In Nigeria, the disparity between available healthcare services and need for mental health services is palpable. Although, the country has made significant advances on challenging public health problems, health-related policy development and legislation in trying to achieve health for all policy, there have been challenges with regards to mental health services including that of policy development and legislation, financing, research, training and integration of mental health care into primary health care. We consulted relevant publications, official document, policy statement, blueprints, working plans of the relevant organizations responsible for mental care and services locally and globally. We identify and highlight challenges faced in mental health services implementation and provide recommendations as way forward and call for urgent action to government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), policy makers and legislatives which are urgently needed to reform and implement them for a better, accessible, and affordable mental health services for the mental well-being of the populace.

Mental health remains one of the most overlooked issues in Nigeria. The burden posed by traditional healers in the provision of mental health services is becoming a public health concern in the country. This article presents a review of the present situation on the mental health service provision in Nigeria by traditional healers and highlights way forward actions for policy makers, government, and other stakeholders. These include the need for a policy direction on the need for establishing an improved system of psychiatric and mental health services in hospitals that will drive cultural acceptability, accessibility, and affordability. Further, there is a need for policy measures to be in place towards creating long term directions and sustainability of documentations of traditional healer's activities, harmful avoidance and improved mental health services in primary health centers. The fact that traditional healers are indispensable in provision of mental health services, call for collaborative effort to improve services such as behavioral change, capacity building and referral practice that could save more lives and reduce severity of complications.

While great effort is being placed on reducing disease burdens in Africa, the circulation of falsified and substandard medicines in the continent are reversing the hard-won gains. This commentary provides insights on the high (and increasing) burden, impact and threat that falsified and substandard medicines pose to the region's development. The proposed recommendations, such as a coherent multi-sectorial and government-led strategy, call for a fundamental rethink of approaches towards strong regulations, policies, legislations, community-based approaches, collaborations and investments, which all must be scaled up before this the situation gets out of control. These recommendations are of paramount importance and have the potential to ensure access to genuine medicines and also to avert therapeutic failure and intoxication from dangerous substances. In addition, there will be added benefits to the economic, social, health and well-being of the region. Concerted efforts towards medicine regulations have enormous potential to contribute towards averting many preventable deaths and reducing disease burden in the region. A paradigm shift is necessary to ensure quality medicines reach patients at community and healthcare facilities to prevent this silent epidemic in Africa.

Background: HIV is a public health burden in Nigeria. HIV self-testing is one of the approaches to testing, which is the first of the 95:95:95 cascade of a coherent response to the epidemic. The ability to self-test HIV is influenced by various factors that can either serve as enablers or barriers. Exploring these enablers and barriers to the uptake of HIVST will help achieve optimal HIV self-testing and provide a deeper understanding of the HIVST kits users’ journey. Objective: The purpose of the study was to identify enablers and barriers to the uptake of HIV self-testing among sexually active youth in Nigeria using journey map methodology. Methods: We conducted a qualitative exploratory study between January 2021 to October 2021 to understand the journey map for taking up and using HIVST in the private health delivery systems which include the pharmacies and PPMVs. 80 youths in Lagos, Anambra and Kano states were interviewed using IDIs and in-person FGDs. Their responses were audio-recorded, transcribed and analyzed using a qualitative software package (Nvivo software). Results: A journey map for taking up and effectively using HIVST using the private sector among sexually active youths using key enablers and barriers at the attract, purchase, use, confirmation, linkage, and reporting stage was developed. The major enablers among participants were privacy and confidentiality, bundling purchases with other health products, easy-to-use instructions, and past experience with other self-testing kits. The major barriers were fear of discrimination, big packaging, high price, lack of confidence from user error and fear of status disclosure. Conclusions: Sexually active young people’s perspectives enhance our understanding of the barriers and enablers of using HIVST through the private sector. Optimizing the enablers such as improved confidentiality that may be seen in e-pharmacy, reducing barriers and factoring sexually young people’s perspectives will enhance the market and the uptake of HIVST towards ensuring sustainability and accelerating progress towards the 95-95-95 targets.

Background: The year 2020 Lassa fever (LF) outbreak had the greatest disease burden and this can place an enormous strain on the already overstretched healthcare system and can potentially increase morbidity and mortality due to infectious diseases. Therefore, having a knowledgeable healthcare workforce with appropriate skills and competencies to prevent and manage outbreaks of a neglected infectious disease such as LF in Nigeria will potentially enhance public health. Thus, this survey assessed the level of knowledge of LF and its prevention and control (PC) measures amongst the healthcare workers (HCWs) during a LF outbreak in Katsina state, Nigeria. Methodology/Principal findings: During this cross-sectional survey, HCWs complete a validated 29-item questionnaire comprising 18 items on the knowledge of LF and its PC measures and an item on global self-evaluation of their LF knowledge. Psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated. Chi-square and binary logistic regression analyses were conducted. Out of 435 HCWs invited, a total of 400 participated in the study (92% response rate). The majority of participants (51.8%) demonstrated inadequate LF knowledge, with 62.9% of those scoring low having a high self-perception of their LF knowledge with the global scale. This LF knowledge over-estimation was predicted by LF training status (odds ratio (OR) 2.53; 95% CI: 1.49–4.30; p = 0.001). The level of LF knowledge and its PC measures among the study participants was low (11.60±8.14, 64.4%) and predicted by participants’ LF training status (OR 2.06; 95% CI: 1.19–3.57; p = 0.009), place of work (OR 1.82; 95% CI: 1.07–3.08; p = 0.03) and their designations (OR 2.40; 95% CI: 1.10–5.22; p = 0.03). Conclusion: The level of knowledge of LF and its PC measures among the HCWs surveyed was suboptimal and participants’ LF training status, place of work and occupational category were the significant predictors. In addition, LF knowledge overestimation on a global scale was observed among a majority of HCWs and this was also predicted by LF training status. Therefore, there is a critical need for health authorities in Nigeria to prioritize continuous on-the-job training of HCWs on priority neglected tropical diseases such as Lassa fever.

Pharmacists have a key role to play to advance public health through immunization. Pharmacists are well trained and play a huge role in vaccine production, research and development, safety, pharmacovigilance, storage, logistics and distribution. There is a need for a revised national policy and strategy in Nigeria on vaccination and immunization programs with the involvement of community pharmacies and/or pharmacists. This will help accelerate getting a wider vaccination access coverage, establishing a greater healthcare delivery workforce for societal benefits and demonstrate the full potential of the community pharmacies and the pharmacists’ role in immunization programs.