Category: Health

{{If you’re embarrassed that you’re popping the blue pill for medical reasons or simply for more of that “oomph” in the bedroom, and would rather purchase Viagra (Sildenafil Citrate) in the comfort and privacy of your computer via the Internet, think again.}}

A study published in the November edition of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers highlight a growing problem, counterfeit medication, specifically Viagra.

Researchers procured Viagra tablets from websites that did not require a prescription or a health screening survey for purchase.

Of the sample tablets examined, 77 per cent were counterfeit, 18 per cent were authentic and 1 per cent was of an illegal generic.

Notably, the four internet pharmacies claiming to be Canadian did not ship from Canada.

So how can consumers tell that their purchased Viagra is really the real deal?

Common to the counterfeit sample tablets, packages lacked product information leaflets, including appropriate safety warning, and genuine Viagra formulations.

However, medical professionals warn that if purchasing Viagra via the Internet is a must, then caution should be practiced.

{Source: Campbell N, Clark JP, Stecher VJ, and Goldstein I. Internet-ordered Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is rarely genuine. J Sex Med 2012;9:2943–2951.}

{{Family medicine is the medical specialty which provides continuing, comprehensive health care for the individual and the family.

It is a specialty in breadth that integrates the biological, clinical and behavioral sciences. }}

The scope of family medicine encompasses all ages, both sexes, each organ system and every disease entity.

The concept of the specially trained Family and Community Physician to deliver high quality primary health care is now the norm in most countries of the world.

Although Family Medicine is a post-graduate specialty which is active and well recognized in much of the world, and forms the backbone of the health system of many Western countries (such as the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Canada, United States), it is still developing in many African countries.

In Rwanda, the Ministry of Health recognized that the health and well-being of a population is still dependent on high quality primary health care, which is easily accessible to all members of that population; requested to start the family medicine program in 2006.

The Family and Community Medicine (FAMCO) was started in August 2008 as a full time Master program in National University of Rwanda.
The University of Colorado in USA helped to develop and monitor the training.

The FAMCO training focuses on training medical doctors in the primary health care setting; based in the district hospitals with outreach to the health centres (almost 85% of Rwandan population get the health care at the community and the district level).

The first group of six Family Physicians graduated from the National University of Rwanda In October 2012.

The Rwandan Family Physician is supposed to provide comprehensive, continuous, person-centered, cost effective and district-based high quality health care, with the vision of improving the total health of individuals and families, which is a major element in the overall socio-economic development of Rwanda.

To enhance the Family Medicine practice, The Rwanda Family Medicine Association (RFMA) was created in June 2011, an Association which aims and objectives are to unit, to provide advice and spokesmen to all its members; to strengthen the position and unanimity of the Family Medicine profession in Rwanda.

Dr KABERA René

Family Physician/RFMA

Twitter:@KaberaRene

Email:renekabera@yahoo.fr

{{Members of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) have citied irregularities in the implementation of the health insurance scheme, Mutuelle de Sante. }}

Appearing before the Committee this week, the minister of health, Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, was informed that some medical personnel ask the scheme’s subscribers to come along with their own equipment when seeking medical help in public hospitals.

The revelations were made during the minister’s appearance before the Committee to explain issues in a special value-for-money audit report of the health insurance scheme for 2009-2010.

The lawmakers, who said they witnessed such incidents, said that even though Rwanda’s health system was considered a global model, it did not mean that there were no challenges.

Hon. Jean Baptiste Musemakweli said: “The minister has told us that there are enough medical equipment and drugs, but recently, I visited a patient at CHUK who was set to undergo surgery and I found out that the doctors were requesting for many things from the patient, including various surgical utensils.

“I got a bit uncomfortable. I wondered whether that was the practice every other day or simply an isolated incident. I asked around and I was informed that when one is going to be operated on, they are required to bring their own equipment.

“Minister, you probably do not know about it, but it is happening. Patients are being asked to come with their own surgical material.”

PAC Chairperson Juvenal Nkusi also weighed in, stressing the need for more improvement in the functioning of the scheme.

“Many things have been mentioned about Mutuelle, but let’s also consider the manner in which patients are received during the process of transfers. The service is not good. And honourable minister, these are things we have seen with our own eyes.

{NewTimes}

{{Activated charcoal, also known as Gas Black, is a fine black, odourless, tasteless, inert powder, produced by burning non-poisonous wood or other material into charcoal under high temperature and a controlled environment.}}

Activated charcoal can be taken internally as powder: one tablespoon mixed in a glass of water for an adult; or one teaspoon in half a glass of water for a child. It can also be taken as capsules and tablets.

