african health Archives

December 27, 2010January 19, 2011

Yello fever outbreak in Uganda

Yellow fever is transmitted by a type of mosquito that is active only during the day

Yellow fever vaccines are being imported for the north of Uganda to inoculate people against the disease which has killed about 45 people.

People began falling ill about a month ago in nine northern districts, the country’s health ministry says.

A health official in Kitgum told the BBC the outbreak was confirmed as yellow fever on Christmas Eve.

The disease, transmitted by infected mosquitoes, was last recorded in Uganda almost 40 years ago, officials say.

Task forces have been put in place in the affected districts and isolation units set up.

Bosco Ochola, chairman of the Kitgum task force, said his staff were treating about 65 infected patients.

“This morning we got a phone call from the Ministry of Health that arrangements are being made from WHO (World Health Organization) to bring vaccines to cover the population,” he told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme

Yellow fever, unlike malaria, is transmitted by a type of mosquito which is active only during the day.

Radio talk shows and dramas were trying to inform people of this, he said.

The health ministry says at least 2.5 million people will be vaccinated when the vials arrive, Uganda’s state-owned New Vision newspaper reports.

The disease has a wide array of symptoms from nausea and vomiting to kidney failure, jaundice and bleeding.

About half of those who develop severe symptoms and are untreated die from the disease.

(Story by BBC)

December 17, 2010December 18, 2010

“Sleeping beauty’ and societal implications

The key to looking attractive and healthy is simpler than you will imagine: it’s all in a ‘good sleep’, a new scientific research suggests.

The idea of ‘beauty sleep’ was an ancient myth but now experts say they have uncovered the first scientific backing for the concept.

The team of researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, recruited 23 healthy adults aged 18 to 31. The volunteers were photographed after eight hours sleep and again after being kept awake for 31 hours.
The photographs were standardised, meaning the people were the same distance from the camera, wore no make-up and wore the same expression.

The pictures were then presented in a random order to 65 untrained observers. The observers were asked to rank the participants on a scale according to how healthy, attractive or sleep-deprived they looked.

The results: The observers scored the sleep-deprived participants as less healthy and less attractive while the volunteers who had adequate sleep were ranked the opposite: healthier and more attractive.

The result is published in the British Medical Journal.

Conclusion: Humans are sensitive to sleep-related facial cues, with potential implications for social and clinical judgments and behavior.

My personal commentary:

Whether it is the University student’s apprehension about a pending examination, or the petty trader’s anxiety about the economy, sleep debt is a major problem in most hard-pressed economies such as those in Africa.

If not dealt with, an escalating sleep debt can result in fibromyalgia syndrome, also called chronic fatigue syndrome. This syndrome leads to prevalent pain and fatigue of just about any muscle in the body. Usually, it brings about other forms of psychological conflicts like depression disorders.

In fact, losing sleep can even have negative consequences for your heart health. Heightened risk of cardiovascular diseases and mortality has been associated with sleep debt.

What you can do:

Spread the word. Help your people.[ad#Adsense-200by200sq]

December 13, 2010January 2, 2011

Africa has potential to solve own problems, Canadian Researchers say

Amy Husser, Postmedia News

A young girl receives a vaccine on November 23, 2009 in Monrovia, Liberia in a file photo. Photograph by: Glenna Gordon, AFP/Getty Images

In spite of a global perception as being “dependent, pestilence-ridden and suffering,” Africa has the ingenuity and conviction to solve its own health problems, Canadian researchers say in a sweeping new look at the continent.

A team of researchers conducted hundreds of interviews in nearly 100 locations across sub-Saharan Africa to offer a “unique microscope” on neglected health problems for Afica.

The “landmark collection” of papers — published Sunday in the U.K.-based BioMed Central — outlines 25 innovative health technologies they say deserve more attention.

The researchers paint Africa as a hub of innovation, being held back only by finances and cultural biases, resulting in a lack of access to global markets.

“The bottom line is there’s a lot more ideas and talent in Africa . . . than there are products on the market helping people improve their health,” says Peter Singer, director of the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health, which conducted the research.

“In the long term, the sustainable solutions to Africa’s health problems rest with the home team.”

According to lead researcher Ken Simiyu, the 25 technologies are considered “stagnant” because they languish in African health institutes instead of being converted into a viable product or service for local markets.

Examples include a portable medical-waste incinerator created in Kenya that can cut down on byproducts produced during mass vaccinations in rural areas, or a Ghana-developed diagnostic test for schistosoma, a parasitic disease that affects as much as 50 per cent of the population in some areas of Africa.

And in Kenya, scientists have isolated human odours that effectively repel mosquitos; an adapted insecticide could cut down on malaria, which kills nearly one million people — mostly African children — annually.

“What is holding them back is they have not been able to get a commercial partner who can transform these chemical entities . . . into a product that is really deliverable to the market,” said Simiyu.

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