Chioma Umeha

De-worming: Amosun’s wife counsels school children By: CHIOMA UMEHA  To achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeted at increasing the rate of children’s survival, the Wife of the Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun has appealed to children to wash their hands and body regularly to prevent infectious diseases caused by germs.  She advised the students to always maintain a clean environment by avoiding unhygienic places; washing of their hands with soap and clean water after using the toilet, and before preparing food or eating and among others. Speaking during the 2013 De-worming Exercise organised by the wife of the governor in collaboration with Emzor Group for school children in Ogun State held at Obafemi/Owode Town Hall in Obafemi/Owode Local Government area of the state, Mrs. Amosun urged children to always avoid all forms of habits that could affect their health.  Photo: Wife of the Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun, demonstrating to

Full term pregnancy redefined: Premature babies have higher rates of diseases – Study By: Chioma Umeha A new study has redefined full-term pregnancy and moved it to 39 and 41 weeks, just as the researchers noted that babies born in the early term have higher rates of respiratory, blood sugar and infection issues. Doctors used to define 37 to 42 weeks as the time span of a full-term pregnancy. However, an online report Monday, said that a U.S. OB/GYN group has divided that range into different classifications after learning about critical differences in the final weeks of gestation. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the last few weeks of pregnancy have been divided into the following new groups: 37 to 39 weeks – ‘Early term’ ; 39 to 41 weeks – ‘Full term’ ; 41 to 42 weeks – ‘Late term’ and 42 weeks or more – ‘Post term.’ Premature Babies “These new categories make sense because of research supporting the differences in infants at th

Grassroots advocacy, key to end world’s toilet problem – UNICEF BY: CHIOMA UMEHA  Toilets are still out of reach for more than one-third of the global population, with devastating consequences to the health and development of children, UNICEF said on Tuesday, during the World Toilet Day. However, the key to bridging the gap lies within communities themselves, the organization emphasized. Since 1990 almost 1.9 billion people gained access to improved sanitation, but in 2011 the total without access was still 36 per cent of the global population, or approximately 2.5 billion people.  “Access to toilets remains the unmentionable, shameful secret for even some very prosperous countries,” said Sanjay Wijesekera, the global head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes. “But its invisibility doesn’t make it harmless; in fact it is quite the reverse. Lack of access to toilets is quite literally killing children, making adults sick, and slowing progress – day after

Experts brainstorm on health dangers, management of climate change BY: CHIOMA UMEHA  Researchers who just concluded a brainstorming session weekend, lamented inadequate funding as a major limitation to research findings that will help to manage the effects of climate change to human health The researchers, who met during the 4th edition of annual scientific conference of the National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Yaba, Lagos, noted that climate change effects are obvious today in the environment, but for inadequate researches on them.  Opening the conference, Director General of the Institute, Prof Innocent Ujah observed that the theme of this year’s annual conference: ‘Impact of Climate Change on Health: Identifying the Research Gaps,’ is timely. According to him, the confab could not have come at a better time, given the recent series of calamities resulting from the effect of climate change on man and the environment in particular, and the ominous predictions of suc

NAFDAC labs get International Accreditation By: CHIOMA UMEHA The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has recorded another major breakthrough in her regulatory activity with the international accreditation of her two major laboratories.  A statement yesterday, signed by Alhaji Abubakar Jimoh, Director, Special Duties, NAFDAC, confirmed that the Mycotoxin and Pesticides Residues Laboratories located at Oshodi in Lagos have just obtained the ISO 17025 accreditation conducted by the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation. The statement also said that the accreditation project which was sponsored by United Nations Industrial Development (UNIDO) has launched the two laboratories into the league of internationally recognized and respected laboratories.  Dr. Paul Orhii - DG, NAFDAC The statement further said that the Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii dropped the hint about the accreditation project, saying; with the ISO 1702

By: Chioma Umeha Thirteen years after Nigeria launched the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) the country has only attained 23.9 per cent coverage in Antiretroviral (ARV) treatment or prophylaxis among HIV positive pregnant women, while 40.64 per cent of them have been counselled, tested and received their results. This is even as experts have warned that unless the country leverage on current international focus on her and the readiness to assist her in scaling up PMTCT services it may not meet its target of eliminating Mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) by 2015. They noted that the persisting high burden of HIV infected pregnant women and MTCT in the country is an indication of the need to urgently scale-up the PMTCT program and make the services accessible to all women especially those in the rural areas. In 2009, the country developed a five-year national scale up plan towards elimination of MTCT of HIV which span from 2010 to 2015. It adopted a combi

