Health

The Lagos State Government has declared Thursday, March 29 as a public holiday in the state.

This according to the state government is to enable Lagos residents to come out and welcome President Muhammadu Buhari who is set to visit the state.

In a statement issued on Tuesday by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the government also announced traffic diversions and alternative routes ahead of the presidential visit, which will take place between March 29 and 30.

New evidence from foetal brain scans has shown that a mother’s stress level during pregnancy can change the neural connectivity in the brain of her unborn child, potentially affecting the baby’s brain functions. NAN reports that Moriah Thomason, an assistant professor of Wayne State University, presented the new finding on Monday at the 25th meeting for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in Boston, US.

GlaxoSmithKline said on Tuesday it will buy Novartis’s 36.5 percent stake in their consumer healthcare joint venture for $13 billion in cash, and will also begin a strategic review of some other businesses. GSK last week quit the race to buy Pfizer’s consumer healthcare business, endangering an auction the U.S. drugmaker hoped would bring in as much as $20 billion.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has advised the public to shun consumption of fruits ripened with calcium carbide.

The agency gave the warning on Monday in Abuja in a statement signed by its management, saying that dangerous effects of carbide-ripened fruits include cancer and other illnesses.

According to the management, consuming such fruits can also cause heart, kidney and liver failure.

An international medical organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), on Monday, said it has offered free treatment to 68 children suffering from tuberculosis in Borno State, within the past six months.

MSF, also known as Doctors without Borders, said the children were treated at its medical facility at Fori area of Maiduguri.

The organisation’s Medical Officer in charge of tuberculosis treatment, Dr Muhammad Abdullahi, who spoke on the sideline of activities to commemorate the 2018 World Tuberculosis Day, in Maiduguri, said most of the children had completed their treatment.

An international team of researchers has discovered a new anti-cancer protein that not only prevents the uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells in the liver but also serves as a biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of liver cancer. According to a statement released by the University of Basel, liver tumours develop from mutated cells that grow and proliferate uncontrollably.