What causes Africa's worst disease..... Malaria!!!

What is malaria caused by - Image 1

 What is malaria caused by - Image 2

You must have heard about the most popular ailment common to the tropics. It has lived with us for many years and is still very much on the pages of the books, newspapers, internet and most importantly in our homes. Incidentally though the cause is known and diagnosis can be carried out by a simple test, expectations that malaria be found only listed as one of those ailment with complete eradication but has eluded mankind. Literature has made information available in less than simple terms and thus creates difficulties for people to correctly describe its symptoms to their physicians. If you live in or want to visit any mosquito infested region such as Africa, Asia and Latin America, you will want the answer to one of the most important questions about malaria which are: 
what really causes malaria, how do I prevent it and how do I identify the symptoms. Whilst some people think you need to be stung by a swarm of mosquitoes to come down with the ailment, it is hardly true. I know lots of people who get really bitten by the bug and nothing happens. On the other hand, some other people need to be bitten once or only a few times to they become sick. A good example would be to consider a house with five people living in it, while one or two persons may not have malaria in years, the other co-habitants could have several episodes even up to eight episodes during the same time, under similar circumstances. This can be explained partly by the fact that we all have different resistance levels and not all bugs carry plasmodium (the pathogen which causes malaria) at every time “T”. The bottom line remains prevention of a bite from the bug. 

If you don’t know what the bug looks like then look up pictures on the internet. To avoid confusion, Mosquitoes are small and thin flying insects (not even as large as a housefly) but are drawn boldly in diagrams for a clearer view. So if you stay in the temperate region and want to visit the tropics this is food for thought as per how to prevent coming down with malaria when you are on holiday. It is important to mention here that children are also more susceptible to having malaria much like elderly ones remember- extremes of age. Don’t get carried away by the intense sunlight in this region to believe that mosquitoes don’t bite during the day; the truth is they are capable of biting an individual at any time of the day though more at night. The use of clothing to cover our bodies is very important. Some clothing especially those made from see-through material such as hose, chiffon offer little or no protection if you spend a lot of time outdoors choose other suitable material to cover your arms, legs, back and trunk.

It is not difficult to get bitten by a mosquito and most times you may not be aware of the time the bite occured. It would take a few days if bitten by an infected mosquito to start showing signs.  Don’t expect to see a huge swelling or think that the presence of a rash on your body indicates a bite. Bites could be multiple and one notices most times when they start to itch. Fair skinned people or Caucasians would clearly demonstrate redness of the area of the bite. You can identify a mosquito bite because it itches; secondly it is slightly raised and it expands in size when you itch. The bite does not contain any fuid and is not pointed at the tip like a boil or pimple. I must mention here that this description is to help visitors, those with the sickle gene, immunocompromised, dependants such as children and elderly who are prone to having more difficult episodes tighten their protection and prevention tactics. Your arms, legs are the areas that get bitten the most becomes they are usually exposed but pretty much any area could be affected. If you start to notice a spread or pattern of bites marks around your whole body or you notice that you start to have difficulty in breathing a bite then you might be looking at something else other than a mosquito maybe an infectious process such as measles or bee sting.

What's the most popular virus ever!

Hepatitis B affects everyone. It is a viral infection affecting the liver is hopefully not new to anyone. The infection has similar transmission pattern as HIV-AIDS yet more deadly. The disease receives much less publicity than AIDS despite its higher infectiousness than the popular virus.

Hepatitis B in Bauchi State of Nigeria from Jan - July totaled around 319,000 cases as announced today by the community of health and human services. Good news is that the infection is preventable. Go get help and get protected with a simple vaccination at a Primary Health Center or a Teaching hospital near you.

I wonder what's the most popular virus ever!?

