Health

Research carried out in part by an artificially-intelligent (AI) ‘robot scientist’ has found that a common ingredient of toothpaste could be developed to fight drug-resistant strains of malaria.

In a study in the journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Britain’s Cambridge University who used the AI robot to conduct high-throughput screening said the ingredient, triclosan, showed the potential to interrupt malaria infections at two critical stages - in the liver and the blood.

Malaria kills around half a million people every year, the vast majority of them children in the poorest parts of Africa. The disease can be treated with a number of drugs, but resistance to these medicines is increasing, raising the risk that some strains may become untreatable in the future.

Reuters news agency reports that because of this, the search for new medicines was becoming increasingly urgent, said Steve Oliver of Cambridge University’s biochemistry department, who co-led the work with Elizabeth Bilsland.

A U.S -based philanthropic agency, Project C.U.R.E, embarked on training of medical personnel in Ekiti State health institutions as part of the ways to deal with the escalating infant mortality rate in Nigeria.

The one-day workshop dubbed: ‘Helping Babies Breathe (HBB)’ which held at Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD) on Thursday, was powered by Project C.U.R.E, and facilitated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The German government has donated 150 million Euros to Nigeria to assist the country facilitate total eradication of polio, NAN reports. The Spokesperson, Ministry of Health, Dr. Tiwatope Elias-Fatile stated this on Wednesday at a press conference in Abuja.

A 30 year U.S study reveals that women who practice exclusive breastfeeding for six months or longer appear to significantly curtail the risk of developing type II diabetes.

The Kaiser Permanente research, published in the U.S. journal JAMA Internal Medicine, examined data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA).

The study comprised of 1,238 black and white women who did not have diabetes when they enrolled in CARDIA, or prior to their subsequent pregnancies.

Over the next 30 years, each woman had at least one live birth and was consistently screened for diabetes under the CARDIA protocol.

Babies under five years of age in their thousands continue to die on a daily basis from preventable diseases including malaria, pneumonia, diarrhoea and malnutrition, particularly in third world countries.

Children in Sub-Saharan Africa are ten times more likely to be killed by these prevalent health challenges before the age of five than children in more developed countries.

Despite reasonable progress made on the health of young kids with mortality rate almost cut by half in 2000, millions still hardly get to five.

Two resident doctors serving at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakiliki, FETHA, Ebonyi State, have reportedly died of lassa fever.

The doctors, Dr Ali Felix, a Resident Doctor in the Department of Community Medicine and Abel Sunday Udo, who was a Resident Doctor in the Department of Otorhinolayngology, FETHA, both died on Sunday.

The incident has generated panic particularly amongst other health workers at the hospital where two of the house officers who participated in the treatment of the deceased and other nurses has been added to watchlist.