IGIHE

Category: Health

  • Drug Abuse Causing More Mental Illnesses

    {{Mental illness cases are on the rise in the country most of which are directly linked to drug abuse as shown by reports from Mental Health Department in the Ministry of Health.}}

    The Ndera Neuropsychiatric Hospital has reportedly registered an increased number of patients with mental illness seeking services at the facility.

    Statistics provided by the Ministry of Health indicate that that mental illness cases have spiked from 440 in 2009 to over 994 cases in 2010.

    Reports also indicate that the Neuropsychiatric Hospital has received 1,099 cases of mental illness related to drug abuse representing about 8% of cases at the facility.

    The head of Mental Health Division at Rwanda Biomedical Centre, Dr. Yvonne Kayiteshonga, said 7.46% of the Rwandan youth are alcohol dependent with 4.88 % depending on tobacco while 2.54% of them are cannabis dependant.

    She has urged all stakeholders to play a role in combating the vice, noting that the biggest drug abusers in Rwanda are youth.

    {The Newtimes}

  • 42% of Ugandans Living with Malaria Parasite

    {{Experts have reported that about 42% of Ugandans are host to the malaria parasite, even though they do not show any signs of sickness..}}

    During the 2009 malaria indicator survey said tests showed that children under five years ranged from five per cent in Kampala to 63% in the Northern region.

    Dr Okul Albert Peter, the Malaria Control Programme manager in the Ministry of Health, Uganda, said that this is because Uganda has a high prevalence to malaria and in order for a person to fall sick, they need to have a high level of parasitamia.

    Even though there are many other causes of fever such as flu, pneumonia and meningitis among others, there is need for mass screening, testing and treatment.

    Dr Okul added that after treatment, getting rid of malaria would also call for confinement of people in a treated area to avoid re-infections.

    Transmission of malaria is high in 95 per cent of the country.
    Five per cent of highland areas have low malaria transmission, but in case of occurrence, it develops as an epidemic.

    Malaria cases are highest in parts of eastern Uganda such as Tororo, Busia, parts of Mbale and areas at the shores of Lake Kyoga.

    The Ministry of Health is now emphasising the use of a multi-pronged approach to fight malaria in Uganda.

    Dr Ruth Jane Aceng, the director general Health Services, recommended the use of mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying whose effect has been dramatic especially in northern Uganda.

    Minister for Health Ruhakana Rugunda said they are continuing with the distribution of 21 million mosquito nets countrywide. He said they hoped that there will be a 40-60 per cent reduction in infection.

    NV

  • Malnutrition Biggest Killer of African Children

    {{Sub-Saharan Africa is losing slightly above 1.5 million children under the age of five annually due to malnutrition, according to non-governmental organisation Save the Children.}}

    On June 8, thousands of people including Bill Gates gathered in Hyde Park for the Big IF London rally aimed at reversing the situation, estimated to cost two million lives of children under the age of five globally.

    The rally, a coalition of over 200 UK organisations, was campaigning for action by G8 leaders to eliminate hunger and save millions of lives.

    The campaign wanted the G8 leaders, during their June 18 meeting, to act on four issues that mean so many people do not get enough food.

    The issues were enough aid to stop children dying from hunger and help to the poorest families feed themselves and governments to stop big companies from dodging tax in poor countries.

    Others were farmers being forced off their land and growing crops to fuel cars as opposed to feeding people, as well as transparency by governments and big companies about their actions that stop people getting enough food.

    Speaking to media after the rally, Mr Gates said malnutrition is a huge problem because if a child does not get enough to eat, its chances of dying from disease were 10 times higher.

    “In the first two years, if a child doesn’t get enough to eat, the brain is not going to develop as fully as it otherwise could have,” he said.

    He added that even if that child survives, the ability to help oneself realise their potential and help their countries lift themselves out of poverty is diminished.

    “As we improve feeding, as we get the right nutrition to these kids, they will be more and more self-sufficient,” he said.

    According to Enough Food for Everyone: The Need for UK Action on Global Hunger report, published early this year, right now children’s lives around the world are being blighted by malnutrition.

