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Kwabena, is the founder of Give Back Africa Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping kids from underprivileged communities realize their potential. He is a scientist in Pharmaceutical Research & Development. To support his charity, please visit http://givebackafrica.org
Climcing the stairs benefits your heart; using the elevator does not.
The European Heart Journal (January 11 edition) reports that taking regular breaks from the desk, even as short as a minute, is good for both your waistline and heart health.
In a study reported after studying 4, 757 people aged 20 and over, researchers found those who sat down for long periods without getting up had a larger waist circumference and lower levels of good HDL cholesterol.
Other findings from the study showed that prolonged periods of sitting were linked with heart problems, inflammation, higher levels of C-reactive protein (an important marker of inflammation) and triglycerides (blood fats).
For instance, in the study, subjects who took more breaks from sitting during the day — up to 1, 258 short breaks in one week — had smaller waists, up to two pants sizes smaller than those who took the fewest, as few as 99 breaks in one week
Practical tips for you
Centralize things like rubbish bins and printers so you need to walk to them
Occasionally stand during meetings
Stand up to take phone calls
Walk to see a colleague rather than phoning or e-mailing
Taking the stairs instead of the lift. You would also save your employer on electricity bills
I stated: The main disadvantage of the female condom is that it is three times more expensive than the male condom and therefore beyond the means of women in most African communities where the average income is less than a dollar a day. (The cost of the female condom is between $2.50 -$5.00).
Correction:
The cost of the FC2 Female Condom is around $0.60 for governments and donors and lower with increased volume. The $2 price is what FC1 costs on the shelf in a retail drug store in the US. The FC2 was developed to lower the cost of the female condom with intent to increase access to women in Africa. It has same design but different material and different manufacturing process which allows for the significantly lower cost.
An estimated 22.5 million people are living with HIV in the part of African below the Sahara – around two-thirds of the global total. In Ghana alone, there are approximately 260,000 people living with HIV/AIDS with 140,000 being women and 27000 being children. Ghana can count close to 160,000 orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS. In fact, Ghana is not among the worst hit countries; South Africa and Uganda for example, have worse numbers.
To some readers, this is just one of those statistics, but it is life and death to hundreds of families and institutions. The social and economic consequences of the AIDS epidemic are far and wide felt: in the African health sector, in education, industry, agriculture, human resources and the economy in general.
In terms of preventive or ‘prophylactic’ measures, the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign hitherto has riveted on promoting the use of the male condom.
Regrettably, however, in many communities in Africa, it is a severely stamina-testing exercise to convince some men embrace the use of the male condom. It is a complex issue that borders on tradition, religion and ignorance. This is compounded by the fact that in almost all cases, it is the man who cleaves to power in sexual relationships. Customarily, in the African ‘sexist society’, the man can choose to have multiple wives or one wife with multiple sexual partners. A woman who practices such a modus vivendi is referred to as a prostitute. It is unfair and effluvium for the party who wields the power to also decide on the means of protection in sexual relationships. I regard it a woman’s right issue to guarantee that women have the wherewithal to protect themselves in sexual relations.
But what is wrong with the male condom?
The campaign to promote the male condom has been going on for decades with some progress. Nevertheless, such progress does not well correlate with the efforts that have been expended. Some of the pretexts some African men put forward in opposition to the use of condoms include the following:
Condoms diminish pleasure or enjoyment of sex
Condoms ruins the mood
You cannot feel anything while wearing a condom
If a women loves a man, then she you should just trust him
in order for sex to be real, fresh must come into contact with fresh (of course, condoms make this pre-requisite unattainable)
Some even think it is sin to use the condoms during sex
For these reasons, I advocate that future anti-HIV campaigns adjust the current model and focus more on promoting the use of the female condom. The female condom should be promoted as an alternative to the male condom and should be available to all sexually active women. I believe that there should be a sharpened campaign to give credence to the female condom in African communities until it ultimately becomes a mainstream accessoryin the woman’s purse.
The Female Condom:
The female condom is a thin, soft loose-fitting polyurethane plastic pouch that is used during intercourse to prevent pregnancy and reduce the risk of sexually transmitted diseases. It has flexible rings at each end. Just before vaginal intercourse, it is inserted deep into the vagina. The ring at the closed end holds the pouch in the vagina. The ring at the open end stays outside the vaginal opening during intercourse. And during anal intercourse, it is inserted into the anus.
The penis is directed into the pouch through the ring at the end, which stays outside the vaginal during the intercourse. By covering the inside of the vagina or anus and keeping semen and pre-cum out, female condoms reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections. Why the Female Condom.
The female condom is more acceptable to most men as it does not constrict the penis as do latex condoms and hence does not result in a significant decrease in sensation.
It gives the woman some amount of power which in most cases is totally vested in the man.
It provides an opportunity for women to share the responsibility for protection with their partners
Research shows that, if women always use the female condom correctly, only 5% of users will report unexpected pregnancy each year. It can even be made more effective if used with a spermicide.
A woman may be able to use the female condom if her partner refuses to use the male condom
Unlike the male condom which is inserted in the heat of the moment and can therefore ruin the mood, the FC or FC2 female condom can be inserted up to 8 hours before intercourse so as not to interfere with the moment.
