Health

If the early bird catches the worm, what is the night owl more likely to catch? According to a new study, it's diabetes, psychological problems and an increased risk of dying.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Chronobiology International, tracked almost half a million adults in the United Kingdom over an average of 6½ years. The researchers found that those people who identified as "definite evening types" at the beginning of the study had a 10% increased risk of all-cause mortality compared with "definite morning types."

Night owls were also more likely to have diabetes, neurological disorders, psychological disorders, gastrointestinal disorders and respiratory disorders, according to Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and a leading author of the study.

At least 30 people have died and 893 are ill in a cholera outbreak in Malawi, the health ministry said Thursday.

The disease outbreak which began last November in Karonga, northern Malawi has spread to 13 districts in the country, a spokesman for the ministry, Joshua Kalongo told CNN.

The drinking of contaminated water and poor food hygiene practices in affected areas have been blamed for the cholera outbreak, the ministry said.

Scores of Nigerians in the FCT have called on the Federal Government to subsidise services in the health sector. Those who spoke with the press on the issue in Abuja decried the outrageous amounts being demanded by both public and private health facilities. They urged for both private and public hospitals to allow unfettered access to healthcare services by citizens.

The ultimate rule of safe sex is the practice of proper and consistent use of a condom. There are various types of condoms including; ribbed, magnum, and flavoured options, which makes it a little bit confusing for people.

Latex condoms are effective at preventing pregnancies. They are also effective in reducing the risk of contacting Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) including HIV. They are easily accessible, can be disposed easily, generally have a low risk of side effects, and can even make sex more pleasurable.

Pakistan launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive on Monday to try to reach 38.7 million children and eradicate the paralyzing and potentially deadly virus in one of the last countries where it is endemic.

Nearly 260,000 volunteers and workers fanned out across Pakistan in an effort to vaccinate every child below the age of five in a week-long campaign, Pakistan’s national coordinator on polio, Mohammad Safdar, said.

“We’re really very close to eradicating the disease,” Safdar told Reuters, appealing to the people to cooperate with the door-to-door effort.

Residents of the Federal Capital Territory have been thrown into apprehension over threat of outbreak of meningitis. The anxiety followed a recent warning by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Abuja Operations that residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) adopt measures to avert outbreak of meningitis.