Chioma Umeha

By Chioma Umeha While sunscreens are known to protect against skin cancer, they may be inadvertently making you deficient in Vitamin D, causing muscle weakness and bone fractures, researchers warned. According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, nearly one billion people worldwide may be having deficient or insufficient levels of Vitamin D due to inadequate sun exposure related to sunscreen use. “People are spending less time outside and, when they do go out, they’re typically wearing sunscreen, which essentially nullifies the body’s ability to produce Vitamin D,” said Kim Pfotenhauer, Assistant Professor at Touro University in California. “While we want people to protect themselves against skin cancer, there are healthy, moderate levels of unprotected sun exposure that can be very helpful in boosting Vitamin D,” Pfotenhauer said. In addition, the study also showed that chronic diseases like Type 2 Diabetes and th

By Chioma Umeha One of the leading and diversified non-government organisation dedicated to improving access to better healthcare in Africa, PharmAccess Foundation Nigeria, is partnering with Nigeria Healthcare Excellence Award (NHEA 2017). Under this new arrangement, one of the award category has been named after them – PharmAccess Innovative Healthcare Service Provider of the Year. Speaking on the partnership, Dr. Shola Alabi, NHEA Project Coordinator says, “We were very excited to welcome PharmAccess on board again this year after the support we received from them in NHEA 2016. Their commitment and steadfastness to improve healthcare in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized”. Alabi also reiterated the fact that nominations for the 4th edition of the Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Awards (NHEA 2017) is still on-going. He called on stakeholders in the health sector to visit www.nigeriahealthawards.com.ng to either make their nominations online or download the no

By    Chioma Umeha Dr. Christian Iroegbu Ike, the National President, Abia State National Association in North America(ASNANA) who was recently in Nigeria urged wealthy Nigerians in the Diaspora to assist their kinsmen at home by providing medical care, among other needs during an interview with UCHE NELSON. Excerpts: We do understand that your association has been into medical mission to Abia state. What have you done so far to bring succour to the sick and aged in Abia State? More than six years ago when I started my pharmacy in a small town in Georgia, I joined a small group, a church group to a medical mission to Oyo State, Nigeria. I was the only pharmacist in the team. Indeed, what I saw during the mission blew my mind. Remember what happened during Biafra, you see a lot of people coming for help, mothers with children were trying to get help no matter how little. I realised that it could be me on the receiving side, based on that, I thank God that I’m on t

•Receives Nearly 450m Doses Of Vaccines CHIOMA UMEHA The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) procured 2.5 billion doses of vaccines to children in nearly 100 countries in 2016, reaching almost half of the world’s children under the age of five. The figures, released during World Immunization Week, make UNICEF the largest buyer of vaccines for children in the world. Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the three remaining polio-endemic countries, each received more doses of vaccines than any other country, with almost 450 million doses of vaccines procured to children in Nigeria, 395 million in Pakistan and over 150 million in Afghanistan. UNICEF is the lead procurement agency for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Access to immunization has led to a dramatic decrease in deaths of children under five from vaccine-preventable diseases, and has brought the world closer to eradicating polio. Between 2000 and 2015, under five deaths due to measles decl

‘Meningitis Kills In Hours, Needs Emergency Medical Attention’ By Chioma Umeha Experts have said that meningococcal meningitis currently ravaging some states in Nigeria requires emergency medical attention as it can kill within hours. Stating this was Dr Biodun Ogunniyi, consultant epidemiologist for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) during the just concluded one-day advocacy and sensitisation meeting on meningitis outbreak and response for journalists, organised by Nigeria Centre for Disease Control in Abuja. In his presentation to journalists at the orientation meeting for journalists on the disease, Dr Ogunniyi said meningitis needs not kill as there’s an effective treatment for it. The cumulative number of suspected cases recorded in Nigeria throughout the outbreak period was now 9, 646 and 839 deaths from 43 local government areas in 23 states, Dr. John Oladejo, NCDC Incident manager, said at the NCDC orientation meeting with journalist