    {{Water and sanitation}}

    By not getting the right nutrition, points out the report, children’s development is irreversibly stunted.

    The report says the world knows what works to stop this but like agriculture, the area has been overlooked in recent decades.

    According to the report, some of the solutions include health workers promoting exclusive breastfeeding and hand washing, children and pregnant women taking micronutrient supplements; access to clean water and sanitation and schools providing nutritious food.

    It is estimated that some countries lose two to three per cent of their potential GDP because of under-nutrition.

    According to the UK report, just $10 billion a year could provide a package of measures to improve nutrition that would reach all mothers and children who need help in the 36 countries, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, that carry 90% of the world’s undernourished children.

    Looking at the period of the UK G8 presidency overall, Ms Sol Oyuela, the spokesperson for the Enough Food for Everyone IF campaign, said the drive has helped put tackling hunger and the issues that drive it like malnutrition, tax evasion and land grabs at the centre of the G8 agenda.

    “We’ve made real progress, thanks to the millions of people who have supported the campaign, but there remains lots of unfinished business,” she said.

    The Nutrition for Growth event, which took place in London on June 8, pledged an additional $6.4 billion to tackle hunger.

    Another spokesperson for the campaign Brendan Cox, said the event was the turning point in tackling what is the biggest killer of children worldwide.

    “If the promises are delivered, they could save the lives of almost two million children – an historic breakthrough in the fight against hunger. We now need to ensure that donors stump up the cash as quickly as possible, hungry children can’t wait,” he said.

    Land grabs

    At the 3Ts (Taxes, Trade and Transparency) event on June 15, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced that all Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories were ready to sign the Multilateral Convention on Transparency Matters.

    Mr Cameron announced the 3Ts would be priorities during the two-day G8 Summit.

    Enough Food for Everyone official Jenny Ricks said Mr Cameron cleared a big obstacle to a clampdown on tax dodging by getting Britain’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories to sign up to share information with more countries.

    “This will help developing countries access more information and retain more of the money they are owed,” she said.

    The campaign drivers said they were pleased that land grabs were firmly put on the G8 agenda for the first time.

    “But far more is needed and the G8 needs to show it will really get to grips with the problem by regulating G8-based companies involved in land deals, and leading more ambitious global efforts to tackle land grabs.”

    With regard to agriculture, Ms Oyuela said G8 missed an opportunity to boost public investment in the small farmers that feed a third of the world’s population.

    “The expansion of the New Alliance is not the answer to decades of declining aid to agriculture. It urgently needs to reform further and faster to ensure it helps small-scale farmers, particularly women and respects land rights.”

    {{NMG}}

  • U.S. Embassy Kigali Donates Blood for Rwandan Hospitals

    {{U.S. Embassy staff, in conjunction with the Rwandan National Center for Blood Transfusion, collected 102 units of blood for use in Rwandan hospitals and clinics this week as part of their World Blood Donor Day celebration.}}

    U.S. Embassy Health Unit officials worked with clinicians from NCBT to collect the blood in the embassy’s multipurpose room June 19th. More than 100 American and Rwandan volunteers donated their blood for the cause.

    “Giving blood is an easy step everyone can take to help save a life,” said Deputy Chief of Mission Jessica Lapenn. “The U.S. Embassy is proud to work with the Rwandan National Center for Blood Transfusion to make sure Rwandan hospitals and clinics have the blood supplies they need.”

    The embassy’s blood donation drive helped celebrate World Blood Donor Day, which falls on June 14 of every year. The goal of World Blood Donor Day is for all countries to obtain 100% of their supplies of blood and blood products from voluntary unpaid blood donors by 2020.

    According to the World Health Organization, the need for blood and blood products is increasing every year, and many patients requiring life-saving transfusion do not have timely access to safe blood and blood products.

    Regular voluntary unpaid blood donors are the safest source of blood as there are fewer bloodborne infections among these donors than among people who give blood in exchange for money or who donate for family members in emergencies.

    Do you want to donate in Rwanda? Call the NCBT at 1011 (toll free in Rwanda) to find out how you can help save a life.