While the statistic continue remain ugly, it is vital that women take charge over their own health and not depend solely on their partners in making decisions relating to sexual matters.
How Do We Get There?
The main disadvantage of the female condom is that it is three times more expensive than the male condom and therefore beyond the means of women in most African communities where the average income is less than a dollar a day. (The cost of the female condom is between $2.50 -$5.00). This is the gap that the Government, Non-governmental Organizations and Foundations involved in the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign need to fill. By making the female condom easily accessible to all sexually active women in Africa, including prostitutes, we as a nation will make significant advancement in the fight against HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancy.
Again, even as we have done in the past and continue to do with the male condom, we need an aggressive campaign to educate our women that they have an option. Empower the ministries of health to provide free samples to sexually active women whenever the visit any health facility. The media should play their role, community leaders should not be left out, and religious organization should recognize that their support is vital.
The statistics are premonition, but it is not too late to apprehend the trend. The cost will be worth it.
I stated: The main disadvantage of the female condom is that it is three times more expensive than the male condom and therefore beyond the means of women in most African communities where the average income is less than a dollar a day. (The cost of the female condom is between $2.50 -$5.00).
Correction:
The cost of the FC2 Female Condom is around $0.60 for governments and donors and lower with increased volume. The $2 price is what FC1 costs on the shelf in a retail drug store in the US. The FC2 was developed to lower the cost of the female condom with intent to increase access to women in Africa. It has same design but different material and different manufacturing process which allows for the significantly lower cost.
Swine flu infection boosts natural immunity to unusual levels
A study reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows people who pull through swine flu may be left with an unusual natural ability to fight off other flu viruses. While wrestling with the H1N1 virus, the body makes other antibodies that later can fight many other flu strains.
It is hoped that by exploiting these findings, scientist can make a universal flu vaccine that would defend against any type of influenza.
If such a feat is attained, it would solve an age old problem that scientists and researchers face at the moment: year after year, researchers struggle to forecast coming flu strains and how to rapidly produce a new vaccine for the strains each flu season.
Last year H1N1 swine flu virus that reached pandemic levels infecting an estimated 60 million people.
This study provides the possibility of making a single vaccine that could potentially provide immunity to all influenza.
In the nine patients they studied who had caught swine flu during the pandemic, they found the infection had triggered the production of a wide range of antibodies that are only very rarely seen after seasonal flu infections or flu vaccination.
Five antibodies isolated by the team could fight all the seasonal H1N1 flu strains from the last decade, the devastating “Spanish flu” strain from 1918 which killed up to 50m people, plus a potentially deadly bird flu H5N1 strain.
The researchers believe the “extraordinarily” powerful antibodies were created as the body learned how to fight the new infection with swine flu using its old memory of how to fight off other flu viruses.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a director of the World Bank, was Nigeria’s Finance Minister and then briefly Foreign Affairs Minister from 2003 to 2006, the first woman to hold either position.
During her tenure as Finance Minister, she worked to combat corruption, make Nigeria’s finances more transparent, and institute reforms to make the nation’s economy more hospitable to foreign investment. The government unlinked its budget from the price of oil, its main export, to lessen perennial cashflow crises, and got oil companies to publish how much they pay the government.
Since 2003 — when watchdog group Transparency International rated Nigeria “the most corrupt place on Earth” — the nation has made headway recovering stolen assets and jailing hundreds of people engaged in international Internet 419 scams.
Okonjo-Iweala is a former World Bank vice president who graduated from Harvard and earned a Ph.D. in regional economics and development at MIT. Her son Uzodinma Iweala is the celebrated young author of Beasts of No Nation.
The President posted on his Facebook page what he anticipates the budget to help Nigeria to accomplish. Among the many things he said, the one that interests me most is what appears to be Mr. Jonathan’s commitment to fight malaria.
This is what he wrote:
“As part of the budgetary allocation to the health sector are funds to establish scientific research institutes that will focus on areas that directly impact health care in Nigeria such as HIV, Malaria, Cholera, sickle cell anemia and Cancer.”
He said he will work with his administration to tap the creativity of Nigerian scientists in solving the country’s greatest health challenges because
“some of these diseases are peculiar to Africa; they may not be a priority to the research institutes of governmental and private pharmaceutical research industries of the West.”
I could not agree with the President any more. One of our goals at talkafrique is to promote the idea that African problems must be solved by Africans and also that politics must be about problems and solutions and not just signboards and slogans. As Gen. Collin Powell said,
“You can’t just have slogans; you can’t just have catchy phrases. You have to have an agenda”
I believe on this, President Jonathan is on the correct path.
Malaria was eradicated in the US and Canada about 5 to 6 decades ago. It is laughable for us to expect American corporations to focus on malaria research and development in such challenging economic times while such efforts could be expended in the development of drugs that target erectile dysfunction. Malaria, like some other diseases, is referred to as a ‘Neglected Disease’ for a reason. No financial consultant or market analyst will encourage a client to borrow money to develop anti-malaria drug, except on humanitarian grounds. We salute the few companies that continue to screen for anti-malaria drugs and vaccines.
