Category: Health

{{The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the world’s deadliest to date. According to the UN, 729 people have died as health officials in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone struggle to control the virus.}}

{{What is Ebola?}}

Ebola is a viral illness of which the initial symptoms can include a sudden fever, intense weakness, muscle pain and a sore throat, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). And that is just the beginning: subsequent stages are vomiting, diarrhoea and – in some cases – both internal and external bleeding.

The disease infects humans through close contact with infected animals, including chimpanzees, fruit bats and forest antelope.

It then spreads between humans by direct contact with infected blood, bodily fluids or organs, or indirectly through contact with contaminated environments. Even funerals of Ebola victims can be a risk, if mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased.

The incubation period can last from two days to three weeks, and diagnosis is difficult. The human disease has so far been mostly limited to Africa, although one strain has cropped up in the Philippines.

Healthcare workers are at risk if they treat patients without taking the right precautions to avoid infection.

People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus – in some cases, up to seven weeks after they recover.

{{Where does it strike?}}
Ebola outbreaks occur primarily in remote villages in Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests, says the WHO.

{Bushmeat – from animals such as bats, antelopes, porcupines and monkeys – is a prized delicacy in much of West Africa but can also be a source of Ebola}

It was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 since when it has affected countries further east, including Uganda and Sudan. This outbreak is unusual because it started in Guinea, which has never before been affected, and is spreading to urban areas.

From Nzerekore, a remote area of south-eastern Guinea, the virus has spread to the capital, Conakry, and neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone.

A man who flew from Liberia to Lagos in July was quarantined on his arrival and later died of Ebola – the first case in Nigeria.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says the outbreak is “unprecedented” in the way the cases were scattered in multiple locations across Guinea, hundreds of kilometres apart, and says it is a “race against time” to check people who come into contact with sick people.

{{What precautions should you take?}}

Avoid contact with Ebola patients and their bodily fluids, the WHO advises. Do not touch anything – such as shared towels – which could have become contaminated in a public place.

{Washing hands and improving hygiene is one of the best ways to fight the virus}

Carers should wear gloves and protective equipment, such as masks, and wash their hands regularly.

The WHO also warns against consuming raw bushmeat and any contact with infected bats or monkeys and apes. Fruit bats in particular are considered a delicacy in the area of Guinea where the outbreak started.

In March, Liberia’s health minister advised people to stop having sex, in addition to existing advice not to shake hands or kiss. A BBC reporter in the Liberian capital Monrovia says that public awareness campaigns around Ebola have been stepped up following the death in July of renowned Liberian doctor Samuel Brisbane.

Liberia has now closed schools, most of its border crossings and communities hit by an Ebola outbreak face quarantine to try to halt the spread of the virus.

The doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against the virus has also died, prompting the country’s president to declare a public health emergency.

West African airliner Asky and Nigeria’s Arik Air have suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone and more stringent screening is being put in place at some airports. When the outbreak first began, Senegal closed its border with Guinea.

Fighting the fear and stigmatisation surrounding Ebola is one of the greatest challenges health workers face.

{agencies}

The head of the World Health Organization and leaders of West African nations affected by the Ebola outbreak are to announce a new $100m (£59m; 75m euro) response plan.

They are meeting in Guinea to launch the initiative to tackle a virus which has claimed 729 lives.

Sierra Leone has declared an emergency after 233 people died there.

Ebola spreads by contact with infected blood, bodily fluids, organs – or contaminated environments.

Initial flu-like symptoms can lead to external haemorrhaging from areas like eyes and gums, and internal bleeding which can lead to organ failure.

Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, with patients having a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

WHO Director General Margaret Chan is meeting West African presidents in the Guinean capital Conakry.

“The scale of the Ebola outbreak, and the persistent threat it poses, requires WHO and Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to take the response to a new level, and this will require increased resources, in-country medical expertise, regional preparedness and coordination,” she said in a statement released on the WHO website on Thursday.

“The countries have identified what they need, and WHO is reaching out to the international community to drive the response plan forward.”

