FAO Wares Of Rinderpest Resurgence

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, UN, has begun massive awareness creation over rinderpest disease outbreak in the Nigeria. 

This was contained in a statement signed by National Communication Officer, FAO, David Karls, Friday, which said the move was made known by the Country Representative in Nigeria and to ECOWAS, FAO, Suffyan Koroma, who said that a special awareness creation programme will alert livestock farmers and pastoralists in Nigeria on the likely re-emergence of rinderpest. 

Koroma said the awareness creation became necessary and was to keep farmers and pastoralists on the alert, what to do when signs of the devastating animal disease or other Transboundary Animal Diseases, TADs, are noticed on their livestock. 

He said the programme sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), as part of support to the government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), aims to raise awareness among pastoralists of the dangers of this disease that killed millions of animals before it was pronounced globally eradicated in 2011. 

According to him rinderpest, also a TAD was stamped out but virus samples were kept by some institutions for research purposes. 

At an African regional conference in 2015, five countries, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan, agreed that the Virus Containing Materials, VCM, kept in laboratories should either be destroyed or sent to the Pan African Veterinary Centre of the African Union, AU-PANVAC, in Ethiopia for safekeeping.

However, some laboratories in universities and other research institutes retained the VCM. This action gave vent to the expressed anxiety that it might be reintroduced, either through accidental spillage or other human errors and it will spread to grazing areas. 

“This awareness campaign began in 2017 during a Livestock stakeholders’ strategic communication meeting to keep the participants abreast on disease recognition and the need for early warning in the case of reemergence. “The distribution of awareness-creation posters to livestock farmers across 18 states, three each from the six geopolitical regions of the country compliments the radio broadcast.” 

He also explained the listening of groups, which he said were delineated in the states, added that earlier in March the campaign was monitored, as the radio broadcast begun on the March 27, 2018 and will run for six weeks. 

According to him (Koroma) before the distribution of the awareness-creation posters, the message was to be broadcasted on the platforms of Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN, regional stations in Enugu, Ibadan and Kaduna in four different languages of Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa and Fulfulde contains information regarding the highly contagious epidemic animal diseases, rinderpest and TADs poses. “The intention is to keep the world and our country free from Rinderpest, and to protect our animals from other dangerous animal diseases. 

We have to be vigilant and to immediately alert veterinary services providers to prevent further spread of infections on our animals. The message will be broadcasted twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday morning and evening for six weeks to ensure effective penetration to the target audience”, Koroma said. 

He said livestock farmers are tasked to ensure that they report unusual behavior among their animals, as other known TADs like foot and mouth disease, contagious bovine, pleuropneumonia, lumpy skin disease, sheep and goat pox, peste des petits ruminants, African swine fever, rabies and brucellosis are equally as dangerous and needs to be tackled as soon as they are noticed. 

The message will be closely monitored by the members of the listening groups identified in the states, which include federal/state veterinary and animal husbandry officials, members of relevant interest groups, cattle breeders, farmers and owners as well as female pastoralists. 

Meanwhile, he disclosed that FAO in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development had sponsored some experts to destroy the remaining rinderpest specimen kept in some university laboratories in Sokoto and Borno States.

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Antidepressants During Pregnancy Could Lead To Depression In New Born Baby - Study

Scientists said taking antidepressants during pregnancy could harm the emotional development of the unborn child.

This is the findings of a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics. The researchers from The Columbia University found that those babies who were exposed in the womb to drugs such as Prozac and Seroxat had differences in both the gray and white matter of their brains.

 

Prozac and Seroxat are antidepressants. This included an increase in neurons – and the connections between them – in areas of the brain linked to feelings that could predispose them to anxiety and depression. While the gray matter is the emotional hub of the brain, the white matter controls feelings of anger, fear, disgust, happiness and sadness.

