improved adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes in participating states.

They made this known at a dissemination meeting on the project on Thursday in Abuja.

It was implemented by the Society for Family Health (SFH) and partners, and later adopted into government systems following documented successes.

Launched in 2020, the A360 project was designed to provide adolescent girls with access to sexual and reproductive health information, youth-friendly services and economic empowerment opportunities.

The programme was implemented in Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna and Nasarawa States using a human-centred design approach that engaged governments, communities and young people to improve uptake of family planning and maternal health services.

Dr Aisha Sadiq, Permanent Secretary, Kaduna State Ministry of Health, said institutionalising A360 had delivered measurable improvements in adolescent health indicators and community wellbeing.

She said Kaduna currently provides A360 youth-friendly services in 623 Primary Health Care (PHC) centres.

The Matasan Mata Arewa (MMA) initiative, she added, had reached 75 communities and empowered more than 15,000 girls with entrepreneurship skills and seed capital.

According to her, more than 60,000 girls have accessed contraceptives through the programme, with a reduction in discontinuation rates as more young women sustain use and transition to maternal and child health services.

“These changes have shown a marked reduction in maternal mortality among those communities. It has also reduced negative neonatal outcomes,” she said.

Sadiq recounted an elderly woman’s remarks from a programme community, calling them a strong reflection of the project’s success.

“These girls have spent their whole lives believing they will remain tolerable liabilities to the husbands they marry, but now they are realising the value of becoming appreciated assets,” she quoted.

Sadiq added that Kaduna’s 16 per cent health budget allocation and the integration of A360 activities into the state’s 2025 Annual Operational Plan demonstrated sustained political commitment.

Also speaking, Dr Omokhudu Idogho, Managing Director, SFH, said the four implementing states had successfully embedded A360 approaches into government systems, community structures and routine health practices.

He was represented by Dr Kenechukwu Erichalo, Deputy Managing Director, Project Delivery.

Idogho said the project had reached more than one million adolescent girls with family planning services and engaged over 500,000 others with comprehensive sexuality education messaging.

“We recorded more than 50,000 antenatal care visits, ensuring that girls received skilled care that saved lives, and supported over half a million girls to learn income-generating skills,” he said.

He said A360 pioneered the MMA and Niger Girls models, demonstrating that culturally sensitive, human-centred programmes can succeed even in conservative communities.

“Our most significant achievement is institutionalisation. Today, all 1,750 A360-supported facilities are fully government-led,” he added.

Mrs Roselyn Odeh, A360 Project Lead, said the initiative was developed in response to poor adolescent health indices in the country.

She said the programme ensured respectful, youth-friendly services at PHCs and supported school reintegration and entrepreneurship for girls.

She said the decision to scale the programme in northern states was based on data.

“When you look at maternal mortality among young people, you know the section of the country it is coming from. Data drove our decisions in alignment with government priorities,” she said.

Odeh identified challenges including weak PHC infrastructure, funding gaps, commodity shortages and the need to engage husbands in conservative communities.

“But creatively, we worked with governments to mobilise domestic funding through health revolving funds and the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund,” she said.

Mr Sagir Musa, Commissioner for Youth, Jigawa State, assured of continued commitment from implementing states to sustain and expand the project’s gains.

“This project may be nearing closure, but for us, it has just begun. We have gone beyond its life cycle to embed its approaches in the things we do,” he said.

The dissemination meeting brought together policymakers, community leaders, development partners and beneficiaries to review lessons learned and outline future priorities for scaling adolescent health interventions nationwide.

(NAN)

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