Why simple strategies are not enough for bedwetting By: Chioma Umeha Waking in the middle of the night to change your child’s sheets after a bedwetting episode is practically a rite of passage for parents. And it is more common than you think. Scientists have said that there is no one single cause of bed-wetting, but if you want an easy target, look no farther than your own DNA.  Reasons for bedwetting are not totally understood, but experts think it may be associated with the time it takes children to develop control over the bladder, a complex milestone. The timing varies from child to child. From five to seven million children wet the bed some or most nights – with twice as many boys wetting their bed as girls. After age five, about 15 per cent of children continue to wet the bed, and by age 10, 95 per cent of children are dry at night.  While techniques such as fluid restriction can help some children who have problems with bedwetting, alarms and medications are more

Nigeria can generate $500m from shea butter, sesame export – Expert By: Chioma Umeha  An expert has said that Nigeria can generate over $500 million yearly from shea nut butter and sesame oil. Stating this was former project 172 coordinator, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mrs Omowunmi Osibo, who maintained that  the country has the capacity to increase its 336,000 metric tonnes of shea butter production per year and create jobs.  She spoke during a training organised by  National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) for traders, exporters and enforcement officers on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) / Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) Project 172. Speaking on the theme, ‘Robust System For Safer Products And Exports Of Sesame Seeds And Shea Butter’, she said a larger percentage of the product was being smuggled to neighbouring countries, adding that the Federal Government should shift its attention to the sector to generate more

NAFDAC will soon start herbal medicine trial By: CHIOMA UMEHA To ensure that only good quality, safe and effective herbal medicines are distributed and used, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control, NAFDAC, and Nigeria Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRID, plan to commence limited clinical trial on some Nigerian herbal medicines used for life-threatening ailments like HIV/AIDS among others.  The Director-General of NAFDAC, Dr. Paul Orhii, said this weekend, in Lagos during a one-day symposium to celebrate this year’s International Traditional Medicines Day, adding that the clinical trial had become necessary following recent noticeable swing from the earlier bias in favour of orthodox medicine to greater acceptance of traditional medicines in the country. Orhii said with this new trend, the need to ensure that only good quality, safe and effective herbal medicines were distributed and used became paramount to the Ministry of Healt

Insomnia sufferers lose focus – Scan suggests By: CHIOMA UMEHA  Brain scans of people who say they have insomnia have shown differences in brain function compared with people who get a full night’s sleep. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, said the poor sleepers struggled to focus part of their brain in memory tests.  Other experts said that the brain’s wiring may actually be affecting perceptions of sleep quality. The findings were published in the journal Sleep. People with insomnia struggle to sleep at night, but it also has consequences during the day such as delayed reaction times and memory. The study compared 25 people who said they had insomnia with 25 who described themselves as good sleepers. MRI brain scans were carried out while they performed increasingly challenging memory tests.  One of the researchers, Prof Sean Drummond, said: “We found that insomnia subjects did not properly turn on brain regions critical to a working memory task an

Scientists find cure for high blood pressure By: CHIOMA UMEHA  Scientists have discovered that de-activation of certain nerves in the neck can cure high blood pressure. An agency report Tuesday claimed that scientists experimented with rats and found that de-activating certain nerves in the neck can effectively treat high blood pressure – a discovery that could be an advance in tackling one of the world’s biggest silent killers.  However, researchers at Britain’s Bristol University found that in rats with high blood pressure, when they removed nerve links between the brain and the carotid body – a nodule about the size of a grain of rice on the side of each carotid artery – the animals’ blood pressure fell and remained low. The researchers’ results, published in the journal: Nature Communications, have already led the team on to conduct a small human trial of the technique, with results expected at the end of this year. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is referred to by t

Aggressive behaviour in children linked to carbonated drinks – Study By: Chioma Umeha A recent study has shown that children who drink soda tend to score slightly higher on scales that measure aggressive behaviour than those who don’t drink the carbonated beverages. The study’s lead author cautioned, however, that the increase may not be noticeable for individual children and the researchers cannot prove soda caused the bad behaviour.  “It’s a little hard to interpret it. It’s not quite clinically significant,” Shakira Suglia, of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York, said. Despite the study’s limitations, Janet Fischel, director of developmental and behavioural pediatrics in the department of pediatrics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York, said the study is a step in the right direction. “I think it’s really important and a giant first step in gathering an evidence base for what’s becoming a very widespread dietary habit. I thi

Tough times await dealers of fake pharmaceutical products By: Chioma Umeha It will no longer be business as usual for dealers of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products as the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has concluded plans to proscribe open drug markets. Consequently (NAFDAC) in Lagos on Tuesday inaugurated the State and Mega Drug Distribution Centres (SMDDCs) to tackle challenges posed by the present drug distribution system in the country. Speaking at a stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting, ahead of the commissioning of Megacentre pharmaceuticals Limited, Onitsha, the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, said the uncoordinated drug distribution in Nigeria had posed a big challenge to the pharmaceutical sector. During the meeting which was organised by NAFDAC to sensitise stakeholders towards the September 3, 2013 commissioning of Mega Centre Pharmaceuticals Limited, Onitsha, Prof. Chukwu said fake, adulterated and sub-