The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved a new National Health Policy.
Minister of Health Prof. Isaac Adewole, who stated this yesterday, also said the University don Ezibe Madueke, who recently came up with a cure for HIV-AIDS, did not follow ethical standards.
He spoke to reporters at the end of the FEC meeting in Abuja
He said “On the issue of HIV, we are yet to get the final report from the
Director- General of the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research but what is
clear is that those activities were carried out without a valid ethical approval. As you might be aware, nobody is allowed to carry out any expedient or research on human beings without an ethical approval.
“At the National Health research committees level, there is no evidence that this researcher sought and obtained ethical approval but at the appropriate time we will disclose the full report”, he said.
He said that FEC’s nod for a new national health policy is the third for the country.
According to him, the first one was enacted in 1988 while the second was done in 2004.
He said: “The process of getting the policy to FEC took some time. We constituted a technical working group, chaired by former by former Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, to look into the country’s context, the challenges, what went wrong in the past and how we can reposition the health sector.
“This new policy provides direction necessary to support the achievement of significant progress in terms of improving the performance of the national health system.
“It also lays emphasis on primary healthcare as the bedrock of our national health system in addition to the provision of financial risk protection to all Nigerians particularly the poor and vulnerable population.
“This administration is reputed for being pro-poor and we are quiet committed to alleviating the problem of the poor Nigerians, the vulnerable the unemployed and the disadvantaged”, he stated.
