Men with low sperm count who are indulging in self-medication by consuming carrot, pap and cucumber to boost their fertility are wasting time, health experts say. The experts note that for a man with low sperm count to be able to impregnate a woman, he must get proper medical examination and treatment from a specialist.

According to the World Health Organisation, estimates suggest that between 48 million couples and 186 million individuals live with infertility globally. 

President of the University College Hospital Ibadan chapter of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Temitope Hussein, says the association lost 17 doctors to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hussein, who was justifying the association’s reasons for joining the nationwide strike of NARD, explained that families of the deceased doctors were yet to benefit from the Death-in-Service Insurance Scheme.

A visit to Gbagada General Hospital on Friday by PUNCH HealthWise shows that the secondary health facility is turning down emergency cases. One of such patients is 48-year-old Daniel Edet whose son said was coughing out blood and that he has swollen legs, among other life-threatening symptoms.

The hospital authorities said it was not turning back patients because of the ongoing strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors, but because of lack of bed space. Though the doctors at the hospital were not on strike, PUNCH HealthWise also observed that only skeletal services were on offer at the children’s ward, while the outpatient ward and reception that were usually filled to capacity were empty.

People who have been vaccinated against coronavirus will still be expected to self-isolate if they show COVID-19 symptoms, new government advice says. The United Kingdom government’s updated ‘stay at home’ guidance says that even people who have received both of their vaccines, and therefore have maximum protection, would need to self-isolate.

The new guidance reads: “While COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to reduce the likelihood of severe illness for those who have received them, we do not yet know for certain by how much they reduce the likelihood of a vaccinated person spreading COVID-19 to others.

A new five-minute breast cancer treatment is being rolled out in England in a bid to dramatically reduce the amount of time patients spend in hospital, The Telegraph reports. More than 3,600 women a year are expected to benefit from the injection, which combines two drugs currently administered as separate intravenous infusions, says Yahoo News, quoting the medium.

Treatment with the prescription medicine, Phesgo, will be offered to breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy who have the HER2-positive form of the disease, about 15 percent of all breast cancer sufferers, it says.

A new study shows that in the hours after we die, certain cells in the human brain are still active. In a newly published study in the British weekly journal Nature, the University of Illinois Chicago researchers looked at gene expression in fresh brain tissue.

The study, titled, ‘Selective time-dependent changes in activity and cell-specific gene expression in human postmortem brain’ was published on March 23, 2021. To simulate what happens after death, researchers examined tissue samples taken from patients during routine brain surgeries. They found that some cells even increased their activity and grow to gargantuan proportions.

A new vaccine against HIV has shown promise in Phase 1 trials, leading to the production of efficient antibodies in 97 percent of participants. This is based on a report from the IAVI and Scripps Research published online in European Pharmaceutical Review.

Though there are ongoing researches to find a lasting cure to HIV, there is presently no licensed HIV vaccine in the market. The first HIV vaccine trial opened in 1987 at the National Institute of Health, Clinical Centre, Bethesda, Maryland, and its Phase 1 trial enrolled 138 healthy, HIV-negative volunteers.

Medical experts have cautioned pregnant women with small pelvises against the risk of refusing caesarean section because of cultural and religious beliefs, warning that delivering a big baby through a small birth canal is fraught with complications that could lead to stillbirth.

According to the experts, if a pregnant woman has a small pelvis, the chances of vaginal delivery is limited and therefore, has to be offered a CS. 

Consultant Public Health Physician at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Dr. Modupe Akinyinka, has warned against consumption of meat of dead animals. This is because cooking may not destroy poison in meat of dead animals, she warned.

Akinyinka, who is also the coordinator of the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria, Lagos State chapter, told PUNCH HealthWise during an interview that consuming meat of an animal that died of poisonous substance, for instance, is risky and could lead to death.

The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, refers patients to the Military Hospital, Yaba, competent sources within the hospital said, as ongoing strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors cripples services in the tertiary facility.

However, speaking to our Correspondent on Wednesday, the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Dr. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said that the hospital was rather transferring patients, and that it had even stopped doing so. According to Fabamwo, up until Monday, the hospital was transferring patients, but he did not state which healthcare facility the patients were transferred to, noting, “Nobody was being sent to Military Hospital.”