Health

The Federal Medical Centre Lokoja in Kogi State, has suffered the irreparable loss of one of its medical doctors to the cold hands of death after he contracted Lassa Fever from a 7-month -old baby who died on Friday 19th January.

Late Doctor Idowu Ahmed Victor, who until his death was a House Officer at the FMC, reportedly contracted the disease on January 19 and was subsequently diagnosed in Irrua Specialist Hospital, Edo State.

According to report Kogi State Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, Dr Godwin Tijjani, announced the death of Dr Victor and advised healthcare practitioners in the state, to endeavour to observe necessary safety precautions whenever they are attending to patients.

A new research shows how a high-salt diet could result to excessive levels of interleukin-17 (IL-17) in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, causing changes in endothelial cells that result in dementia.

These findings suggest that therapeutics targeting IL-17 may help halt the neurovascular damages of MS and other autoimmune diseases linked to high levels of IL-17.

Diets rich in sodium chloride are common among Americans, 90 percent of whom surpass the recommended 2,300 mg intake of salt per day. While such diets have been connected with an increased risk for cerebrovascular diseases and dementia, exactly how high levels of salt harm the brain remained unclear.

Eager to find out, researchers at New York’s Weill Cornell University fed mice a high-salt diet, either with 4 or 8 percent of salt, corresponding to a 8- to 16-fold increase in salt content compared to a regular mouse diet.

Women with breast cancer often feel rushed to make a decision about surgery, and some of them might benefit from more time and better educational materials to inform their treatment choices, two recent studies suggest.

One study surveyed 487 women after they underwent either a lumpectomy that removes malignant tissue while sparing the rest of the breast, a mastectomy that removes the entire breast, or both procedures.

Regardless of what path they took, at least one in five women said choosing quickly was more important than making an informed decision, and at least as many patients felt like they didn’t have all the facts before their operations.

“A breast cancer diagnosis can feel like an emergency when you are the patient,” said lead study author Dr. Sunny Mitchell, a breast surgeon in Stratford, Connecticut.

“There is actually plenty of time to review all treatment options since survival rates are very high for early-stage breast cancer and do not change if a woman starts treatment within a few weeks,” Mitchell said by email.

Ibuprofen has a negative impact on the testicles of young men, a study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.

When taking ibuprofen in doses commonly used by athletes, a small sample of young men developed a hormonal condition that typically begins, if at all, during middle age. This condition is linked to reduced fertility.

Black women with a relatively common form of hair loss may also face a high risk for developing fibroids, a new study suggests.

Fibroids are fibrous growths that develop in the lining of the womb. About 80 to 90 percent of black women (and 70 percent of white women) develop fibroids by the time they're 50. In nearly all cases these growths are benign (noncancerous).

Researchers reviewed four years of data on more than 487,000 adult black women. This included data on a hair loss condition known as central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia (CCCA).

Death rates for patients undergoing surgeries in Africa are double the global average even though they tend to be younger, scientists said, adding that many deaths were likely preventable. According to a study published in the Lancet medical journal, scientists said contributory factors include few specialists, poor hospital infrastructure and a lack of post-operative monitoring.