Key elements of the WHO’s new plan are:

Stopping transmission in the affected countries through “scaling up effective, evidence-based outbreak control measures”

Preventing the spread of Ebola to “the neighbouring at-risk countries through strengthening epidemic preparedness and response measures”

The response builds upon a previous plan that called for several hundred more personnel to be deployed to the region.

The WHO says that the scale of the ongoing outbreak is “unprecedented”, with about 1,323 confirmed and suspected cases reported in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since March 2014.

{wirestory}

{{Diet! Exercise! Obesity! Diabetes! What come to your mind when you hear those words? Do you get a sentiment of a complete detachment like you are not concerned at all? }}

“Diabetes, that’s absurd! How on earth could I possibly have it?” you are probably uttering.

Well, I have to confess that’s how I personally think. But what if this alleged idea of being almost immune to this threat was just nothing else but a pure utopia? The truth is; we should reconsider our positions.

In the last decade, Diabetes was so rare in Rwanda that a physician had to think twice before confirming it. Although no national prevalence study has been conducted so far, now it appears to be on rise.

Speaking from their several years of experience, physicians often declare that the number of admitted patients due to diabetes or its complications is increasing.
“There are 760 youth who are diabetic in Rwanda and these are the ones we know of from 21 hospitals.

This implies that the number is actually much bigger than this.” cautioned Francois Gishoma, Chairman of The Rwandan Diabetes Association in his address on the 2012 World Diabetes Day.

Prediabetics make up 40% of U.S population (Marc, 7-13). As our health system is getting better and better, communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, pneumonia… will be fading away to let the way to non communicable and chronic ones including diabetes.

In other words; our population will be more and more resembling that of a developed world and this turn is unfortunately an unpreventable curse. The need of raising its awareness among our people is quite palpable.

To start off, let have a good appreciation of some basic terms and concepts. Diabetes is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism in which sugars in the body are not oxidized to produce energy and therefore accumulate in the blood.

Evidenced by the detection of glucose higher or equal to 126 mg/dl on 2 occasions after fasting for 6 hours, it can be attested as well by a random glucose higher or equal to 200 mg/dl on 2 occasions without fasting and also HbA1c(a glycated haemoglobin form) level higher or equal to 6.5% (7-13).

Insulin is a protein hormone, produced in the pancreas by the beta cells of the islets of Langerhans, that is important for regulating the amount of blood sugar.

A prediabetic is someone on the verge of becoming diabetic; his blood sugar is higher than normal but has not yet frank diabetes.

Studies show that in this population; only diet and exercise can halt the progression in 58% of them, while the rest will be compelled to take medications like metformin or thiazolidinediones (7-13).

Diabetes can be easily assorted into 4 categories; type 1, type 2, Mature-Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY) and Diabetes due to secondary causes. The type 1 has usually its onset in childhood but can occur throughout adulthood.

It causes a destruction of islet cells leading to an absolute insulin deficiency. In contrast to type 1, type 2 diabetes has a relative insulin deficiency and occurs generally later in life. Obese, sedentary and people with positive family history are prone to develop this type.

The MODY form is due to defects in insulin secretion genes. From pregnancy, endocrinopathies, to medications like protease inhibitors or atypical antipsychotics; the list of secondary causes of diabetes is pretty long.

Though sometimes asymptomatic, diabetes presents with polyphagia (gluttonous excessive eating), polydipsia (abnormally intense thirst), polyuria (the production of large volumes of urine) and unexplained weight loss.

It can be complicated into blindness, renal failure and peripheral sensory loss resulting into an amputation.

To cut a long story short, because many cases are of type 2, it is about the time we make sure we eat healthy; avoiding too much sugar and exercise on daily basis.

Owing to its disastrous complications, the patient should have a good adherence to medications, stick to the assigned diet plan and respect various checkups with his physician.

If on insulin, patients should be aware of the fact that the amount they take has not necessary to be the same rather is individualized according to everyone’s sugar tolerance.