USA
World Health Organization must be reformed to save lives—–UN
A new study report by a high ranking UN team has said that lives will be lost if the World Health Organisation is not reformed to make it more ready for emergency. The reform it is recommending is to enable the body develop an emergency response capability, such that it can cope with health crisis like the Ebola outbreak in West Africa which cost over 11,000 lives and the current Zika virus infection ravaging the Americas
Response to both crises has been sloppy as there is no standing emergency response body in place.
Spain
Cocaine changes the structure and function of the brain—Study
A new study just published in Addiction Biology has shown alterations in the functioning and structure of the brain of cocaine users.
Cocaine users and non-users were asked to perform gambling task while their brain activities were recorded by MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), Increased activity was noticed in a particular part of the brain that controls actions with reward or gratification such as eating and sex. There was hyperactivity in this part of the brain of cocaine user whether the person is winning or not. While the activity is less in non-user whether he is winning or not. This area of the brain is called the Ventral striatum and is responsible for impulsive behaviour.
But there is another part of the brain which controls our behaviour, inhibiting impulsive behaviour, called the Pre-frontal cortex. When the non-user is losing there is a lot of activity in this area, apparently reacting to the loss. However there is no activity in this part of the brain when a cocaine user is losing, there is no reaction to misfortune and hence he will not see it as a misfortune.
There is also a difference in the grey and white matter of the brain in cocaine users; the former is bigger in areas of the brain which control impulsive behaviour while the latter which is responsible for carrying messages to different parts of the brain is less in areas responsible for controlled behaviour and attention span.
The study was done at a University in Barcelona, Spain.
New Zealand
Sleeping with mouth open increases risk of tooth decay—-Study
A new study at the University of Otago, New Zealand has shown that sleeping with mouth open increases the risk of dental decay or caries. This is because the mouth is dry when you breathe through the mouth while sleeping; saliva reduces the acidity in the mouth, thus when there is less saliva as in dry mouth, acidity increases.
High acid level affects teeth in two ways; it erodes the enamel (white of the teeth) and bores a hole in the tooth (tooth decay or caries).
Ten volunteers participated in the study for four days; sleeping with the open mouth to breathe for two days and with the mouth closed for two days. To ensure they breathe through the mouth for the two nights, they wore nose clips.
The result showed that the mouth of those who slept with open mouth had more acid than those whose mouths were closed.
USA
Obama seeks USD1,8B to fight Zika virus
The US President plans to raise about USD1.8B to fight Zika virus. The amount will be used for testing, surveillance, conduct research on the disease and the development of vaccine; also assistance to some countries already affected.
Nigeria
Nigeria: Health Minister disowns 2016 health budget
Nigeria’s Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has disowned the 2016 health budget now in the National Assembly. He did this during budget defense yesterday, insisting there were strange figures in the budget which got there without his knowledge. He said the budget for capital projects was moved to other areas, some allocations according did not address the priorities of the ministry and that there was nothing for public health and family health.
He promised to bring the actual budget on Tuesday, 9/2/16.
Nigeria
An NGO, International Lions Club tackles measles in Lagos
The International Association of Lions Club involving all the lions in the sixteen southern states has just ended a five day advocacy and social mobilization campaign in Lagos aimed at drumming up support and participation of stakeholders in the 2016 measles immunization blitz.
Measles is one of the five preventable killers among under-5 children, it is in fact the fifth leading cause of death and ill health among under-5 years old children worldwide in-spite of the fact that it is very preventable.
To show the importance attached to the immunization campaign, the flag off was attended by no less a person than the State Governor.
Nigeria
Ondo Kidney centre dialysed 3000 patients in two years
According to the Chief Medical Director of Ondo State Kidney Care Centre, the latter dialysed about 3000 kidney failure patients in 2014 and 2015.
The centre was set up in 2014 following a study in part of Akure town South west Nigeria which showed a prevalence of 75 percent for high blood pressure and about 90 prevalence of obesity among the female population. The study lso showed that about 90 percent of those examined had diabetes while 15 percent some level of kidney malfunction
Today the centre attends to about 7-10 patients every day and about 210 a month.
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