THE NATION WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014
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NEWS
‘Environmental sanitation, personal hygiene ’ll prevent epidemic outbreak’
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OW can epidemic outbreak contained? It can be checked through environmental sanitation and personal hygiene, says consultant public physician, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Dr Sofela Oridota According to him, outbreak of epidemics will be a thing of the past if Nigerians clean their environment and live a healthy life. He said epidemic of cholera, Lassa fever, SARRS and other haemorragic fevers are epidemics that can be prevented. Nigeria, he said, can contain those epidemics caused by poor personal hygiene and environmental sanitation by being conscious of filthy environment and making changes in lifestyle. He said incidences of epidemics were few in the past because people took cleanli-
•Oridota By Wale Adepoju
ness seriously. Oridota identified lifestyle as the main cause of diseases. “Our ways of life predisposes us to these diseases,” he added. He said he will not advise vaccination for the treatment
of cholera because if it does not kill people, other preventable diseases such as diarrhea or dysentery would. Personal hygiene if maintained, he said, can prevent deaths from diseases. “People come down with Lassa fever because they expose the food to a certain rat which defecate on it. But if food is covered it will be impossible to have the disease. Hygiene is key to prevent some diseases,” he added. Oridota said about 70 per cent of deaths are caused by ignorance and poverty. He said surveillance should be increased to track Ebola disease. He said there are other epidemics growing in the society from lifestyle diseases. Oridota said epidemics depend on people’s hygiene and their lifestyle. He identified the agent,
host and environment as three key factors that can predispose people to diseases. He said the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) had developed a manual for viral haemorrhagic fevers, adding that health workers and family members of the patients sick of Ebola should have no direct contact with their body, fluid and other secretion. “People can incubate Ebola from three to 21 days and still look okay,” he said. The public health physician said if people don’t touch the dead, dead animals or eat fruits eating halfway by bats which carry Ebola virus they would not contact the disease. He said there can be contact tracing to curtail the spread of the disease.
•Health Mission Co-ordinator, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Dolapo Fasawe, Mrs Pauline Edokpaye (left) and another goitre patient from Badagry awaiting their turn at the ongoing free surgical intervention at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja. PHOTO: OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA.
Why young people are excluded from AIDS response
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OW does the Federal Government policy affect adolescent and young people in their perception of HIV/ AIDS? A survey conducted by Population Council (PC) has shown that the adolescents and young people have been neglected in HIV and AIDS response. At a media-research advocacy exchange programme in
By Oyeyemi GbengaMustapha and Wale Adepoju
Lagos, Country Director, Population Council, Dr Babatunde Ahonsi decried the country’s neglect of the adolescent and young people from national response to HIV and AIDS. He said the government’s HIV/AIDS programme was not young people friendly
because they were not being carried along. “The way adolescent and young people responded to issues of HIV and AIDS was different from that of adults, as such the programme should ensure they are carried along,” he added. Ahonsi said HIV and AIDS cannot be tackled without first addressing the challenges of young people.
He called for a more inclusive HIV/AIDS programme for young people. Ahonsi said his organisation has been conducting research across the world to improve policies, programmes and products in HIV and AIDS, poverty, gender and youth, and reproductive health. “We conduct research every two years on the subject,” he added.
DENTAL TALK with Dr Samuel Awosolu 08108155239 (SMS Only); email- samawosolu@yahoo.co.uk
Emergencies and first aid series (2)
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HE series of tips for readers, mothers and health workers in the community to deal with dental health emergencies where there is no available dentist or the nearest dentist, is some way off. As stated in the first part, most dental clinics do not operate on weekends and some public holidays or late in the evenings. The service available, if any, is often at the teaching hospitals or Federal Medical centres assuming they are not on some industrial action...cheeky as that may sound, that is the reality of the moment. The on-call dentist may be overwhelmed with more urgent and serious situations like maxillofacial trauma and injuries. THRUSH Thrush is caused by a fungus, a yeast by the name- Candida, there are so many sub-specie the commonest being the albican specie. The Candida yeast is found as a regular resident of the oral cavity in about half of the population. It is also found in the vagina canal. When ordinarily present it does not cause any disease unless the individual is ill or the immune system is compromised by a chronic condition, the overwhelming of the immune protective system allows the fungi to cause disease/infection. Excessive use of antibiotics is another cause, poor nutrition or malnutrition especially in children is another condition whereby Candida infection can occur. In babies, infection with Candida may make suckling/feeding very difficult and uncomfortable. Candida infection appears as a whitish coat on the tongue which may easily be scraped off or not, depending on the type and clinical presentation. Candida infections occur more readily in people with Human immunodeficiency virus (AIDS) infection or people wearing dentures, artificial teeth. These are signs to look out for: *White patches on the tongue, cheek, roof of the mouth, palate. A gentle wipe of the whitish coated area, if there is no bleeding, it is likely to be just old milk curds. If there is any bleeding, in all likelihood, it is thrush. The child finds feeding or suckling a mission and difficult/uncomfortable. In the foregoing, there is always an underlying problem to enable thrush to grow. It stands to reason that for the problem to be solved, if it is malnutrition the feeding habits should be improved, if diabetes mellitus, please consult your physician. If on antibiotic medication, consult the physician to decide whether to stop the medication in the interim or not. If due to the denture problems the denture may be remade, cleaned with a soft firm brush or detergent, mild one. Thrush being a fungal infection is not amenable to antibiotics; it could in fact make the situation worse. The white patches could be covered with nystatin drops available at most pharmacies, where not available, a gential violet (GV) solution can be used to coat the tongue. The nipple of a breast feeding mother may be affected by candidasis, the nipples should be treated in the same way or it can result in a cycle of infection. Soft food should be consumed; likewise a lot of fluids need to be taken. White patches may appear on the roof of the mouth, cheek of an adult which may later become sore and red, should this not get better with treatment, other measures such as stopping habits like smoking whether pipes, cigarettes or any other form of tobacco should be taken. Dentures, should they be the cause, will be adjusted by the Dentist through the laboratory technologist. •See you next week
‘Donate blood voluntarily’
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• From left: Chairman, Sickle Cell Foundation Nigeria, National Sickle Cell Centre, Prof Olu Akinyanju; Director, Disease Control, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Jemilade Longe and Director, MTN Foundation, Mr Dennis Okoro during the certificate award ceremony of the 16th Genetic Counsellors on Sickle Cell Disorder sponsored by MTN Foundation in Lagos.
PHOTO: OYEYEMI GBENGA-MUSTAPHA.
ENOTYPE Foundation, a nongovernmental organisation has partnered with the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Committee (LSBTC) on voluntary blood donation. According to the Executive Director of the NGO, Mrs. Doris Gbemiloye, the partnering was borne out of the passion to help Lagos State improve on its voluntary blood donors. She spoke during a voluntary blood donation drive organised by LSBTC in collaboration with the NGO at the
By Olatunde Odebiyi
MRC hall of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). She said the NGO is targeted at taking care of sickle cell disordered patients and counseling them on how to stay healthy. The Executive Secretary of LSBTC, Dr. Modupe Olaiya represented by Dr. Alori Samuel noted that if Nigerians would imbibe the regular habit of voluntary blood donation, there would be reduction in the death rate that relates to loss of blood.