  • Scientists validate more herbal ‘cures’ for sickle cell anaemia

    {{Recent studies estimate that about 89 per cent of persons with sickle cell disorder (SCD) worldwide are in Africa, of which Nigeria alone constitutes 25 per cent. Europe has the least, 0.1 per cent, while the United States of America (USA), Asia and the Mediterranean have 3.5 per cent each.}}

    However, most current works on the development of specific therapy for sickle cell anaemia include the discovery of Hemoglobin modifiers, membrane modifiers and genetic modifiers among others.

    Several studies have shown that some of the orthodox modes of treatment of SCD include induction of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) using HydroxyUrea (HU), Butyrate or its derivatives, oral administration of Clotrimazole, which is a potent Gardos Channel inhibitor; blood transfusion and Haematopoetic cell Transplantation (HCT).

    Although, the successful use of HU was reported in children, however, side effects or poor drug efficacy of some of these agents poses problems for many patients. In addition, the high cost of HCT is hardly affordable by most sickle-cell disease patients in Nigeria and other developing countries.

    However, herbal medicines have come to the rescue. They are accessible and cheap. Nigerians were last year reassured by the Minister of State for Health, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, that the only Nigerian herbal drug that has received global acceptance and patents for treating sickle cell anaemia, NIPRISAN, developed by researchers at the Nigeria Institute of Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), will be back into the market after almost 10 years of stopping production due to property right and financial issues.

    Scientists especially those at NIPRD have continued to identify and validate new candidates.

    According to a recent study published in the journal Anaemia, three new anti-sickling herbs: Entandrophragma utile; Chenopodium ambrosioides; and Petiveria alliacea were reported in May 2011. At NIPRD, where NIPRISAN was developed, three other recipes are currently awaiting development.

    Entandrophragma utile is commonly called African cedar, Sapele mahogany, Ashanti cedar and is of the plant family Meliaceae.

    Commonly called Indian wormseed, sweet pigweed, Mexican tea, Jesuit’s tea, Chenopodium ambrosioides belongs to the plant family Chenopodiaceae. It is called ewe imí (leaf of excreter) in Yoruba.

    Petiveria alliacea is commonly called guinea-hen weed in English and ojú sajú in Yoruba.

    The study raised the hope that the search in the Tropics for more effective herbal recipes for managing sickle cell anaemia will be more fruitful with time and effort.

    The study is titled “Traditional Herbal Management of Sickle Cell Anemia: Lessons from Nigeria.”

    The researchers from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Quality Control, NIPRD, Abuja, and Department of Pharmaceutics & Medicinal Chemistry, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Amassoma, wrote: “Among the Efik and Ibibio, Hausa, Igbo, Idoma, and Yoruba: clove (Eugenia caryophyllata or “kanunfari” in Hausa; Piper guineense (“eche” in Idoma or “akwa-ose” in Igbo); grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta or “otuta” in Idoma); Sorghum bicolor (the leaf stalk yields an extract that looks like blood); Pterocarpus osun (common in the Yoruba state of Osun) are used in various health conditions, including sickle cell anemia.

    “As stated earlier E. caryophyllata, P. guineense, P. osun, and S. bicolor are the herbal components of the Yoruba recipe upon which the anti-sickling drug Niprisan is based. Prior to the era of Niprisan these herbs were either extracted with “ogogoro” (ethanolic distillate of palm wine) or with an aqueous solution trona (sodium sesquicarbonate—a mineral used in Nigeria as tenderizer). Niprisan has passed phases IIA and IIB, and is widely used in Nigeria, and is known or popular in India and the United States of America (USA).”

    In 2010, Swift of COSMID Corporation, USA, stated the following: “A dried extract of four plants has been used to treat patients with SCD in Nigeria for many years (NIPRISAN).

    It has been through multiple clinical trials in Nigeria and has been formally approved for use in that country since 2006 for the treatment of Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) has determined there is sufficient safety and efficacy data for NIPRISAN to start a Phase III clinical trial.

    The US FDA Botanical Review Team (BRT) suggested a simpler formulation of NIPRISAN, development of a chemical fingerprint for the formulation using LC/MS and elucidation of some of the anti-sickling compounds in the formulation would improve standardisation and increase the probability of obtaining FDA marketing approval.”

