Daily Times Nigeria Thursday, June 30, 2016
Health Æ s
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WHO gets new Director for Health Emergencies Programme Lara Adejoro
DR. PETER SALAMA
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced the appointment of Dr Peter Salama as the Executive Director of its new Health Emergencies Programme, at the level of Deputy Director-General.
DR. MUFUTAU ANIMASHAUN
He takes up his new post on 27 July 2016. Dr. Salama is from Australia and is currently UNICEF Regional Director for Middle East and North Africa and Global Emergency Coordinator for the Crises in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. He has previously served with UNICEF as Country Representa-
tive in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, as Global Coordinator for Ebola, and as Chief of Global Health. Prior to joining UNICEF in 2002, he worked with the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), Concern Worldwide and MSF. Dr. Salama is a medical epidemiologist who brings a wealth
of experience in management of humanitarian crises and disease outbreaks. He has worked in public health for more than 20 years and published widely in the fields of maternal and child survival, refugee and forced migration and complex emergencies.
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TOMATO EBOLA
Consultant post-harvest horticulturist and a one-time Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture Cooperatives and Rural Development
We can solve Tomato Ebola outbreak in Nigeria – Dr. Animashaun Dr. Mufutau Animashaun is a consultant post-harvest horticulturist and a one-time Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture, Cooperatives and Rural Development. In this interview with GODWIN ANYEBE, he discussed the causes, effects of tuta-absoluta locally known as tomato Ebola and how it can be controlled. Excerpts: Presently, fruits and vegetable farms in Nigeria are having a holocaust of tuta-absoluta locally known as tomato Ebola. As an expert, can you explain what tuta absoluta is, how it attacks vegetables and precaution needed to stop its spread before the solution arrives?. Tuta-absoluta is an intelligent insect that has a distinctive sur-
vival instinct, it’s a pest that destroys tomato crops and it has been prevalent in this country for 50 years , but just discovered few years back . The attention is just coming up now because of the intensity of the attack that is being experienced. It is a soil born pest, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), is a micro lepidopteran moth belonging to the Gelechiidae family and is considered as
one of the most devastating pest that feeds on tomatoes , garden egg, aubergine, potatoes, and tobacco plants. Tuta absoluta pest spreads very quickly, it has a high reproductive potential and a life cycle that can take between 24 to 76 days, depending on the environmental conditions. Adults are silvery gray with black spots on the fore-wings . Their activity is concentrated
in the early morning and dusk; during the rest of the day they remain hidden among the leaves. Adult lifespan ranges between 10 and 15 days for females and 6–7 days for males. The female lays the eggs mainly on the leaves, although they can also be found on stems and sepals. Eggs are laid isolated, thus facilitating their distribution on the crop. The number of eggs per female is usu-
ally between 40 and 50 and may reach 260. This is just a nominal description of Tuta absoluta and I think we need to deploy different approaches to solving the problem. First is the approach of attacking the insects itself at the reproduction stages from the egg to adult. It’s not about attacking at the point of attack, but killing the egg before hatching,
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