Source CNN: Polio vaccination exercise

In recent times, Polio outbreak made hits in Africa following the emergence of a strain thought to be new as it affected adults and previously immunized. Today, Hotan and Bazhou in the China's western Xinjiang province has been affected by polio involving six children, three adults and killing one. Fear is not the spread of the virus to neighboring areas but to the world indeed as the virus  could go beyond borders. Polio can be spread via ingesting food or water contaminated with an infected person's stool or contact with respiratory secretions. Travel to any of the affected regions would require careful planning.

Dengue fever now in the shops..

6,400  people have been documented with dengue fever already out of the 3 million people who face exposure. while some people fear the most of losing their jobs majority of people fear the shops for the fear of picking up the disease. The disease could be fatal as 25 people have die and several hundred new cases are recorded each day. Everyone is headed to the hospitals to get tested. The city majorly affected is the Lahore city eastern Pakistan  which is where posh people live. You might want to know this if you need to be travelling that way soon.

Reaching a decision about Micheal Jackson's case

The late icon Micheal Jackson was ruled to have died of drug overdose most likely propofol. Whether the drug was administered  by his doctor or swallowed are issues that would hopefully be brought to light.  According to CNN's report Dr. Murray who was Micheal Jackson's personal and full time physician used "make shift IV drip to administer propofol". He could face up to four years in prison if found guilty. The case trials opens on the 27th Sept and it is possible that by 28th of  October we would get a sense of direction surrounding the death of the late Icon. Read more about unconfirmed reports about missing witness now sweeping the court.

Whats the lesson to take home? 

Nigeria's national bill of health- legalize abortion or not

Nigeria's Minister for Health in his own words is in full support of the National bill of health. While key issues of how this bill differs from previous was not stated; one major issue raised is that Abortion remains illegal in Nigeria. Abortion is a leading cause of maternal death in certain countries including Nigeria. Nigeria is one of those countries alongside Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Saint Martin, Dominican Republic and Nicaragua. Only under circumstances where the life of the woman is threatened is abortion permitted. This is a contradiction to Puerto Rico, French Antilles, French Guiana, Guanya, Barbados which are the only countries where abortion is legal. Chukwu has confirmed that abortion ifs not yet legalized in Nigeria. Abortion still causes up to 13% of maternal deaths in Nigeria.

Please can someone explain the agenda of this Bill of health Prof. Chuwku's is so in support of. How does this bill differs from the previous ones. Would it improve Nigeria's health statistics, I don't know.

How to reduce your chances at fibroid

Vegetables reduce fibroids

Women who consume more vegetable appear less likely to develop fibroids. Eating lots of red meat appears to carries a higher chance. Women who eat more vegetables in combination with little meat are safer than women who eat less vegetables and more meat when it comes to fibroids. It appears that eating vegetables with less meat seems to be a profitable regimen to stay on top of many diseases. 

New: Mental screening test - Would you take a mental screening test to get a job?

Mental screening test is been propagated to identify students who might be at risk of developing depression and suicide. Much of this has been tied to the high numbers of depression and suicide rates in the U.S. Many responses have been filed in already and more are still coming in. One respondent stated “I think it is a good idea to have the screening however I do not believe that is should become a standard test given to teens”.

Another respondent said that “Contrary to popular belief, undiagnosed and under-served adolescents with mental health issues reside in affluent communities with highly educated residents and excellent school systems”

A health professional blogged that this screening processes provide that show these very specific questions can help to detect real mental illness an might prove to be very helpful. Some respondents completely abolish the idea because of doubts about how such information could affect a teen, whether the intentions are for good reasons, don’t want labels for their children and so on.

In Nigeria, mental health has increasing reared its head as crucial aspect of medicine. Only in 2011, a Nigerian politician was said to have died and circumstances seemed to point towards a suicide, a 26 year female banker, only yesterday another  45 year old man committed suicide.

There appears to be a problem somewhere, Nigerian's generally are in some kind of denial about this issue and if something has to be done it should be now. So, If you were asked to take a mental screening test (nothing invasive, just a series of questions) to help detect this problems early and even offer treatment as part of a Job assessment,  would  you?