Antidepressants are drugs used for the treatment of major depressive disorder and other conditions, including dysthymia, anxiety disorders, obsessive–compulsive disorder, eating disorders, chronic pain, neuropathic pain and, in some cases, dysmenorrhoea, snoring, migraine, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Some medications including antidepressants are known to be harmful when taken during pregnancy. Based on this, the safety of most medications taken by pregnant women has been difficult to determine.

 

Prescriptions of antidepressants have soared in the US by 65 percent in the last 15 years. Hence, the general advice given to pregnant women is that medications in pregnancy should be prescribed by the medical doctor.

Known as SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), they are used to treat depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder as well as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Prescriptions for them in pregnancy have risen in recent years, despite the fact that the drugs’ effects on developing fetuses are poorly understood and evidence that they could be harmful is mounting. 

Lead author Dr. Claudia Lugo-Candelas, a psychiatrist at Columbia University, said the drugs boost production of serotonin in unborn babies’ brains – leading to abnormal development of the circuit between the amygdala and insular cortex.

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Cellgivity: Nature's Final Answer To Stroke

Stroke is one sickness that has defied orthodox medicine. It is a disease that has brougth pains and sorrows to many homes due to its chronic and highly devastating effect on the human body. in severe cases, the sufferer cannot perform ordinary activities except with the aid of a companion. the good news however is that stroke now has a natural cure. but before we go into how the disease is cured by natural, herbal therapy, let's look at what stroke really is.  A stroke happens when blood flow is occluded in a part of the brain. The lack of oxygen damages the brain cells that can have potentially disabling effects on the patient. 

A stroke is the disruption of oxygenated blood to the brain. There are two main types of stroke, ischaemic and haemorrhagic, while there is a third more minor stroke called transient ischaemic attack (TIA). An is chaemic stroke can be caused by a blood clot that formed in the heart and travelled  to the brain or by atherothrombosis.

  Haemorrhagic strokes, conversely are caused by a rupture in the blood vessels that causes bleeding within the brain.  

The signs and symptoms of stroke can vary from person to person and also depends on not only the size of the embolus but also the region of the brain that is being deprived of blood due to the blocked vessel.

The most common symptoms usually include:

1. Dizziness
2. A sudden and severe headache unlike any experienced before, especially if associated with neck stiffness
3. Blacking out
4. Sudden loss of vision
5. Difficulty in understanding what others are saying
6. Problems with balance and coordination
7. Difficulty swallowing
8. Numbness or weakness that can cause complete paralysis

Why Cellgivity is Effective in The Management and Cure of Stroke

Stroke comes as a result of damage to brain cells. But this damage can be reversed if a certain component of the cell (known as Gluthothione) can be implanted back into the cells.The body needs Gluthathione. Before we're even borne, our bodies create a molecule called gluthathione to defend against violent attackers like free radicals, chemical toxins and poor diet, and lack of sleep.

All over the world scientist and medical researchers have been searching for a perfect solution for the enhancement of Gluthathione in the human body and have provided little results until the RiboCeine technology was discrvered .

And this is where Cellgivity comes into the picture. Cellgivity contains Max's patented RiboCeine technology, a special blend  of D- Ribose and L- Cysteine, clinically proven to deliver cysteine effectively to the cell. D-Ribose is used by the cells to create energy, and L-Cysteine is an important building blocks used by the cells to create Gluthathione.

The overall effect of all this is that brain cells that were once damaged by the activities of stroke,  are now revived and brought back to there normal functions by the now enhanced Gluthathione powered by Riboceine. 

Testimonies opon testimonies have come on the wake of the introduction of the Cellgivity into the market. Rescently, the product came into the nigerian market and, due to its proven track record, NAFDAC wasted no time in giving its approval for the medication to be circulated in the country with Max International being its sole distributor.

Are you suffering from stroke or do you know of someone who is suffering from it? has the doctor told you there is no cure? dont worry. you can get your functions back to normal with Cellgivity. Call the agent of Max International on +2347031040178.