    The researchers said that to the best of their knowledge phase III trial of Niprisan is yet to be reported. “We did however suggest in 2011 that phytocannabinoids and vanilloids in E. caryophyllata and P. guineense may account for some of the useful effects of Niprisan in sickle cell crisis. Some of these compounds, including shikimic acid derivatives (vanilloids) and cannabinoids are indicated, respectively,” they wrote.

    This is the testimony of one of the American doctors: “Doctors in Nigeria use Fagara (Fagara zanthoxyloides) to reduce the painful crisis of the genetic disease, sickle cell anemia.

    This herb has a variety of unusual properties that reduce platelet and blood cell sticking. After reading the reports from Nigeria many years ago, I decided to try fagara’s relative prickly ash bark for the same indication.

    “I made a simple tincture of 50 per cent prickly ash bark and 50 per cent ginkgo leaf, and gave it to a young African-American girl in the first grade who constantly missed school and needed to be hospitalized three to four times per year due to the painful sickle cell crisis.

    I gave her about 25 drops three times a day. She immediately stopped having serious problems, her thinking was no longer fuzzy, the frequency of her attacks went down to about one per year, and the severity of the attacks decreased appreciably.

    This success has continued through the years, as long as she takes her medicine. I saw her last year, and she has blossomed into a beautiful junior high school student, the sickle cell disease now only a bit-player in the background of her life.

    {NgrGuardian}

  • Study Shows Tests can Detect Sexually-transmitted Cancers

    {{Antibodies to a high-risk type of a virus that causes mouth and throat cancers when transmitted via oral sex can be detected in blood tests many years before onset of the disease, according to a World Health Organisation-led team of researchers. }}

    In a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the researchers said their findings may in future lead to people being screened for human papillomavirus (HPV) antibodies, giving doctors a chance to find those at high risk of oral cancers.

    “Up to now, it was not known whether these antibodies were present in blood before the cancer became clinically detectable,” said Paul Brennan, of the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), who led the study and described the findings as “very encouraging”.

    “If these results are confirmed, future screening tools could be developed for early detection of the disease,” he said.

    While HPV is better known for causing cervical and other genital cancers, it is also responsible for an increasing number of cancers of the mouth and throat, particularly amongst men.

    The issue was highlighted earlier this month by Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, who said his throat cancer was caused by HPV transmitted through oral sex.

    Oral, head and neck cancers are traditionally associated with heavy smoking and alcohol consumption, but over the past few decades rates of the diseases have increased dramatically, especially in Europe and North America.

    Brennan said this is probably due to HPV infections because of changing sexual practices, such as an increase in oral sex.

    According to IARC data, about 30 percent of all oral cancers are estimated to be HPV-related, and the main type of HPV associated with these tumours is HPV16.

    {{Earlier Detection }}

    A study in the British Medical Journal in 2010 also found rates of head and neck cancer linked to HPV were rising rapidly, prompting calls from some doctors for boys as well as girls to be offered vaccinations to protect them against HPV.

    Two vaccines – Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, and Gardasil, made by Merck & Co – can prevent HPV.

    This new study, by scientists from IARC as well as the German Cancer Research Center and the U.S. National Cancer Institute, used data from a large study known as EPIC, which involves 500,000 people from 10 European countries who were recruited in the 1990s and have been followed up since.

    Researchers found that of the 135 people in the study who developed oral cancers, 47, or about one third of them, had HPV16 E6 antibodies up to 12 years before the onset of disease.

    In a telephone interview, Brennan said early detection would also allow doctors to track patients with antibodies and intervene early if tumours develop. “The earlier the detection, the better the treatment and the greater the survival,” he said.

    The antibody test used in the study was relatively simple and cheap and could be developed as a tool for more widespread screening within about five years if these results are confirmed in future studies, he added.

    He cautioned, however, that more work was needed to improve the tests’ accuracy, since in this research there were about 1 in 100 “false positives” – where a person with the HPV16 antibodies did not go on to develop an oral cancer.

