200,000 Living With HIV in Oyo State, nigeria

Dr Sani Aliyu, Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) says an estimated 200,000 people are living with HIV in Oyo State.
He made the disclosure on Tuesday in Ibadan during a courtesy call on Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State at the executive council chamber of the governor’s office.
The delegation was led by Aliyu, included representatives of World Health Organisation, other international donor and funding agencies.
Aliyu stated that only 16,000 out of the estimated 200, 000

persons living with HIV in the state are currently recieving treatment.

''We have a gap between the number of infected persons and those on treatment. We have a gap between infected pregnant women and those receiving treatment.
“We also have issues with the number of new infections recorded,’’ he said.
The NACA boss stated that 10, 000 pregnant women in Oyo State are living with HIV, adding that about 50 people contact HIV in the state on a daily basis.
He stated that the state has a considerable figure in terms of new infections, commending the state government for running one of the best programmes on HIV/AIDS.
Aliyu said that there are 1,060,000 people living with HIV in Nigeria, out of which only five percent were currently on treatment courtesy of the Nigerian government.
The NACA boss stated that about one million Nigerians are currently on treatment on the bills of the international donor agencies.

He said that NACA had proposed to the state government to contribute 0.5 or One percent of their federal allocation towards HIV/AIDS.
Aliyu stated that such contribution by state governments would allow the states to put another 50 per cent of infected persons on treatment.
“For instance, we have 16,000 already on treatment. If the state can put 0.5 percent of the allocation, the state will be able to put 8,000 on treatment,’’ he said.
He assured the governor that they are willing to work with his government to ensure that people living with HIV across the state have access to quality and affordable treatment.
In his response, Gov. Ajimobi assured the delegation of his administration’s readiness to partner with them to bring the figure of infected people to a barest minimum if not totally eradicated.
Ajimobi, who was represented by his deputy, Chief Moses Adeyemo said his administration would support the donor agencies with funds and human capital towards the eradication in the state.(NAN)

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Diabetes is on the Rise, WHO Warns

THE World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that the number of people with diabetes has risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million in 2014 as the world marks this year’s World Diabetes Day (WDD).
WHO lamented that the global prevalence of diabetes among adults over 18 years of age has increased from 4.7 per cent in 1980 to 8.5 per cent in 2014.
Experts are canvassing for routine diabetes screening in hospitals across the country.
Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces.
Tnsulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar. Hyperglycaemia or raised blood sugar is a common effect of uncontrolled diabetes and it overtime leads to serious damage to many of the body’s systems, especially the nerves and blood vessels.
This year’s theme is: ‘Women and diabetes – our right to a healthy future’. It is a campaign to promote the importance of affordable and equitable access for women at risk or those living with diabetes to receive the essential diabetes medicines and technologies, self-management education and information they require in achieving optimal diabetes outcomes and strengthening their capacity to prevent type 2 diabetes.
According to WHO, diabetes prevalence has been rising more rapidly in middle- and low-income countries, including Nigeria.
It added that diabetes is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation.
In 2015, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Another 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose in 2012. Almost half of all deaths attributable to high blood glucose occur before the age of 70 years. WHO projects that diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death in 2030.
A healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2-diabetes. Diabetes can be treated and its consequences avoided or delayed with diet, physical activity, medication and regular screening and treatment for complications.

A Senior Lecturer/Honorary Consultant Endocrinologist of the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Lagos/Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Ifedayo Odeniyi, said it had become expedient that persons living with diabetes know their status in order to seek treatment promptly. He spoke at a capacity-building workshop on diabetes organised by Sanofi Aventis Pharma Nigeria to mark this year’s WDD.
Odeniyi said there was need for the introduction of routine diabetes screening in public hospitals in the country.
And having diabetes is not a death sentence, and those living with the condition can live normal life and not subject to a diabetes diet, he said.
“The idea of a diabetes diet was a myth. We have often heard that the diet of diabetics should be beans and unripe plantain, but that is not correct. There is no special diet for diabetes, and there is nothing like diabetes diet. A diabetic can eat everything. Diabetes is not a death sentence and not as deadly as it is often being portrayed. A lot of people have been put in bondage and sentenced to a life of beans and unripe plantain.
According to WHO, simple lifestyle measures have been shown to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of type 2 diabetes.
“To help prevent type 2 diabetes and its complications, the global body said people should achieve and maintain healthy body weight; be physically active – at least 30 minutes of regular, moderate-intensity activity on most days. More activity is required for weight control; eat a healthy diet, avoiding sugar and saturated fats intake; and avoid tobacco use – smoking increases the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Early diagnosis can be accomplished through relatively inexpensive testing of blood sugar,” it said.
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Why Watching TV for Long May Couse Blood Clot

