WHO says 'extreme vigilance' needed in exit from lockdowns

The World Health Organization (WHO) has hailed dwindling COVID-19 infection rates and deaths in some countries, but called on nations to show "extreme vigilance" as they begin loosening restrictions.     Swathes of Europe began the long process of reopening from coronavirus lockdowns on Monday, with officials in countries like France and Spain emboldened by declining death rates. Germany earlier reported an acceleration in new...

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How to prevent depression

Depression: let’s talk and details the tips to treat the monster in adults (over 60s), women of childbearing age, adolescents and young adults.The life changes that come with ageing, childbirth or adolescence can lead to depression. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), depression is an illness characterised by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy. This is accompanied by an inability to carry...

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Rotary holds family health programme

Rotary International, District 9110, comprising Ogun and Lagos states, has held the fifth edition of its Family Health Week. To mark the occasion, various clubs engaged in projects to promote healthy living and lifestyles of individuals .The 25-member Rotary Club of Lagos Central took its philanthropic gestures to markets and other areas such as CMS, Ikoyi, and Lagos Island.The flag-off of the two-day project saw consultations with nurses, and the demonstration of the use of protective items.Other programmes were family counselling, male and female...

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Hypertension-: How to tame the silent killer

In my youth, living in the midst of my family in those days, frightening stories of a mysterious and unseen killer used to be told. It often goes thus: a supposedly healthy individual, be it female or male had in a typical night retired to bed. Prior to going to sleep, he or she may have had an altercation with a neighbour. In the alternative, he or she may be perfectly well and just returned from the farm or local market, had a meal with the rest of the household and thereafter retired to sleep. However, in the middle of the tranquil night,...

Doctor warn against female genital mutilation

A former Director of Public Health, Enugu Ministry of Health, Dr Ebenezary Festus, has urged parents to desist from female genital mutilation as it could lead to infertility.Ebenezary in Enugu on Thursday that "female genital mutilation is the removal of genital tissue which involves removing necessary glands leading the vaginal environment to become unfavourable to sperm."He said that female children who undergo such practice were at risk of infertility.According...

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Some natural solutions to sleep disorder (3)

I hope you now enjoy a good night rest. As earlier sections of this series have suggested, rest full sleep is the outcome of many factors. For example, the nerves must not be tremulous or spasmodic, that is gripping and shivery, otherwise many unpleasant situations may arise. Nerve spasms may cause irregular contractions of smooth muscles in the blood vessels of the brain, and these, in turn, may decrease blood circulation to the brain or flood it with more blood than it needs. Too little blood means insufficient oxygen, and too much blood may...

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Hope rises for infertile women

The major difficulty associated with infertility in a developing countries like Nigeria is that it transforms from a private agony into a public stigma, with complex and devastating consequences. Reporters writes on how 'Merck More than a Mother' initiative is engaging professionals in Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) to cause a cultural shift, and also empower affected women.The expansive hall of the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos was filled to capacity. It was the Nigerian leg of the launch of the 'Merck More than a Mother' campaign....

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Vegetable, fruits, modified lifestyle can curb heart attack

A t the third public lecture of the City Club, Surulere, Lagos, which had its topic as: "Heart Attack", the unexpected happened about 45 minutes into the programme. One of the elderly members (name withheld), who sat on the high-table collapsed, almost falling off his seat. But for the intervention of the medical team on ground conducting a routine medical examination on participants., the old man might have died.The medical team, led by the first female Professor of Cardiology in Nigeria/Professor of Medicine, Janet Ajuluchukwu, revived the old...

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Ensure availability of pain medication- FG told

Towards a pain-free world, the Federal Government has been called on to ensure that opioids necessary for the control of moderate to severe pain are always available.Professor Simbo Amanor-Boadu, Head, Hospice and Palliative care Department, University College Hospital (UCH), gave the call at a media chat by the hospital to mark the 2016 World Hospice and Palliative Care Day.Amanor-Boadu stated that 90 per cent of people living with life-threatening...

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Nothing like ordinary malaria- expert

Director, Centre for Malaria Care, University of Ilorin, Professor Olugbenga Mokuolu has asked that people refrain from saying "ordinary malaria", saying the disease was being trivialised even though it is often fatal and can lead to death.Mokuolu, a paediatrician, spoke during a dinner with media health editors in Lagos with the theme "Media health Editors as Advocates to Malaria Elimination in Nigeria." It was organised by Society For Family Health...

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Avoid use of onions, urine, breast-milk to treat eye infection

DR Sewuese Bitto, Head, Department of Ophthalmology, Garki Hospital, Abuja, has warned against the use of harmful substances such as onion fluid, breast milk, urine and battery water in treating eye infection.Bitto, who gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja said such practices were dangerous and harmful to the eyes.The HOD, who was speaking on the sidelines of the celebration of `World Sight...

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Alternative medicine-: Practitioner warns against self-medication

A medical practitioner, Dr Fawziyyah Ahmed, on Thursday warned against arbitrary use of traditional medicine as it could pose dire consequences to health.Ahmed gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano in view of the rampant cases of drug reactions to unprescribed traditional medicines."We have a lot of malaria and typhoid cases and people have resorted to taking traditional medicine for the cure, especially due...

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Nigeria houses the largest number of VVF cases says expert

President elect, International Society of Obstetric Fistula Surgeons, Professor Oladosu Ojengbede has decried Nigeria having the largest burden of obstetric fistula cases globally, indicating that the association's 6th international conference was holding in Nigeria to proffer a solution to it.Ojengbede, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Ibadan, who described obstetric fistula as a huge problem, declared the majority...

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Contraceptives does not lower libido, cause cancer

Religious leaders and the media have been called upon to champion the course of family planning in Nigeria just as they were told that an increase in its uptake was pivotal to attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).Dr Adenike Jagun gave the call at a stakeholders awareness meeting organised by Pathfinder International in conjunction with Advocacy Network Nigeria in Ibadan.The project officer, Pathfinder International, stated that an increasing...

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Wants to stay healthy-: Read regularly

There's nothing quite like becoming immersed in a good novel for many readers, it is a way of fuelling the imagination, providing a period of escape from the more laborious aspects of daily life, at least temporarily. But increasingly, researchers are finding that reading may offer some very real benefits for health and well-being.Experts reported on a study published in the journal Social Science & Medicine, that reading books could increase...

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Good health:- what to do before doctors come

IT is not uncommon to suffer mild or major health problems at homes that require urgent attention prior to proper medical attention at hospitals.From slight headache to deadly bites, what can a layman do to treat victims or preserve their lives before a doctor is brought in? Medical problems are quickly attended to by applying First aid treatment and Dr Victor Adeyefa, a Belgium-trained medical practitioner, defines First Aid as the assistance or...

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Natural solutions to sleep disorder

Many people take sleep for granted, simply because they fall asleep with little or no effort. In a bus, I have witnessed situations in which some passengers were fast asleep when the bus arrived at their destinations. They were either woken up by their neighbours or woke from sleep a few bus-stops away. Such people may suffer from sleep attacks. One man who intrigued me about how easily lost in sleep he could be was my gate-man when I lived at 34, Ajanaku Street, Opebi, Ikeja, Lagos. About 11p.m one day, an air conditioner fire broke out in the...

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