To permanently rid the country of Malaria before the World Health Assembly’s target of 2030, Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) on Tuesday, called for increased efforts by scientists to fight the disease. Dr Kudo Eresia-Eke, the company’s General Manager External Relations, said this during the commemoration of this year’s World Malaria Day (WMD) with – End Malaria for good- as its theme, lamenting that there was grave indifference by Nigerian scientists to find a solution to a scourge peculiar to the tropics and the country. In a statement jointly signed by Tony Okonedo, Manager, Corporate Communication and Public Affairs and Anne-Marie Palmer-Ikuku, Head, Media Relations, Eresia-Eke remarked that the trend may not augur well for global efforts to reduce malaria incidence and mortality rates by at least 90 per cent by 2030. He said: “That is why we, at NLNG, are speaking out and calling on all Nigerians to make malaria eradication a priority. We can’t continue to watc

By Chioma Umeha On World Malaria Day, Malaria No More celebrated its 11th Annual International Honours event by recognising two leaders who have helped make that progress possible, and who remain committed to defeating malaria for good. “Aliko Dangote and Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer represent the combination of U.S. government support and endemic country leadership that have made malaria one of the great public health success stories of our time,” said Martin Edlund, CEO of Malaria No More. “One is a military leader who has served the world’s most vulnerable populations across three Administrations; the other is Africa’s most successful businessman and most prominent philanthropist – and they have found common cause in working to end malaria.” The work is not done. Despite historic progress, malaria remains a daily threat, with half the world’s population still at risk. In 2015, there were 429,000 malaria deaths and 212 million malaria cases. A ch

By Chioma Umeha To end the malaria scourge, Reckitt Benckiser (RB) Nigeria teamed with the Lagos, Ogun and Abia state governments, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), Abuja and embarked on community engagement. The collaboration tagged, ‘One Act Against Malaria,’    was to mark this year’s World Malaria Day with the universal theme ‘End Malaria for Good.’ The community engagement saw officials from the States Ministry of Health and Reckitt Benckiser, makers of Mortein insecticide brand carry out sanitation, free malaria testing and consultation in four states – Abuja, Abia, Ogun and Lagos State. They also went round communities to sensitise and educate residents on the immense benefits of maintaining clean environment as one of the most cost effective ways to reduce mosquitoes which are the major carriers of malaria parasite. Speaking at the press briefing in Abuja to commemorate this year’s World Mala

By Chioma Umeha The number of new cases of suspected Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM) is declining as outbreak control measures have continued to take effect, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Dr Lawal Bakare, Communication Manager of NCDC, who said this in a statement in Abuja on weekend, explained that the cumulative number of suspected cases recorded in Nigeria throughout the outbreak period was now 9, 646 and 839 deaths from 43 local government areas in 23 states. “A total of 628 new cases were reported in week 16 against 1,935 in week 15 and 2,127 in week 14. “While the total number of suspected cases will rise with each new case, the number of new cases recorded per week is dropping in the affected states indicating that the outbreak is likely to have peaked. “We expect a continued decline in the number of new cases with the intensification of control measures in the affected states,’’ Bakare said. He said that the nationa

What Is Pre-implantation Genetic Testing? By   Alfred Akuki How is the PGD performed? Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis begins with the normal process of in vitro fertilization that includes egg retrieval and fertilization in a laboratory. Over the next three days the embryo will divide into eight cells. Preimplantation genetic diagnosis involves the following steps: •             First, one or two cells are removed from the embryo. •             The cells are then evaluated to determine if the inheritance of a problematic gene is present in the embryo. •             Once the PGD procedure has been performed and embryos free of genetic problems have been identified, the embryo will be placed back in the uterus, and implantation will be attempted. •             Any additional embryos that are free of genetic problems may be frozen for later use while embryos with the problematic gene are destroyed. Who might benefit from PGD? Preimplantation genetic di