It has long been established by experts that watching television (TV) for several hours is harmful to health. Now, a new research shows that the risk of blood clots increases with the amount of time spent watching TV. According to preliminary research presented last Sunday at the 2017 Scientific Sessions of the American Heart Association (AHA) in California, United States (US), when researchers compared people who reported watching TV more often to those who seldom or never watched TV, the risk of a venous thromboembolism (VTE) jumped by 70 per cent.
A VTE is a type of blood clot that can block blood flow in a vein, according to the AHA. A blood clot is a clump of blood that has changed from a liquid to a gel-like or semisolid state. Clotting is a necessary process that can prevent people from losing too much blood in certain instances, such as when one is injured or cut. When a clot however forms inside a human vein, it always won’t dissolve on its own. This can be very dangerous and even a life-threatening situation.
Study co-author, Dr. Mary Cushman and professor of medicine at the University of Vermont’s Larner Medical College, said, “Watching TV itself isn’t likely bad but we tend to snack and sit still for prolonged periods while watching.” In previous studies, prolonged TV viewing has already been associated with heart disease involving blocked arteries.

But according to researchers, this is the first study in a western population to look at blood clots in veins of the legs, arms, pelvis and lungs. Among those that participated in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, were 15,158 middle-aged, ranging between 45 to 64 years. “You could put a treadmill or stationary bike in front of your TV and move while watching. Or you can delay watching TV by 30 minutes while you take a walk.If you must see your favourite show, tape it while you are out walking so you can watch it later, skipping the ads,” said Cushman, who is also the director of the Thrombosis and Hemostasis Programme at the University of Vermont Medical Centre.

Besides avoiding prolonged TV watching, the researchers also advised that people can lower their risk of venous thromboembolism by maintaining a healthy weight and staying physically active. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as many as 900,000 people could be affected (one to two per 1,000) by this condition each year in the United States (US). AHA’s Scientific Sessions, a premier global exchange of the latest advances in cardiovascular science for researchers and clinicians, attracts nearly 18,000 attendees

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Nigeria Natural Hhealth on line Wines 2017 Health and Fitness Blogs Award

Nigeria Natural Health online www.kemekwu.blogspot.com has won the 2017 Health and Fitness Blogs Award, Organized by Couponcode, an international online assessment and rating agency based in Netherland. Couponcode, which is present in nine countries has couponcode.ng as the online platform for the Nigeria category of the context.

In all, 17 natural health blogs were selected in Nigeria for the context and they include . Healthable, woman.ng,HealthBlog,Eights and weigth, Paxnigeria.com, Sizzelle, Adura fitness& welness,collette nature blog(CNB), julsefitnex.blogspot,Health Save Blog, penMy Emotions, fablia's fitness club, like Health & fitness, Naturally Healthy,Africanweigthloss.com, Diet254healthy eating Happy living and Nigeria Natural Health on Line(www.kimekwu.blospot.com). 

The voting, which covered a period of over one month, saw Nigeria Natural Health online coming first with 18% of the total votes cast while Healthable and collette came second and third with a tie of 11% each.

While announcing the result, Lisa Kok, project manager, Couponcode, told Nigeria natural health online 'The vote for our Health & Fitness Blog Awards 2017 has now been completed.

Your blog has received 18%. That means you have won our award. Congratulations!

In total, 390 people voted to give you this award''.

In his response to the victory, the publisher of Nigeria Natural Health Online, Mr. Dumbiri Frank Eboh, said the Award has once again Highlighted the blog leadership in the  natural health industry in Nigeria as well as Africa. He however added that the award would not have been possible but for the teaming daily readership of the blog which at the time of writing this piece, stands at over 70,000.

“The 2017 Health and Fitness Blogs Award is another testimony that Nigeria natural health online is the leading blog in the country when it comes to the natural health industry.

We owe the victory to the dedication and loyalty of our teaming readers who daily come to the blog to get updates on the natural health industry as well as buy products from our online herbal store. I therefore dedicated this award to these readers,” he said.

Ever since its inception in 2008, Nigeria Natural Health online www.kemekwu.blogspot.com has come to be the foremost online resource centre for the natural health industry in the country and Africa at large. A coouple of years ago, a south African broadcaster referred to Nigeria natural health online as “one of africa's foremost blogs on Natural Health.” Due to its massive readership, google has optimized the blog in it search engine.

