Health

The World Health Organisation (WHO) through its Representative, Dr. Fiona Braka on Tuesday in Abuja, made a pledge to the Nigerian Government to sustain a yearly donation of 20 million doses of vaccines towards eradicate yellow fever in the nation.

Dr. Braka said the organization is committed to partnering with the country to ensure achieving the total vaccination of the populace, in line with the global Elimination of Yellow Epidemics (EYE) by 2026.

“The global community is committed to this course and would meet the target despite the global vaccine shortfall,” she said. “As part of the strategy, we must protect the hard-to-reach population and curtail the outbreak rapidly to protect against international spread."

A study published in the Journal of Hepatology, has shown that late teens who engage in drinking alcohol could amplify the risk associated to major health problem in their adulthood.

According to the study, it has become imperative to review downwards guidelines for safe alcohol intake to now include younger people.

Scientists from Sweden revealed that drinking alcohol during late adolescence could result in the development of liver disease in adulthood.

keen readers will probably not be strangers to the immense benefits that accompanies regular consumption of drinking tea. Science has just proved that drinking tea has the ability to make any person more creative than others who prefer to stay off it.

A steaming cup of tea is enough to bump someone back to life in the morning, or soothe you to bed at night after a hard day's work. It has worked significantly well in repressing a harsh cough or simply to warm the body up after a chilly day.

A new study conducted at the Researchers at Peking University’s School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences in China believes that drinking tea has the ability to boost creativity, and that a cup could be the long-awaited remedy for the dreaded brain sludge or the creativity boost a writer needs after a block.

The participants in the study who were composed of 50 students averagely around the age of 23, were divided into two groups: Participants in the first group were given a cup of black tea to drink, while the other group were given a glass of water.

The Federal Government has pledged to support the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) with N100 million grant to boost research and development of traditional herbal medicines.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, made the pledge in Abuja on Friday at the occasion of the institute’s Research and Development Products Presentation.

The event also marks the end of tenure of the NIPRD Director-General, Prof. Karniyus Gamaniel, which spans a period of eight years; 2009 to 2017.

It also showcases the achievements and challenges faced by the institute during this period in the area of research and development of traditional herbal products.
The minister said at the occasion that the funds would be used to set up a unit that would be dedicated to research and development of traditional herbal products in the institute.
Adewole gave NAFDAC 30 days ultimatum to approve all the products developed by the institute to enable it move for commercialisation and subsequent use by citizens.
The minister, who scored the institute high in its 30 years of existence, however challenged it to do more in the years to come.

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).