    Brennan said another significant finding of the study was that patients with oral cancers linked to HPV16 were three times more likely to be alive five years after their diagnosis than oral cancer patients whose tumours were not HPV-related and may have been linked to other risks such as smoking or drinking.

    {Reuters}

  • Sick Algerian president appears on TV

    {{Algeria’s ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has made a rare television appearance from his hospital bed in France, following a stroke last month.}}

    The video shown on Wednesday of the 76-year-old Bouteflika was designed to stem rampant rumours in the capital Algiers and in Paris that he had been totally incapacitated, or worse.

    Viewers saw Bouteflika speaking during a visit in France on Tuesday with Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and the army chief of staff, General Gaid Salah. The guests bent to hear him.

    The left side of the president’s mouth appeared immobile as he ate pastry. He did not move his left hand placed on a chair arm at Les Invalides military compound where he was hospitalised.

    Bouteflika’s office waited until Tuesday to reveal he had suffered a full stroke.

    French media have been carrying increasingly grim reports about the leader’s condition, suggesting he will not be able to continue carrying out his duties.

    The Algerian government has been trying to reassure the public about the president’s health, issuing a bulletin saying the president’s doctors in Paris “recommended that he observe a period of convalescence and functional rehabilitation to consolidate his recovery”.

    It also said the stroke Bouteflika suffered on April 27 had “not affected his vital functions”, and that he had been transferred to the Val de Grace hospital in Paris for further tests.

    There is increasing speculation in Algeria that Bouteflika would not run for a fourth term in April 2014 as planned, possibly setting off a succession struggle in the oil-rich nation, Africa’s largest by area.

    Bouteflika rose to power in 1999, and was re-elected in 2004 and again in 2009, after changes to the constitution allowed him to stand for more than two terms.

    Prime Minister Sellal said the head of state had “responded very well and his health seemed fine”, adding that he had given detailed instructions on running the country.

    He said Bouteflika had instructed Sellal “to finalise the draft finance act for 2013 and all the other bills being considered by the government so that they are ready to be adopted at the next cabinet meeting”.

    Following the president’s stroke, calls have grown in the Algerian press for the application of Article 88 of the constitution, which provides for the transfer of power if the head of state falls seriously ill.

    {agencies}

  • Kids Facing Rising Cases of Kidney Failure: Experts

    {{Medical experts have alerted to the rising cases of chronic kidney disease in the nation’s children, which they blame on infections, diarrhoea, malaria, hepatitis, Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).}}

    They called for screening programmes, manpower training and improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic facilities to address the situation.

    In a recent study which has been accepted for publication by the Saudi Journal of Kidney Disease, the paediatricians from the Department of Paediatrics, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba, led by Prof. Afolabi Lesi and Dr. Taiwo Ladapo, noted that of all the children admitted over a four-year period (2008 to 2011) in LUTH, kidney disease accounted for 8.9 per cent of paediatric admissions with prevalence of 22.3 admissions per 1,000 child-admissions per year; and that yearly incidence doubled over the study period.

    The study is titled “Paediatric kidney diseases in an African country: Prevalence, Spectrum and Outcome.”

    The researchers noted that nephrotic syndrome, acute kidney injury (AKI) and nephroblastoma accounted for almost 70 per cent of admissions; and that the overall mortality rate was 12.6 per cent with AKI being the leading cause.

    They observed that the prevalence of AKI was higher than that reported from other parts of the country; late presentation, inadequate diagnostic and therapeutic facilities and financial constraint negatively impacted outcome; and disease-specific prevalence varied between geographic sections.

    Nephrotic syndrome is caused by different disorders that damage the kidneys. This damage leads to the release of too much protein in the urine.

    Nephroblastoma or Wilms’ tumor is cancer of the kidneys that typically occurs in children, rarely in adults.

    The researchers in an earlier study published in the December 2012 edition of the journal PLOS ONE concluded: “Acute kidney injury is common in children admitted to hospitals. The common causes remain primary kidney diseases, sepsis and malaria but the contribution of sepsis is rising while malaria and gastroenteritis are declining. Acute kidney injury-related mortality remains high.”

