Chioma Umeha

Lagos –  Nigeria can reduce outbreak of diarrhea and other diseases associated with contaminated water by dedicating one per cent of the national budget to rural water supply, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said. The United Nations(UN) agency for children further    tasked governments across the    Niger Delta states to invest consciously in the provision of safe water supply and sanitation for its rural populace. The provision of such basic social amenity, according to UNICEF would encourage handwashing and other hygienic practices among school-age children and rural populace. The international agency stated this at a ‘WASH’ media    meeting by the Federal Ministry of Information in collaboration with UNICEF in Uyo the Akwa Ibom State capital on Tuesday, noting that the chemical contaminations resulting from oil and gas exploration in the Niger Delta region has made it necessary for efforts to be made to ensure safe and constantly checked water for human

Chioma Umeha Malaria is highly endemic in Nigeria and poses a major challenge to human development. Pregnant women, especially ‘primigravidas’ that is a woman who is pregnant for the first time are particularly at risk. The disease may not only account for up to 15 per cent of anemia in pregnancy, it cause s miscarriages, premature births and low birthweights in newborn babies. In view of this, researchers and stakeholders have restated the need for early commencement of antenatal care by pregnant women. According to them, this aids early diagnosis and prompt treatment of malaria in pregnant women as well as uptake of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy (IPTp). Making the recommendations during a recent media chat on “Malaria In Pregnancy,” they stressed that regular and appropriate use of Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (LLINs) help to prevent malaria in pregnant women. The event was jointly organised by the National Media Elimination Programme (NMEP) and

Lagos –  Men that take up to 60 per cent alcohol in 48 hours may be at risk of developing abnormal quality of sperm-teratozospermia. Stating this was Dr. Sharon Osaide, a fertility physician and gynecologist with Rose Du Rouge International Initiative while delivering a lecture recently on health, at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Orientation Camp, Ipaja-Lagos. Not only did Osaide warn against too much consumption of alcohol, she also warned against unhealthy lifestyle as well as conditions such as smoking and obesity, which she linked to infertility in men and women. “Men that take up to 60 per cent alcohol in 48 hours would develop teratozospermia otherwise described as abnormal sperm cell. Though they have normal sperm counts, but they would have abnormal quality of sperm. “Obesity in male and female could lead to infertility, when a woman is obese, they would not ovulate regularly. When a man is obese, he will produce the estrogen hormone rather than the testo

Ahmed Yakasai, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) is a veteran practitioner with over three decades of experience. Yakasai who is a former Chairman of PSN Kano State Branch, first National Deputy President of PSN and a two-time past Commissioner in Kano State, in this interview with  CHIOMA UMEHA,  shares perspectives on pharmacy and health management issues. Excerpts: Nigeria has celebrated 57th years anniversary of independence. What are the challenges of the health sector? What is the way forward? Nigeria continues to contend with a plethora of challenges not necessarily caused by this incumbent administration. Among numerous challenges, the following stand out: poor funding, delayed and unlawful appointments in regulatory agencies, poor composition structures in the health sector including, lopsided appointments in Federal Health Institutions (FHIs) as well as poor attitude to research and development. If we restrict ourselves to the highlighted, you wi

By: Chioma Umeha Scientists have said that being infected with human papillomavirus (HPV) exposes one to high risk of having esophageal cancer. An agency report yesterday said that latest review of previous research linked infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) to a three-fold high chance of esophageal cancer.  “This doesn’t mean it is present in all (esophageal cancers), but it may be a factor in a certain proportion of cases,” said Dr. Surabhi Liyanage, the study’s lead author. HPV is a very common sexually transmitted virus that is known to cause cervical cancer, anal cancer and some cancers of the reproductive organs and the upper throat. Liyanage, a graduate student at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, said there’s been a lot of debate among researchers about the role of HPV in cancer of the esophagus because most of the studies to date have been small and used disparate methods that make them hard to compare.  According to the National Cancer

Nigerians have been urged to change to brown sugar as their table sugar as it is far more nutritious than the conventional white sugar. The Managing Director of McNichols Consolidated Plc, Chimaraoke Ekpe, made this known during its media briefing in Ogun state recently to mark the company’s 10 years of existence in the country.  According to him, the enormous health benefits of brown sugar cannot be over emphasized as it contains all natural nutrients directly from sugar cane extract which are vital to the health of the body. “It is free from chemicals like phosphoric acids, sulphuric dioxide as well as preservatives of bleaching agents which often destroys the natural ingredients. “This sugar is in its natural state without its ingredients been compromised. But for the white sugar, even though it is also gotten from sugar cane just like the brown sugar, after the normal extract which presents a brown colour, it is further refined and bleached to become pure white in colour, and

 FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, makers of Peak and Three Crowns milk   was recently commended  for pioneering local milk sourcing, development and for improving the lives of Nigerian dairy farmers. Chief Audu Ogbeh, Minister of Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), made the commendation recently, while inspecting the local milk collection facilities of FrieslandCampina WAMCO in Fashola village and Iseyin town, Oyo State. The site is where the company’s state-of-the-art milk collection centres and offices operate under its Dairy Development Programme (DDP). After inspecting the milk facilities and speaking with members of the host community, Chief Ogbeh who spoke on behalf of the  Federal Government  said: “It will be wonderful if each Nigerian child can get two pints of fresh Nigerian milk daily.  “We express the gratitude of government to FrieslandCampina WAMCO for ongoing efforts in this regard. We appreciate and commend your commitment and

Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection, commonly referred as – ICSI  is a simple way of saying “inject sperm into egg.” ICSI is a very effective method to fertilize eggs in the invitro-fertilisation (IVF) lab after they have been aspirated from the female. Its main use is for significant male infertility cases. IVF with ICSI involves the use of specialized micromanipulation tools and equipment and inverted microscopes that enable embryologists to select and pick up individual sperm in a specially designed ICSI needle. The needle is carefully advanced through the outer shell of the egg and the egg membrane - and the sperm is injected into the inner part (cytoplasm) of the egg.  This usually results in normal fertilization in about 75 to 85 per cent of eggs injected with sperm. However, first the woman must be stimulated with medications and have an egg retrieval procedure so we can obtain several eggs for in vitro fertilization and ICSI. Who should be treated with intracy