To us as Africans, malaria is a pressing issue. A child dies of malaria every 30 seconds in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is not just statistics
I hope that President Jonathan will stay true to his word. I will be checking his Facebook wall for updates. I will also be watching very carefully for what the Presidents of Ghana, Togo, Kenya, Botswana and the rest of our leaders have to offer.
An overweight African rat! This is not a phrase that normally evokes feelings of gratitude, but just waits a minute. African Scientists have reported that rats can save lives by sniffing out tuberculosis with accuracy greater than that of a microscope.
The rat in question is the Gambian pouched rats, which are found in most places in Africa. Researchers are training the rats to be able to smell Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that cause TB.
The New York times reports a study conducted in which rats were able to smell the difference between TB bacteria and the other germs found in human sputum sample or phlegm. The rats’ ability to detect TB was as high as 86.6 percent, and their ability to rule it out was over 93 percent!
Most TB tests involve staining a sample of phlegm with a special compound and examining it under a microscope. This 100-year-old method is notoriously unreliable, however — as many as 60 to 80 percent of positive TB cases are undiagnosed, partly because the bacteria are hard to spot unless there are a lot of them in the sample. But the rats were able to sniff them out, detecting 44 percent more positive cases in a head-to-head competition.
Last month, the World Health Organization endorsed a new machine that can provide accurate results within two hours, but it costs $17,000, and each test requires a $17 cartridge. Rats, needless to, come cheap and what a treasure.
Worldwide, TB killed an estimated 1.7 million people in 2009, and 9.4 million people developed active.
The data is still preliminary but encouraging. Eventually, the rats could be used as a first line of detection for the disease
It is said that if you do not define yourself, others will define you. You can let others define you, which is the easier way or forge ahead and make your own path. I make a call for us to redefine Africa in our own terms.
Africa is depicted in the western media as a continent synonymous with genocide, disease, corruption, poverty, ignorance, deprivation, banditry, brigandage, slaughter fields, child soldiers, gang-raped girls, harassed mothers and wasted children. The continent is even at times referred to as the ‘dark’ continent. Surely, we are plagued by some of these challenges but those should not define the continent and its people.
Today, such one-size-fit-all portrayal of Africa is irresponsible. Some countries and sub-regions have made significant strides in every facet of life. Despite a few aberrations, democracy is strengthening in several countries, while some economies are projected to see the fastest growth among economies in the years ahead. We may just cross our hands and complain about the unfair African stereotypes or each of us can decide to embark on his or her own mission to shape the ending of the story, the beginning of which is beyond our control.
I do not think it is going to be easy to expunge the current Western mindset on the African continent and people. I however believe that it is worth trying. Every African has a role to play in reversing this mindset. There has to be a gracious but aggressive challenge when people are caught on the wrong side of the facts. My goal is to arm our readers with the facts and figures to confront people who intentionally or out of honest ignorance get it wrong on Africa.
Very often, we hear Africa being portrayed as a country that is in a civil war. I personally feel upset when I hear people depict Africa as a jungle with women walking on streets with naked chest, every child starving, and scattered villages with schools held under trees. Perception becomes a reality, at least in the mind, if it is not confronted. It is for this reason that I call upon all readers to fight this unfair stereotyping. We are generally meek people, but our meekness should not be mistaken for a weakness.
I have listed below some facts about Africa that are easily missed and sometimes dishonestly covered up.
Africans are not the sad, hungry looking folks normally depicted in the media. In fact a new survey by conducted by BVA Gallup in 53 countries and reported by French daily Le Parisien showed that Nigerians and Ghanaians are the second and third most optimistic people, respectively, beaten only by Vietnam.
Africa is a continent of 54 independent countries with nearly 1 billion people (about 3 times population of the US)
That the size of the African continent (30,3 million km²) is larger than the combination of China (9,6 million km²), the US (9,4 million km²), Western Europe (4,9 million km²), India (3,2 million km²) and Argentina (2,8 million km
That Africans abroad remit back home about $40 billion annually and still manage to pay their mortgage and credit cards.
That English, French, Arabic, Portuguese are used as medium of instructions right from kindergarten in most countries.
That like Brazil, Peru, and Australia, the Democratic Republic of Congo has one of the richest ecosystems in the world (have you ever heard something good about the DRC?)
That Africa is not a parasite on the western economy but rather make significant contributions to the global economic system, with an estimated combined purchasing power of more than $2.5 trillion [source: United Nations Development Program (UNDP)].
That Africa has the only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace prize winners. It is Vilakazi Street, Soweto, South Africa. Both Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have houses on the street (that’s significant, I think).
That Africa is not all slums. From Johannesburg to Dakar, Dares Salaam to Nairobi, and Accra to Cairo many African cities boast of towering skyscrapers, complex infrastructures, 21st Universities and a sizzling nightlife that will amaze any first time uninformed tourist.
That the continent can boast of some of the most talented athletes on the planet.
Knowledge is power. These are the weapons that I use to fight the stereotypes. You are welcome to add them to your arsenal. It is time to uncover the Africa they do not report.