Also, activated charcoal can be used externally when the powder is mixed with water or lime or lemon juice and then applied as poultices, plasters or compresses on swellings, boils and sores.

Activated charcoal is available in the health and pharmaceutical shops as powders, tablets, capsules, etc., and are usually without prescription.

However, for home use, a great number of items can be used in making charcoal, e.g. coconut shells, corn cobs, woods from any non-poisonous trees such as mango, guava, mahogany, eucalyptus, and many others. Some people use bones of animals to prepare charcoal.

Wood charcoal is made by simply burning the wood (without enough air) and putting off the fire with water to obtain the charcoal (without turning into ash). This is then dried and ground into charcoal powder, and can be used as activated charcoal. It has indefinite shelf life.

{{Chemistry/Properties:}}

Activated charcoal is a miracle substance and the world’s strongest absorbent, used in medicine, toxicology, chemistry, industry, and the military.

Charcoal powder has tremendous absorptive capacities. It is capable of absorbing, taking up or binding ((rapidly within a minute) many toxic substances – gases, toxins, drugs, heavy metals and particles from the gastrointestinal tract and from the blood.

These noxious substances together with the activated charcoal that absorbs them are then excreted safely with faeces.

The charcoal’s high adsorptive capacity (it can absorb substances up to about 300-350 times its own weight) is due to its high porosity, honeycomb-like internal structure and large surface area that can entrap, hold or bind and neutralize harmful substances irrespective of the source. Therefore, activated charcoal is a valuable antidote and an effective detoxifying agent for systemic poisoning.

{{Therapeutic uses:}}

Treatment of poisons and drug overdoses.

Children, especially infants and toddlers often accidentally overdose on drugs or inhale toxic household products, which they may mistake for sweets, candies or drinks.

Also, in deliberate attempt to commit suicide or mistaken drug overdose.

In these conditions activated charcoal may be given repeatedly – as one of the most effective poison antidotes.

Activated charcoal, when taken orally, helps to bind, neutralize and eliminate the irritating toxic substance(s) from the entire gastrointestinal (digestive) system and from the blood. In this way charcoal stops the spread of the toxins throughout the body.

For this purpose, activated charcoal is usually recommended to always be available in First Aid Box at home.

{{Detoxifications:}}

An occasional oral intake of activated charcoal with plenty of water on an empty stomach (one week in a month) is often considered as preventive detoxification therapy. Also, activated charcoal is given to a patient to help cleanse the blood after a heavy antimicrobial therapy.

The charcoal binds and neutralizes the harmful bacterial toxins or the by-products of the drugs released into the blood during the infections.

{{Cancerous growths:}}

In the alternative treatment of cancerous growths, charcoal is mixed with Aloe powder and molasses and administered orally to help in removing toxins from the blood and the digestive system.

Also, activated charcoal powder is applied as poultice (charcoal powder made in the form of paste) on malignant sores to help cleanse the sores and remove the offensive odour.

Douching with a solution made with two tablespoons of activated charcoal powder and a quart of water helps to remove the offensive odour of the inoperable cancer of the cervix.

Activated Charcoal is a safe and effective remedy for the following gastrointestinal problems:

Nausea and vomiting, indigestion and acid reflux (heartburn), bloating and malodorous intestinal gas (flatulence), frequent bowel movement (diarrhoea), stomach discomfort, peptic ulcer (relieves the symptoms), bad breath (halitosis) due to intestinal disorders and dental infections, diseases of the bowels (irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, crohn’s disease),

high level of blood lipids (lowers high blood cholesterols and triglycerides), liver problems including hepatitis and the associated jaundice, liver cancer, jaundice in the newborn or neonatal jaundice, kidney diseases with high urea and creatinine levels (to lower and remove these nitrogen-containing compounds).

For these conditions, charcoal is usually taken after meals or at the first sign of discomfort, and the normal dosage is taken with a full glass of water.

{{Side Effects:}}

No side-effects resulting from long-term use of activated charcoal has been recorded so far. However, charcoal should not be taken with any other medicine. Charcoal should be taken at least 2 hours before or 1 hour after any other medicine. It may bind to other drugs, multiminerals and multivitamins and reduces their effectiveness.

Large doses of charcoal may give rise to constipation. Should this happen, the patients are usually advised to take mild herbal laxatives.

The oral intake of charcoal causes feacal matter to turn black and this is not a side-effect.

