Ebola: Nigeria's Health Minister Orders Screening Of Fever Patients

Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has directed Nigerian health workers to screen haemorrhagic fever patients for Ebola.

This followed the outbreak of the disease in Congo.

In 2014, Nigeria recorded cases of the disease after a Liberian, Patrick Sawyer, imported it into the country.

Ebola had ravaged Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, but it was eventually contained in the West African countries.

 

But last Friday, a case of the disease was confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In a statement, Boade Akinola, spokesperson of the ministry of health, said the minister urged the public to observe high levels of personal hygiene and to report all cases of fever to the nearest health facility.

“The health minister directs all Nigerian health workers to maintain a high index of suspicion by screening all haemorrhagic fever patients for Ebola,” she said.

“Similarly, the minister encourages the public to observe a high level of personal hygiene, which includes regular hand washing and to also report all cases of fever to the nearest health facility.

“The federal government, in response to the announcement by the WHO on confirmed cases of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, has directed port health officials to step up inspection activities and to report any sick person or suspects to ensure that Epidemiologists in the states conduct relevant tests.

“The symptoms to look out for include: fever, fatigue, weakness dizziness and muscle aches. Patients with more severe cases show bleeding under the skin, internal organs or even from bodily orifices like mouth, nose and ears.”

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Diets Rich In Vitamin D Reduces Risk Of Early Menopause

Indication has emerged that women can cut their risk of an early menopause by eating oily fish and eggs. This is according to a new study published in the ‘Journal of Clinical Nutrition.’ It said a high Vitamin D intake via food and supplements lowers the risk of early menopause by 17 per cent.

Vitamin D is thought to slow the ageing of women’s ovaries while calcium-rich foods make women 13 per cent less likely to suffer. Around one in 10 women go through menopause before the age of 45, increasing their risk of osteoporosis and heart disease and reducing their chances of conceiving.

Menopause is the time in most women’s lives when menstrual periods stop permanently and they are no longer able to bear children. Menopause typically occurs between 49 and 52 years of age.

Medical professionals often define menopause as having occurred when a woman had not had any vaginal bleeding for a year.

The main natural source of Vitamin D is sunlight; however, it also appears in oily fish, egg yolks and fortified cereals.

In the United States, where Vitamin D is added to milk and cheese, the researchers found that dairy products specifically cut the danger of an early menopause, but the effect may be limited elsewhere.

Additional studies were needed to see if Vitamin D supplements affect early menopause, the researchers concluded.

The new United States’ study, which involved Harvard University researchers, analysed 116, 430 female health workers over two decades.

Their diet was recorded in food questionnaires five times over that period, during which 2,041 women entered menopause.

The results revealed that among those who consumed the most Vitamin D, their risk of entering menopause was 17 per cent lower.

A high calcium intake reduced the risk by 13 per cent, which was thought to be due to cows’ milk containing menopause-delaying sex hormones.

These results were found after adjusting for other risk factors, such as weight and breastfeeding history.

According to the lead author, Alexandra Purdue- Smithe, from the University of Massachusetts; “Not only is early menopause associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and osteoporosis, it can also affect women’s chances of conceiving for years. “For example, a woman set to have her menopause when she is 43 could be struggling to conceive from the age of 33.


“Scientists are looking for anything that can reduce the risk of early menopause and things like diet, which can be easily altered, have wide-ranging implications for women.

“Women may reduce their risk of early menopause by eating foods rich in Vitamin D and Calcium, such as dairy foods and fatty fish.”

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Synthetic Retina Offers Hope For The Visually Impaired

A synthetic, soft tissue retina developed by an Oxford University student could offer fresh hope to visually-impaired people. this is contained in a study published in the journal, ‘Scientific Reports.’

A ‘science daily’ report stated that until now, all artificial retinal research had used only rigid, hard materials.

The retina is the lightsensitive layer of tissue at the back of the eyeball. Images that come through the eye’s lens are focused on the retina.

However, the new research by Vanessa Restrepo- Schild, a 24-year-old DPhil student and researcher at Oxford University, Department of Chemistry, was the first to successfully use biological, synthetic tissues, developed in a laboratory environment.