    The results of the study titled “Paediatric Acute Kidney Injury in a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria: Prevalence, Causes and Mortality Rate” showed that of the 4,015 children admitted into LUTH between July 2010 and July 2012, 70 episodes of AKI were recorded, equalling 17.4 cases per 1,000 children.

    The researchers found, among other things, that: the median age of the children with AKI was 4.8 (range 0.1–14.4) years and 68.6 per cent were males. Acute kidney injury was present in 58 (82.9 per cent) children at admission with 70 per cent in ‘failure’ category; primary kidney disease (38.6 per cent), sepsis (25.7 per cent) and malaria (11.4 per cent) were the commonest causes; the primary kidney diseases were acute glomerulonephritis (11) and nephrotic syndrome (eight); 19 (28.4 per cent) children with AKI died; need for dialysis was associated with death.

    Glomerulonephritis may be caused by problems with the body’s immune system. Often, the exact cause of glomerulonephritis is unknown. Damage to the glomeruli causes blood and protein to be lost in the urine. The condition may develop quickly, and kidney function is lost within weeks or months (called rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis).

    Glomeruli (glomerulus is singular) are tiny tufts of capillaries, which carry and filter blood within the kidneys. A quarter of people with chronic glomerulonephritis have no history of kidney disease.

    Ladapo in an exclusive interview with The Guardian said the first dialysis section for children with chronic kidney disease costs about N40,000 to N50,000 for one and subsequently the child should have it three times a week at the cost of about N20,000 per session.

    Another study published in the January 2013 edition of the Saudi Journal of Kidney Disease and Transplantation concluded that the prevalence of renal disease in Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART)-treated Nigerian children is high and the majority of those with the disease, although asymptomatic, were at the advanced stages of HIV infection.

    The researchers from the Department of Child Health, University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, wrote: “It is therefore important that early detection of renal damage, in the asymptomatic stage, is made in order to institute measures early, which may reverse or slow down the progression of kidney disease to End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). This may be the most significant preventive strategy, especially as facilities for renal replacement care are limited and expensive in resource-poor countries.”

    According to the President-elect, Nigerian Association of Nephrology and Chief Medical Director at St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos, Dr. Ebun Bamgboye, 36.8 million Nigerians (23 per cent) are suffering from various stages of kidney disease.

    With this figure, it means that one in seven Nigerians is suffering from some form of kidney disorder.

    Bamgboye, who disclosed this at an awareness programme organised by the hospital to mark this year’s World Kidney Day in March 2013, regretted that despite the severity of the disease, Nigerian patients are faced with many challenges in terms of treatment.

    Bamgboye lamented the burden of the disease, noting that an estimated 15,000 new patients are diagnosed every year in the country.

    He said: “Chronic kidney disease prevalence is a problem in our environment. Estimates suggest that one out of every seven Nigerians has one stage of chronic kidney disease. Unfortunately, out of 50,000 patients who should ideally be on dialysis, less than 1,000 are currently on dialysis as at today.

    “Unfortunately, if you have kidney failure and you don’t do dialysis or transplant within two weeks, you will die. You can imagine the number of people that are dying every day because of kidney disease.”

    Reacting to questions from The Guardian, Ladapo who is the joint leader of the team of researchers from LUTH said: “Kidney disease unlike what most people believe are real in children. Many people wonder whether kidney disease is also found in children? Does it affect children? Very much so. I am coming down from the ward now. I am late for this interview because of a child with kidney disease. We are beginning to see kidney disease more in children.

    “There is a paper I will send to you, which has been accepted for publication by the Saudi Journal of Kidney Disease this year. Kidney diseases are on the increase in children. Unfortunately, one of the conditions most expensive to treat are kidney diseases and there is nowhere in the world, very few countries in the world do people pay out of pocket. I cannot afford it. You have a lot of government support for children on dialysis, you have a lot of private sector support.

    “One of the things we are trying to do is to raise awareness about the increase in kidney disease in children and also raise support for children who need dialysis. When I leave here now, I am going to start dialysis in a child. There is another child that started dialysis last week. This child has chronic kidney disease. The first dialysis section costs about N40,000 to N50,000 for one and subsequently this child should have it three times a week at the cost of about N20,000 per session and the mother is a trader and you know they are indigent.”