{{External Uses of Charcoal:}}

Activated charcoal powder is applied as poultice on the skin to reduce inflammation due to insect, scorpion or snake bites —- for up to 6 hours to help draw out any poison injected into the body through the bite.

Also, a paste made by mixing equal parts of activated charcoal and flaxseed and hot water could be applied as poultice on infected wounds, cancerous sores, diabetic ulcers, cellulites, gout, etc., to help remove pains and toxins.

{{None-medical uses of charcoal:}}

Activated charcoal could be placed in a car booth, refrigerator or freezer, kitchen, etc., that emits persistent bad odour -— for up to 12 hours to effectively remove the unwanted odour.

The charcoal can be reused for as long as possible after moderately heating the charcoal in an oven. The heating deodourizes the charcoal again.

{Published in The Guardian-Nigeria}

{{Gahini Hospital in Kayonza District of Eastern Province has acquired an eco-friendly waste incinerator valued at US$120,000.}}

The modern Incinerator was donated by Ministry of Health in collaboration with United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Alphonsina Mukamunana from the Ministry of Health, said the bio-medical waste management plant that is capable of destroying about 15 kg of waste every 15 minutes would facilitate waste disposal at the health institution in an environment-friendly manner.

She explained, “This is one of the most modern incinerators with the ability to burn even expired drugs and to diffuse pollution.”

{{Women who give up smoking by the age of 30 will almost completely avoid the risks of dying early from tobacco-related diseases, according to a study of more than a million women in the UK.}}

The results, published in the Lancet, showed lifelong smokers died a decade earlier than those who never started.

But those who stopped by 30 lost, on average, a month of life and if they stopped by 40 they died a year younger.

Health experts said this was not a licence for the young to smoke.

The study followed the first generation of women to start smoking during the 1950s and 60s. As women started smoking on a large scale much later than men, the impact of a lifetime of cigarettes has only just been analysed for women.

“What we’ve shown is that if women smoke like men, they die like men,” said lead researcher Prof Sir Richard Peto, from Oxford University.

He told the BBC: “More than half of women who smoke and keep on smoking will get killed by tobacco.

“Stopping works, amazingly well actually. Smoking kills, stopping works and the earlier you stop the better.”

{{The Head of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Unyuzumutima Juliette at CHUK said that before establishing the only Pediatric Intensive Care Unit ( PICU), CHUK had been transferring patients to other hospitals with advanced equipment.}}

“Before the Unit was established, it was not easy to afford pediatric medical services for some patients”, explained Unyuzumutima.

The Belgium Development Agency (BTC) through Institutional Support Program to the Conception and Implementation of a Strategic Health Development Plan for Kigali City (PAPSDSK) donated a Monitor, electrical pump, emergency equipment and a complete laboratory to care closely the patients and that will reduce infant mortality death.

{{Rwanda is recording a rise in cases of breast cancer.

According to the division in charge of fighting Non Communicable Diseases at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), since 2009 the cases have increased.}}

Dr Leonard Kayonde, Director of Cancer Diseases Unit said though the prevalence of breast cancer is still unknown, there are cases that have been reported, and documented.

“There 66 cases in 2009, 79 cases were reported; in 2010 and 103 cases of breast cancer were recorded in 2011,” he said.

Medics have not established the real cause of cancer but there are risk factors that cannot be prevented; aging, genetic risk factors (inherited), family history, personal history and menstrual cycle, among others.

However, there are lifestyle risks which individuals can avoid in order to prevent breast cancer like oral contraceptive use, hormone replacement therapy, alcohol use, obesity, high fat diets, physical inactivity, and smoking among others.

Oda Nsabimana a cancer survivor and a mother of four had the risk factor of age but up to now she is not aware of what caused breast cancer.

“By then I was 41 years of age and I had stopped breast feeding my baby five months ago. I touched my breast and I felt a small swelling, I immediately had to visit the doctor,” she said adding the subsequent test proved she had the disease.

The world has dedicated October as month for cancer awareness and several activities are being done in different parts of the world.

In Rwanda, in observance of the month, awareness/fund raising event has been organised for Sunday, October 28, a walk aimed at raising awareness for breast cancer. “Ulinzi Walk” has been also organised on the same day to be followed by discussions, breast self examination demonstration, and health exercises.

“In regards with screening we carry out Clinical Breast Exam (CBE) performed by community health workers, and other providers, primarily at the health centre level,” said Kayonde, explaining the purpose of the campaign.

NewTimes