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How Mango, Banana, Plantain Cause Terminal Illnesses – Investigation

An extensive investigation carried out by a Nigerian based newspaper, Daily Trust, has shown that artificial ripening of fruits with calcium carbide has continued in the country exposing consumers to high risk of developing cancer, kidney and heart diseases.


Farmers and fruit dealers are in a hurry to meet the huge national demand for fruits especially mango, banana, plantain and oranges and as result they freely resort to the use of calcium carbide.
 

Calcium carbide is used in metal cutting and welding as such the consumption of fruits artificially ripened using this chemical compound can cause serious health problems.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) warned Nigerians recently to shun consumption of fruits ripened with calcium carbide.

However, our investigations across the country have revealed substantial application of the chemical to force-ripen fruits by farmers and fruit sellers.

Zuba International Fruit Market located along Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, and Mararaba - a densely populated suburb of Abuja under Nasarawa State - are the biggest fruits markets that supply the FCT.

These markets receive fruits supplies from all parts of the country - pineapple, pawpaw, banana/plantain from Edo, Ondo and Kwara; oranges, mangoes mainly from Benue and Nasarawa and watermelon mainly from the far northern.

At Zuba International Market, our reporters, who posed as fruit dealers discovered that it was hard to find fruits (mostly mangoes, oranges and bananas) that are free of calcium carbide in the market.

Posing as buyers, the reporters insisted on the ones that did not have carbide application, but were told that it was difficult to come by, except the few ones that grew in the wild.

One seller, who wouldn’t want his name mentioned, said the application of the chemical was done by the farmers or sellers.

The reporter spoke with six sellers, who confirmed the application of the chemicals on fruits and the evidence was all around them.

Daily Trust also found calcium carbide sellers that have positioned themselves strategically by the spots where fruits are sold to easily attract customers - mostly those buying unripe fruits to prepare for sale in Abuja city.

Two of the sellers told this reporter that most of the buyers in the markets are people using it to fast-ripe fruits they sold in the city.

A woman, Mrs James, who sells the chemicals where banana and plantain are sold said:  “It is a very dangerous chemical. It can kill human beings.”

Asked how she managed to keep her children safe from it, she said:” I don’t take it home. I keep it in the shop.”

Sharing the   knowledge of different techniques of application, Mrs James said it could be spread on the fruits and then washed or the chemical placed in the middle of the gathered fruits and properly covered and that this way the ripening will be fast tracked.

She however noted that the chemicals is widely used only on banana and mangoes, adding that she is not aware if some applied it to oranges and pawpaw.

Kaduna 

Malam Yunusa who sells fruits along Nnamdi Azikwe Express way, Kaduna said: “Banana are mostly ripened with heat because we hardly wait for them to get ripe naturally. If you pluck down the ripe branches of banana, before you get them to the market it will get rotten.

“The heat in the car that conveys the bananas to the market is what ripens it. Sometimes women use leather or nylon to cover the unripe banana for about three days to get it ripe.” 

He noted that, “For oranges, you don’t hide it or cover it before it ripe. Oranges are mostly plucked before they get ripe completely. If you allow them to ripe completely on the trees the moment they fall down, they get rotten before reaching the market.”

Asked if he was aware of the use of carbide to ripen fruits, he said, “I am not aware if other people use other method differently to ripen their fruits as for me I use only this method.”

Bello Idris Dallaji, a mango farmer said “What we usually do is to pluck the unripe mangoes down from the trees and cover them with their leaves at same spot for about four to fivedays. 

“Mangoes don’t like too much heat that is why we keep it in the open around the tree and cover them with the same leaves from the trees, although there are other people who add ashes to the leaves to make the mangoes get ripe quickly.” 

Kano

At Kano’s biggest fruit market situated at Na’ibawa Yan Lemo, investigation revealed that recently authorities of the market had drawn the attention of the state’s ministry of health on the alleged harmful ripen methods and also the sales of fruits ripened through the harmful methodologies.