    On why more children are turning up with chronic kidney diseases, he said: “The reasons are many. Some children are born with abnormality of the kidney tract that is not detected on time and it affects the kidneys. For some, it is not known. Some infectious diseases affect kidney functions in children such as hepatitis. Also, other conditions like nephrotic syndrome, which if not well treated, can cause kidney disease.

    “You also have acute kidney injury that is acute renal failure, children coming down with malaria, infection, different kinds of infection such as bacteria infection, pneumococcal infection. Then you have diarrhoea, they come in, they have diarrhoea and have been passing stool and the body fluid is not being replaced, the kidney shuts down.

    “If the kidney is not getting enough fluid, it shuts down. Infections also affect the kidney. We are really trying to raise awareness and raise help for children with kidney disease. We have increased our dialysis services. The hospital has been very supportive and now we have two nephrologists on ground and we are trying to boost our services.”

    On adults having kidney diseases, he said: “One of the reasons why we are beginning to cry out is that there have been studies done in the developed world and they have found out that some of these diseases actually start in childhood but they are misdiagnosed. So, by the time they are young adults, they are already in chronic or end stage meanwhile the problem started long ago.

    “What is being done in developed world for example is that they do school screening. Simple checking of the urine of school children for protein can help detect some children with kidney disease. In developed world, there are screening programmes that pick up these diseases early.

    “We don’t have such in Nigeria; nobody is screening anybody for anything. Nigeria is a country that has infectious disease as a main issue. So, you have infections that may affect the kidney then hypertension, diabetes are on the increase. But some have been shown to actually start from childhood.”

    On the statistics of children diagnosed with kidney disease at LUTH, he said: “The statistics vary widely even in Nigeria because the criteria used in different studies are not the same. It is difficult to do a synopsis of the studies. Some people look at only children that were seen at the emergency room, some look at those on admission, some look at everybody. So, it is difficult to say.

    For example, in a study we just published here, we found out that 8.9 per cent of children on admissions over a five-year period was due to kidney disease.”

    NgrGuadian

  • Rwanda Military Hospital & King Faysal Hospital to Share Expertise

    {{Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH) and King Faysal Hospital (KFH) Rwanda signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to allow exchange of expertise in ensuring continuity of quality health care to patients.}}

    The signing ceremony happened on 12 June 2013 at King Faycal Hospital between the Commandant of RMH and the Acting CEO of KFH.

    “This MoU is aimed at ensuring continuity of quality care to patients through exchange of expertise. This is a win-win scenario”, said Col Dr Ben Karenzi, the Commandant of Rwanda Military Hospital.

    Prof Rwamasirabo, the acting CEO of KFH, told the media that the MoU signed will focus mainly on exchange of expertise in various specialties, clinical and support cooperation, education, training and research, sharing facility and equipment, cooperation and collaboration between departments (department twining), quality assurance accreditation process among others.

    He noted that the MoU is formalising the existing mutual collaboration between the two Hospitals.

    The MoU will enable the medical staff of both Hospitals to work on part time basis in either of the two Institutions to avail the expertise needed in the healthcare of patients.

    The signing ceremony of the Memorandum was witnessed by the Staff of both Hospitals.

  • Obama Administration to Drop Limits on Morning-after pill

    {{The Obama administration will scrap age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraception pills, making the morning-after pill available to women and girls without a prescription.}}

    The U.S. Department of Justice said in a letter on Monday that it would comply with a court’s ruling to allow unrestricted sales of Plan B One-Step, withdrawing its appeal on the matter.

    The move closes a battle over the pill that has lasted over a decade, but could raise new controversy for President Barack Obama.

    Until recently, the pill was only available without a prescription to women 17 and older who presented proof of age at a pharmacist’s counter.

    Critics say unfettered access could lead to promiscuity, sexual abuse and fewer important doctor visits if readily available for purchase.

    Advocates for such emergency pills say they help reduce unwanted pregnancies or abortions and that quick access for women of all ages is critical for the medicines to work. The pill is most effective when taken within 72 hours of intercourse.