Frontpage News (3249)
Israel has opened a 66-bed field hospital in Mostyska, western Ukraine, to care for up to 150 patients at a time. The hospital, which is to be run by 65 doctors and nurses from across Israel, is located on the grounds of an elementary school and is expected to remain there for the next month.
According to the Times of Israel, the military hospital is called “Kochav Meir” (“Shining Star”), after former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir, who was born in Ukraine and was the founder of the Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation aid programme, which is leading the field hospital project.
Preconception care, early detection key to managing Down syndrome
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A Consultant Family Physician at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Dr. Olujimi Sodipo, has recommended preconception care for all women to help prevent and manage Down syndrome cases.
According to him, preconception care will help to identify behavioural and social risks to the woman’s health or pregnancy outcome through prevention and management. Speaking with PUNCH HealthWise, Dr. Sodipo said the most important thing to be done is to prevent the situation by ensuring that there is early detection.
Long training duration, poor pay, causing anaesthesiologists’ dearth – Expert
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An anaesthesiologist at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo State, Dr. Julian Ojebo, has attributed the dearth of anaesthesiologists in Nigeria to long training duration and poor remuneration. He noted that many secondary and tertiary medical facilities in the country either had few of the specialists or none at all.
Ojebo described anaesthesiologists as specialists who administer anaesthetic (a drug that causes temporary loss of bodily sensation) for all surgical interventions and procedures, noting that they were needed in virtually all areas of medicine.
The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency has said over 70 per cent of medical drugs being dispensed in Nigeria are substandard. The agency added that the majority of Nigerians did not have access to health services.
The NPHCDA disclosed this on its website ahead of the Primary Healthcare Summit tagged: ‘Re-imaging Primary Health Care in Nigeria’. According to the agency, the country is faced with a number of healthcare challenges.
Integrate, don’t hide children with Down syndrome, expert urges parents
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The National President, Down Syndrome Foundation Nigeria, Rose Mordi, has cautioned parents against hiding children with Down syndrome and advised them to instead, encourage social integration.
She urged them to ensure that they get the right care early in life, stressing that it can make a big difference in helping them to live a meaningful life. Speaking with PUNCH Healthwise in commemoration of the 2022 World Down Syndrome Day, Mordi explained that the condition is a genetic disorder and not an illness as perceived by many.
The World Health Organisation says more than 480 million people suffer from oral diseases in the African Region. WHO said the oral diseases are dental caries, periodontal disease and tooth loss, noting that this happens despite the fact that most of them are preventable.
In a message to commemorate the World Oral Day on March 20, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, said the burden of oral diseases reflects significant inequalities, with marginalised populations disproportionately impacted.
A Registrar at the Maxillofacial Department, Federal Teaching Hospital Gombe, Dr. Bose Mohammed, said some patients with halitosis tend to display low self-esteem. Mohammed disclosed this in an interview with Punch Healthwise, during the commemoration of the World Oral Health day, noting that many also display signs of depression.
He said it was imperative for individuals to pay close attention to appearances in the mouth as it has a lot to tell about the person. He said, “How will you tell a friend, colleague or spouse that their mouth smells? It is quite difficult. I came across patients shedding tears, in obvious low self-esteem because of mouth odour.
Surgical experts have warned against granting approval for voluntary removal of the appendix when it is not inflamed to avoid complications associated with surgery. They said though such request was possible, but that a very cogent reason must be established before such a surgical procedure could be carried out.
According to Mayo Clinic, an online health site, the appendix is a small pouch attached to the intestine and it is located in the lower-right abdomen, while appendicitis is an inflammation of the appendix.
See a urologist if your son’s penis is not growing normally, Urologist tells parents
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A Consultant Urologist and Chief Medical Director of St Mary Specialist Centre, Dr Chudi Osegbe, has advised parents to seek the help of certified urologists if they notice any abnormality in the development of their son’s penis in boyhood.
He said any abnormality could still be corrected before puberty and warned that if left untreated or unattended to; it could pose a problem in the future. “Any abnormality that impedes the normal development of a boy’s penis can be corrected before puberty. Such developmental issues will prove difficult to be treated after then,” he stated.
Shisha smoking can cause mouth cancer –Dental experts warn Nigerians
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Smoking of Shisha, dental experts have cautioned, can cause cancer of the mouth due to the elevated levels of cancer-causing agents it contains.
The advice was given on Saturday, in a statement jointly signed by Professor Omolara Uti, Dr. Jumoke Effiom, Dr. Abdul Warith Akinshipo and Dr. Ernest Aforka of the Faculty of Dental Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, in commemoration of the World Oral Health Day.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the World Oral Health Day is marked annually on March 20, with this year’s celebration themed, “Be Proud of Your Mouth”.
Shisha is a form of tobacco smoking that has become fashionable in the society, with many who do not smoke cigarettes embracing it.
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A Medical Practitioner, Dr. Martin Adejo, has said gray hair in people could be due to genetics, disease, stress or deficiency in vitamins. He said gray hair is not just for the aged as it has become a normal phenomenon in people across all age brackets, and that they now feel at home with the growth.
Dr. Adejo, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos, Plateau State, during a survey carried out on gray hair, noted that some people could have gray hair very early in life, from their primary or post-primary schools, but it does not imply that they are diseased.
PHCs to treat infectious diseases, chronic illnesses -NPHCDA
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The Executive Secretary of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, has said that the federal government would invest in building up the country’s failing primary health care system so that primary health centres could treat infectious diseases and chronic illnesses.
Shuaib stated that the government would ensure the provision of equipment, availability of drugs and procurement of ambulances for the PHCs, among others.
A team of scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, said they have successfully “reversed aged” human eggs from women at the end of their child-bearing years to make them look more like those from a 20-year-old.
They revealed that the previously unknown ageing mechanism involved administering anti-viral drugs to the eggs in a test tube. Though yet to be tested against fertilization, there is optimism that the discovery, termed a breakthrough, could provide hope for those above 40 years, whose aged eggs often make miscarriages and congenital defects more common.
Study says sleeping with even little light could be dangerous to health
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A new study conducted by the Director, Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine, Dr. Phyllis Zee of the Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, has indicated that exposure to artificial light at night could be seriously detrimental to health.
The study found that young healthy people who participated in the experiment experienced increased heart rate and blood sugar levels. Dr. Zee, the study author, said even though the participants slept with their eyes closed, the dim light penetrated through their eyelids and disrupted their sleep.