According to a member of the market’s board of trustees, Alhaji Rabi’u Isah Yan Lemo, officials in the fruit’s market have deviced measures to tackle harmful ripening of fruits adding that, they are always at alert to bring to book any erring businessman found. 

Lagos

A panel beater, Mr Kamoru Hassan in Oshodi, Lagos said carbide is used in generating fire for welding. He said “It is a very poisonous and powerful item. It comes in various colours, sometimes white, silver or chocolate in colour. If mixed with oil, it stays strong as a stone for a whole year, if not; it melts into a powder-like substance in no time.”

The panel beater said he was aware of the use of carbide by fruit sellers, especially plantain and banana sellers to hasten the duration the fruit ripens. He however noted that if there was a cut on the fruits that was ripened with carbide, anyone consuming such would be consuming poison.

Consumers’ lives in danger

Reacting, Mr Jimoh Abubakar, spokesman of NAFDAC in a phone interview with our reporter, noted that using artificial ripening agent, calcium carbide, could cause kidney failure, liver cirrhosis and heart failure.

He said the carcinogenic substance is harmful to humans, which warranted NAFDAC to warn Nigerians of its negative consequences.

“We are not saying using calcium carbide is the single responsible factor for these ailments but it’s a contributory factor.

“Fruits are being eaten all over the country, so it’s been used everywhere because there are certain fruits that are seasonal in the North and some in the South, so people that don’t have patience quickly want to harvest and sell and make money,” Abubakar said.

He however advised Nigerians on signs to look out for in distinguishing artificially ripened fruits from naturally ripened ones.

Signs to look out for  

According to Abubakar, the ultimate way of detecting a fruit that has been artificially ripened using calcium carbide is by laboratory analysis, but that an ordinary person could distinguish artificially ripened fruits from naturally ripe ones by observing some brownish dark spots on naturally ripe fruits, which are absent on artificially ripened ones.

Secondly, he stated that, “Artificially ripened ones may have some powdery substances being left over because at times they don’t wash them very well. They are also smooth and glittery so those are just the simple ways.”

He pointed out that NAFDAC was sensitising the general public on the use of calcium carbide because it is killing people indirectly, adding that some of its users were using it out of ignorance.

“We are trying to alert all Nigerians; watch me I watch you. So by the time we are able to police the environment, those who are doing it will be pricked by their conscience and know they are doing something very bad,” he said. 

It can cause cancer – Expert

Dr Mustapha Bature, Clinical Mentor, Kebbi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, warned that consumption of fruits such as mango, banana, pawpaw and plantain, artificially ripen by Calcium Carbide could cause cancer.

When Daily Trust requested an interview with him, Bature referred our correspondent to an earlier explanation on the issue. He said fruits artificially ripened with calcium carbide are not good for consumption because such chemicals used in ripening the fruits contain radio-active elements, that can cause terminal illnesses.

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Study: Obesity Leads To Liver Damage In Children

A study published last Wednesday in the Journal of Pediatrics found overweight childhood can develop nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a condition often associated with obesity. It occurs when too much fat accumulates in the liver, causing inflammation, which leads to liver damage.

This condition affects an estimated 80 million people in the U.S. and several million across Africa, Nigeria inclusive. The disease is the most common chronic liver condition in children and adolescents, according to a press release from the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The study found the larger a child's waist circumference is at the age of 3 the more likely that by the age of 8 that child will have markers for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Dr. Jennifer Woo Baidal, lead author of the study and professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians, said in the press release there is little awareness of the link between obesity and liver disease.

"With the rise in childhood obesity, more kids are developing the disease, and we're seeing more in our practice," Woo Baidal said. "Many parents are aware that obesity can lead to type 2 diabetes and other serious metabolic conditions, but there is far less awareness of the link between obesity and liver disease."

The study measured levels of an enzyme called ALT – elevated levels are a marker for liver damage. Researchers took waist circumference measurements of 635 children at 3 years old and again at about 8 years old. By age 8, 23 percent of children had elevated ALT levels.