Nigeria Natural Health online, according to a statement from the publisher, was birthed to amongst other things,

1. To promote African herbal/natural medicines through media publications. 
2. To project the rich herbal/natural resources in Nigeria and bring the local practitioners to a global limelight. 
3. To publicize new inventions and international research findings and bring these to the notice of local practitioners in order to bring the local industry to global standards
4. To organize periodic seminars/other events where topical issues surrounding Nigerian and African herbal/natural health industry, are addressed by stakeholders in the industry.
5. To provide an online market platform where buyers and sellers of herbal/natural health products can meet to evolve a more vibrant industry.

Mr.Dumbin Frank Eboh also used the opportunity to reach out to manufacturers and distributors of natural health product (both local and foreign) to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the elevation of the blog and sell their product to the target market.

”This ward has further projected Nigeria natural health online higher in national lim-plight. I therefore enjoin manufacturers and distributors of natural health product in Nigeria, whether local or foreign, to leverage and ride on the brand equity of the blog and sell their products to the target market. Potential advertisers should call or sms +2347031040178.”

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Hope Rises as New Pneumonia Vaccine Discovered

In order to reduce deaths from pneumonia, a new vaccine that could lower death rates drastically has been introduced to tackle the disease. The new vaccine, which is undergoing animal testing, may lower the number of deaths even further by targeting dozens of additional strains of S. pneumoniae. The research was published in the journal Science Advances. The vaccine provoked an immune response to 72 forms of S. pneumoniae, including the 23 already included in existing pneumonia vaccines.
It may also anticipate future versions of the bacteria responsible for pneumococcal disease, which includes sepsis and meningitis. Children are most vulnerable to pneumonia, which kills nearly 1.6 million children under five annually worldwide.
An estimated 98 per cent of children who die of pneumonia live in developing countries, according to a former National President of Paediatric Association of Nigeria (PAN), Dr. Dorothy Esangbedo. A World Health Organisation (WHO) 2008 estimates, shows that about 177,000 children under the age of five died of pneumonia in Nigeria. Explaining this, Esangbedo said, “Which means that within an hour, 20 children across Nigeria will die from pneumonia.
 This number is the highest in Africa and second highest overall in the world.” Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung affecting primarily the small air sacs known as alveoli.Typically, symptoms include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and troubled breathing. Pneumonia is usually caused by infection with viruses or bacteria and less commonly by other microorganisms, certain medications and conditions such as autoimmune diseases. The new vaccine, according to researchers is engineered in a way that makes it easy to add sugars (like Pneumovax) for a broad immune response to fight currently undiscovered strains of bacteria.

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Eating Late at Night Could Cause Heart Attack, Diabetesse

Scientists have said that eating during the night is associated with higher risk of heart disease and diabetes and the body’s 24-hour cycle is to blame. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal ‘Experimental Physiology’.
Eating at night is a common phenomenon among rural and urban settlers and based on poor eating habit acquired over the years, dumping the practice for many has become an uphill task.
Previous studies tend to show that when food is consumed late at night — anywhere from after dinner to outside a person’s typical sleep/wake cycle — the body is more likely to store those calories as fat and gain weight rather than burn it as energy, said Kelly Allison of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine’s Center for Weight and Eating Disorders.

However, in the new study, researchers at the National Autonomous University of Mexico looked at levels of fat, called triglycerides, in the rats’ blood and found that after feeding the rats fat at the beginning of their rest period, their blood fat levels spiked more drastically than when fed during the beginning of their active phase. When they removed the part of the rat’s brain that controls the 24-hour cycle, there was no longer a change in fat levels.High blood fat levels are associated with heart disease and diabetes and these diseases are associated with a lifestyle where humans ignore the signals of the biological clock, and eat in the evening and night.The new study demonstrates why such a lifestyle that’s out of tune with human’s 24- hour cycle may result in high blood fat levels and thus in a higher risk for heart problems, the ‘science daily’ reported.Ruud Buijs is professor of neurobiology and senior research scientist at Biomedicas Institute at the UNAM University in Mexico. He said: “The fact that we can ignore our biological clock is important for survival; we can decide to sleep during the day when we are extremely tired or we run away from danger at night.

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Fibre Rich Diet Boast Colon Cancer Survival Rate

With global efforts geared towards cutting down cancer deaths, scientists have affirmed that diets rich in fiber may lessen the chances of dying from colon cancer. According to an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead researcher of the new study, Dr. Andrew Chan, among people treated for nonmetastatic colon cancer, every five grammes of fiber added to their diet reduced their odds of dying by nearly 25 per cent. The study was published online in ‘JAMA Oncology.’
Cancer is the second leading cause of death globally and accounted for 8.8 million deaths in 2015. Lung, prostate colorectal, stomach and liver cancer are the most common types of cancer in men, while breast, colorectal, lung, cervix and stomach cancer are the most common among women.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that cancer was responsible for 72,000 deaths in Nigeria every year with an estimated 102,000 new cases annually. Chan said: “What you eat after you’ve been diagnosed of colon cancer may make a difference.

