A consultant paediatrician at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, Lagos, Dr. Agatha David, says kissing a newborn on the lips or any part of the face can lead to meningitis, a viral infection caused by herpes.

She warned parents against allowing outsiders to carry their newborns, especially within the first one month of life, noting that their immune system is still very fragile to fight off pathogens or environmental germs.

You shouldn’t chew, crush or break tablets or pills, or open and empty powder out of capsules, unless your physician or another qualified healthcare professional has told you to do so. Experts warn that some tablets, pills and capsules don’t work properly or may be harmful if they’re crushed or opened.

They also gave reasons why tablets may need to be swallowed. According to experts at the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, tablets, pills and capsules are designed to release medicine slowly into your body over time and crushing them could cause an overdose.

Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, says Nigeria may encounter a challenge if it opts for COVID-19 vaccines that require ultra-cold freezers for storage. He said the country hardly has ultra-cold freezers, stressing that the Federal Government may have to raise money to procure them if it settles for vaccines that need such temperature by January 2021.

This is even as a renowned Professor of virology and former Vice-Chancellor of the Redeemer’s University Nigeria, Oyewale Tomori, expressed fear that Nigeria might encounter a ‘humongous problem’ in the course of storing the vaccines.

High noise exposure during critical periods in gestation is a potential stressor that may result in increased risk of implantation failure (miscarriage), dysregulation of placentation or decrease of uterine blood flow, experts say.

America-based National Institutes of Health made this known in an archive of biomedical and life sciences journal publication titled, Reproductive Outcomes Associated with Noise Exposure — A Systematic Review of the Literature. This is even as the Centres for Disease Control also warns that noise levels can damage the foetus’ hearing.

The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, on Wednesday, said Nigeria should take delivery of COVID-19 vaccine by January 2021. He said a committee set up for that purpose was already working to decide the kind of vaccine that would be suitable for Nigeria.

Ehanire disclosed this in an interview with State House correspondents after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo. He said Nigeria had signed up with the World Health Organisation and the GAVI Alliance for access to vaccines immediately they are available.

The World Health Organisation has launched a new Labour Care Guide to reduce complications during labour and help every woman have a positive childbirth experience. According to WHO, over one third of maternal deaths, half of stillbirths and a quarter of neonatal deaths result from complications during labour and child delivery.

The global body on Tuesday said the majority of these deaths occur in low-resource settings and are preventable through timely interventions, adding that knowing when to wait — and when to take life-saving action — is critical.

The Lagos State Government has said it is supporting people living with HIV/AIDS in the state with equipment, training and grants to make them economically independent in view of the hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Aids Control, Dr Monsurat Adeleke, said the state would continue to give priority to the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS. A statement on Wednesday said Adeleke spoke during the presentation of sewing machines to some beneficiaries at the agency’s head office.

Lagos Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, says since October, the state has been experiencing a very sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, with many of the patients requiring oxygen and intensive care.

According to the commissioner, Lagos now has over 25,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases with over 300 deaths, lamenting that the positivity rate in the state has suddenly risen to 12.2 percent, compared to 3.5 percent that it was in September.

If your hair is falling off, scientists are saying it may be due to your deficiency in Vitamin D. A research that sought to evaluate the role that vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor play in the hair cycle had assessed how this can be clinically applied to the treatment of hair disorders.

Another study found that women 18 to 45 years old who experienced alopecia or other types of hair loss had low levels of vitamin D. Vitamin D is a group of fat-soluble secosteroids responsible for increasing intestinal absorption of calcium, magnesium, and phosphate, and many other biological effects. In humans, the most important compounds in this group are vitamin D₃ and vitamin D₂.

A study published by the National Centre for Biotechnology Information shows that the transmission of bacteria is more likely to occur from wet skin than from dry skin. The researchers say proper drying of hands after washing should be an integral part of the hand hygiene process in health care.

Speaking in the same vein, a public health physician and Director, Policy and Advocacy at the Nigeria Health Watch, Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor, says germs spread more easily on wet surfaces than on dry ones.