Children with a larger waist circumference at age 3, as well as those who had greater weight gain between the ages of 3 and 8 were more likely to have elevated ALT levels at age 8.
 

Thirty-five percent of 8-year-olds with obesity had elevated ALT compared with 20 percent of those with normal weight, according to the study.

While the disease is often without symptoms, if left untreated it can lead to cirrhosis and liver cancer.

The liver is responsible for making countless proteins, maintaining the body's metabolism and filtering out toxins from blood, and according to Woo Baidal, the only treatment for a failing liver is a transplant.

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Human Trials On New Cancer Vaccine To Begin Soon

The University of Helsinki, Finland, has developed a vaccine that can prevent and possibly cure cancer without any other form of treatment, including chemotherapy.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. “A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins.”

If all goes according to plan, the first human clinical trials for the vaccine will be run in South Africa, on Melanoma patients with triple negative breast cancer. Vaccine trial is considered very cheap in Africa and South Africa has remained a big industry for it.

Speaking more about the vaccine at the just-concluded Slush 2016, an annual global conference for start-ups and venture capitalists, the Director, Life Sciences, Helsinki Innovation Services, Dr. Milla Koistinaho, told The Guardian that the university required at least €6 million to commercialise the revolutionary drug.

She explained that about €3 million would probably come from Finnish government sources as a Research and Development (R & D) loan, while the remaining €3 million would come from equity funding.

Plans for the trial in Africa notwithstanding, there are concerns that the drug may only be affordable to the rich.

“Investors are really interested in funding the commercialisation of vaccine. Basically, we just founded the company and now we are talking to investors globally,’’ Koistinaho said. “We have had good discussions with investors in Asia, United States, in Europe and Finland. We expect that the first seed round will happen definitely in less than two months.”

Global interest in commercialising the vaccine may not be unconnected with the fact that in 2015, there were an estimated 17.5 million cancer cases around the globe and 8.7 million deaths, according to a new report from the Global Burden of Disease Cancer Collaboration published online by the JAMA Oncology.

 

Furthermore, statistics from the National Cancer Institute indicate that “The number of new cancer cases will rise to 22 million within the next two decades.

“While more than 60 per cent of the world’s new cancer cases occur in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, 70 per cent of the world’s cancer deaths also occur in these regions.”

Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The cancer cells grow and divide to create more cells and will eventually form a tumour.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide and estimates of its burden around the globe are vital for cancer control planning. There are more than 100 types of cancers. The treatment may include chemotherapy, radiation, and/or surgery.

Elaborating on the technological and scientific breakthrough, Koistinaho told The Guardian that “the vaccine was invented by a professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, the University of Helsinki. This project got its origin from an invention disclosure that the professor filed to the university two years ago.

“We first of all evaluated whether it was scientifically interesting and whether it was something that could be commercialised and the answer was yes. So we filed an application in 2014 and then attracted governmental commercialisation funding for this project for two years. Now this concept has been tested in several animal models with cancer and it was discovered that the technology cured the mice from cancer, so this is really a revolutionary treatment.”

She disclosed that the vaccine has not yet been tested on human, adding that “the company has now been permitted to exploit the technology further and the intellectual property has been transferred from the university to the Spinout, and now the Spinout is fund raising to enable starting the clinical trials in humans.

“Most probably, the first indications where we will try this technology in humans will be melanoma, in triple negative breast cancer. The plan is that most probably the first clinical trials, especially in melanoma patients will be run in South Africa.”

With regard to the rate of cure, Koistinaho said: “Basically this only cured mice so far, but the rates are remarkable. Typically, we have run animal experiments where first, the mice were inoculated with melanoma (a type of malignant cancer that develops from the pigment-containing cells known as melanocytes) cells and they created melanoma tumors and then we treated them with this technology and the tumors disappeared completely.”

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