The study could revolutionise the bionic implant industry and the development of new, less invasive technologies that more closely resemble human body tissues, helping to treat degenerative eye conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP).


Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited, degenerative eye disease that causes severe vision impairment due to the progressive degeneration of the rod photoreceptor cells in the retina. Just as photography depends on camera pixels reacting to light, vision relies on the retina performing the same function.

The retina sits at the back of the human eye and contains protein cells that convert light into electrical signals that travel through the nervous system, triggering a response from the brain, ultimately building a picture of the scene being viewed.

Restrepo-Schild led the team in the development of a new synthetic, double layered retina, which closely mimics the natural human retinal process. The retina replica consists of soft water droplets (hydrogels) and biological cell membrane proteins.

Designed like a camera, the cells act as pixels, detecting and reacting to light to create a grey scale image. The Colombian native said: “The synthetic material can generate electrical signals, which stimulate the neurons at the back of our eye just like the original retina.

The study’s findings showed that unlike existing artificial retinal implants, the cell-cultures were created from natural, biodegradable materials and do not contain foreign bodies or living entities.

In this way, the implant was less invasive than a mechanical devise, and was less likely to have an adverse reaction on the body.

Restrepo - Schild added: “The human eye is incredibly sensitive, which is why foreign bodies like metal retinal implants can be so damaging, leading to inflammation and/or scaring."

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Too Much Exercise Risky To Health – Study

Scientists have alerted the global community that long periods of intense exercise can change the composition of gut bacteria in humans, thereby posing danger to health.

According to a new study, which unveiled these, the prolonged exertion during intense exercise could trigger ‘leaky guy syndrome’ – a condition that could let harmful substances leak into the bloodstream.

The study is published ahead of print in the ‘American Journal of Physiology’ – Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.

The research looked at soldiers taking part in an intensive training programme and found that prolonged exercise caused the protective barrier in their guts to become permeable.

With the gut health and overall health believed to be strongly linked, intense  physiological stress could therefore raise the risks of many types of illnesses.

The new research is the first to investigate the response of gut microbiome – the term for the population of microbes in the intestine – during military training. It provides a stark warning for endurance athletes and military personnel.

“Most of us are aware that the bacteria in our gut play an important role in digestion.

Furthermore, they are known to aid the production of certain vitamins – such as vitamins B and K – and play a key role in immune function.

But increasingly, research is emerging showing how poor gut health is linked to conditions ranging from irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, obesity, childhood asthma, to colitis and colon cancer.”

The study is the first to investigate the response of gut microbiome – the term for the population of microbes in the intestine – during military training.

It looked at a group of 73 Norwegian Army soldiers taking part in a militarystyle cross country skiing training programme.

The group skied 31 miles (51 km) while carrying 99-pound (45 kg) packs, across four days. Before and after the training exercise, researchers collected blood and stool samples from the soldiers.

It was found that the microbiome and metabolites – the substance formed in or necessary for metabolism – in the soldiers’ blood and stool altered ‘significantly’ by the end of the aggressive training period.

Furthermore, sucralose excretion in their urine samples rose considerably, indicating an increase in intestinal permeability (IP).

According to a ‘mailonline’ report, scientists know that healthy intestines have a semi-permeable barrier, which acts as a defence to keep bacteria and other harmful substances out, while allowing healthy nutrients into the bloodstream.

It is thought that physical stress can increase IP, increasing the risk of inflammation, illness and symptoms such as diarrhoea.

The researchers wrote that intestinal microbiota appear to be one influencing factor in the gut’s response to physical stress.

“Our findings suggest that the intestinal microbiota may be one mediator of IP responses to severe physiologic stress, and that targeting the microbiota before stress exposure may be one strategy for maintaining IP.”

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Cotton Buds Dangerous To Children's Ears

Scientists have raised the alarm that more than 12, 000 children were left needing hospital treatment after using ear buds every year. According to the result of an American study, which unveiled this, 263, 000 children were sent to Accident and Emergency (A&E), after injuring themselves with ear buds over 20 years.