“There is a possibility that increasing your intake of fiber may actually lower the rate of dying from colon cancer and maybe even other causes.” Chan cautioned, however, that the study did not prove that the additional fiber caused people to live longer, only that the two were associated. Fibre is an important part of a healthy balanced diet.It can help prevent heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and some cancers, and can also improve digestive health. Foods that contain soluble fibre include oats, barley and rye; fruit, such as bananas and apples; root vegetables, such as carrots and potatoes; and golden linseeds.On the other hand, good sources of insoluble fiber include whole-meal bread, bran, cereals, nuts and seeds. Fiber had been linked to better insulin control and less inflammation, which may account for better survival, he suggested.In addition, a high-fiber diet may protect people from developing colon cancer in the first place. The greatest benefit was attributed to fiber from cereals and whole grains, according to the report in ‘Healthday.’

On its part, vegetable fiber was linked to an overall reduction in death, but not specifically in death from colon cancer. Fiber from foods, not supplements, was linked to better survival, said Chan, who is also an associate professor of gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

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Men With Curved Penis Face Risk of Cancer - Study

A new study recently released has said that men with a bent penis have a significantly increased risk of cancer. According to the study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine in San Antonio, Texas, United States (US) on October 28, a gene that may trigger crooked penis could also be linked to the development of tumours.
The findings showed that a bent penis also known as Peyronie’s brought a higher risk of testicular cancer by 40 per cent, melanoma by 29 per cent and stomach cancer by 40 per cent. To this end, the researchers from Baylor College in Houston, Texas, said men with bent penis should be closely monitored for cancer in a bid to catch any development early.
The research emerged after a review of patient data of more than 1.5 million. Peyronie’s disease is the development of fibrous scar tissue inside the penis that causes curved, painful erections. Penis varies in shape and size; and having a curved erection isn’t necessarily a cause for concern.

But Peyronie’s disease causes a significant bend or pain in some men. It’s thought that Peyronie’s generally results from repeated injury to the penis, but researchers also think it may be genetic and had linked it to other illnesses. Peyronie’s disease was estimated to affect up to seven per cent of males. Dr. Alexander Pastuszak, who led the study, said: “While they’re significant in the sexual and reproductive lifecycles of these patients, linking them to other disorders suggest that these men should be monitored for development of these disorders disproportionately in contrast to the rest of the population. A ‘mailonline’ report quoted Pastuszak as saying; “Nobody has made these associations before.”
The researchers carried out further genetic analysis of a father and son both suffering from Peyronie’s. They discovered they shared a set of genes understood to predispose people to urological cancer. “We found mutations in this father and son couplet in these types of genes, specifically in melanoma, testis, and prostate cancer,” said Pastuszak. He said the condition shares some similarities with Dupuytren’s disease, a condition in which one or more fingers become permanently bent in a flexed position. They also found links with Ledderhose disease, a thickening of tissue on the feet.

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While Red Wine Boosts Fertility in Women

Women who drink one glass of red wine a week boast better fertility than those who don’t.
Scientists at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri in the United States (US) said this could be due to resveratrol, an antioxidant that is abundant in the wine.
Resveratrol molecule is a key component in red grapes, cocoa and blueberries and protects cells from biological stress, according to a report in The Times.
Infertility is defined as not being able to get pregnant (conceive) after one year (or longer) of unprotected sex.
Although, infertility is a global health problem, people in Nigeria like in other parts of the world similarly experience the infertility challenges.
The prevalence of infertility in Nigeria is put at between 20 and 25 percent among married couples, according to experts. However, 40 to 45 percent of all consultations in gynaecological clinics are infertility-related.
Abayomi Ajayi, a consultant obstetrics and gynaecologist, said that medical research have shown that exposure to pollutants in the environment, lifestyle problems such as excessive alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking and drugs could affect the fertility of an individual.
However, the physicians involved in the study showing the positive impact of red wine on women’s fertility, surveyed 135 women between the ages of 18 and 44, each of whom kept an alcohol diary, noting how much they consumed every month.
During this period the scientists also conducted regular ultrasound scans on each of the women to calculate how many remaining viable eggs they had.
They found that those who regularly consumed red wine, regardless of other factors such as age and income, had a better ovarian reserve.
However, The Times reported that the study’s result does not mean that all hopeful babymakers should reach for red wine every evening.
“The research only showed benefits to fertility for women who drank moderate amounts of red wine i.e. five or more glasses each month.

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