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 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.

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) says it has recorded a fresh case of Lassa fever, bringing the number of confirmed cases to three within three months.

Dr Humphrey Okoroukwu, the Director of Public Health in the Health and Human Services Secretariat in FCT, made the disclosure to the press on Friday in Abuja.

One of the two victims of the confirmed cases earlier recorded at Bwari Area Council of the FCT, died sometime in January.

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.

The wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has expressed her readiness to champion the fight against the spread of tuberculosis (TB) in Nigeria. She made the pledge when she met with the delegation of Global Stop TB Partnership at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja. She emphasised the need for regular testing and treatment for tuberculosis to reduce the spread of the disease in the country.

An expert who has been living positively with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) for up to 13 years, has raised an alarm over the spread of new HIV infections, occasioned by the stigmatisation of people living with HIV (PLWH).

Executive Director of Care For All Organisation, Mrs Funmi Okafor, who spoke during the last World AIDS Day programme, in Lagos, lamented that stigma was one major factor that drives PLWH underground, compelling many to keep mum about their status and in attempts to hide their HIV status, end up living negatively, all to the detriment of the larger society.