The research was published in ‘The Journal of Pediatrics.’ Previous research showed that in the United Kingdom (UK), close to 7, 000 people were treated for ear bud emergencies every year. According to hospital reports, injuries caused by the cotton buds include burst eardrums, loss of balance and total loss of hearing.

The ‘mailonline’ reports that majority of injuries occurred as a result of using cotton tip applicators to clean the ears (73 per cent), playing with cotton tip applicators (10 per cent), or children falling when they have cotton tip applicators in their ear (nine per cent). Seventy-seven per cent of the injuries occurred when the child was using the cotton tip applicator by themselves.

The most common injuries were foreign body sensation, the feeling of having something stuck in the ear, (30 per cent), perforated ear drum (25 per cent) and soft tissue injury (23 per cent). Foreign body sensation was the most common diagnosis among children aged eight to 17 years, while perforated ear drum was the most common among children younger than eight years of age.

Reacting to the development, Dr. Simon Baer, a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon at Spire Sussex Hospital, said the best way to keep your ears clean was to leave them be.
 
But a small proportion of people produced excess earwax and should seek treatment, he added. “Nothing larger than an index finger should ever be put in the ear,” he said.

Speaking further, Baer said: “An injury that would lead to hospitalisation would be a perforated eardrum, which is when the bud causes a hole to appear in the eardrum. “One particular danger appears to be falling over with an ear bud in the ear. “Ear buds could also cause damage to the little bones in the ear.

These are known as the ossicles. “In very rare cases damage to the stirrup, one of the small ear bones can cause balance problems. “And in extremely rare cases, ear bud damage can lead to total loss of hearing.”

A new study conducted by Nationwide Children’s Hospital researchers found that more than a 21-year period from 1990 through 2010, 263,000 children were treated in the United States’ hospitals for ear bud-related injuries. That’s about 12,500 children every year or 34 injuries a day, according to a ‘mailonline’ report.

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Folic Acid Boosts Children’s IQ, Vocabulary – Study

Scientists said that children whose mothers take folic acid throughout their entire pregnancy are more emotionally stable than those who do not.

After the scientists from the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom, UK, carried out a study looking at the long term effects of taking the supplement, they found that the children whose mothers took the supplement the entire time had significantly higher levels of emotional intelligence and resilience and bigger vocabularies. These were disclosed at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society in Brighton.
 
The researchers carried out the study looking at the long term effects of taking the supplement. They gave supplements of folic acid – which is found naturally in green leafy vegetables, such as spinach, to 22 mothers while the other 19 took it just for the first three months, as recommended by National Institute For Health and Clinical Excellence,NICE, guidelines. After this, the mothers were given a placebo.

At present, expecting women are only recommended to take a supplement of 400 microgrammes of folic acid, for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The recommendation is to ensure proper development of the brain – and to prevent spina bifida. Emotional intelligence is the ability to control and express emotions and handle relationships with others.

Resilience is the ability to deal with problems in life. Folate, forms of which are known as folic acid and vitamin B9, is one of the B vitamins. Folic acid is used to treat anaemia caused by folic acid deficiency. It is also used as a supplement by women during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects, NTDs, in the baby. NTDs are birth defects of the brain, spine, or spinal cord.

They happen in the first month of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows that she is pregnant.

The two most common neural tube defects are spina bifida and anencephaly. In spina bifida, the foetal spinal column doesn’t close completely. Over 50 countries use fortification of certain foods with folic acid as a measure to decrease the rate of NTDs in the population.

Long term supplementation is also associated with small reductions in the risk of stroke and cardiovascular disease. Reacting to the new study, Dr. Tony Cassidy of the University of Ulster, said: “Given it has this positive effect, we wanted to know whether it would have a positive effect beyond three months.

“We found there was an advantage for children whose mothers had taken folic acid for verbal IQ and reasoning compared to those who did not take the folic acid.

“We were also looking at emotional intelligence and resilience. We found significant benefits for the children whose mothers took folic acid,’ he said.

He said that he expected that if further trials showed the same results, there would be a strong case for advising mothers to keep taking the folic acid at the recommended level after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

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