Six die after eating abacha in Lagos...!

A typical abacha delicacy

39 others hospitalised ...
• Government bans sale of delicacy

Six persons have died of cholera in Isolo Local Council of Lagos State after allegedly eating Abacha, a local delicacy.

Commonly called African salad, abacha is a delicious Nigerian meal that is native to Igbos. It is prepared from dried, shredded and fermented cassava, leaves of garden egg, stockfish, castor bean, palm oil and local spices.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, confirmed the deaths yesterday at a press conference. Idris told journalists: “The ministry was notified of an upsurge of diarhhoea diseases in some communities in Isolo Local Council Development Authority (LCDA).

“Following this, 45 cases were line-listed by the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry. Six deaths were recorded among the 45 cases. Majority of the cases did not present with the classical rice-water stool, rather they presented with atypical diarrhoea and vomiting.

“Ano-rectal swabs were collected from 15 cases and taken to the Central Public Health Laboratory, Yaba, Lagos. Initially, there were no growths, however, continuous culture yielded Vibro cholerae from seven out of the 15 samples. The Vibrio cholera was later confirmed to be Ogawa strain.

“The main suspected source of infection is the salad called Abacha, a staple food of Isolo residents and adjoining local councils. Some domestic wells within the communities are also suspected. Samples of the Abacha salad and well water were collected and sent to the Lagos State Drug Quality Control Laboratory for analysis.

“The report of the analysis revealed the presence of Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella species and Escherichia coli in abacha and one of the two well water samples,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), cholera is an acute diarrhoea disease with or without vomiting caused by bacteria referred to as Vibro cholerae and it is transmitted through ingestion of food or water contaminated with infective faeces.

Food or water contamination is usually due to poor sanitation and the source of contamination is usually other cholera cases when their infective watery stool gets into food or drinking water supplies.

Prevention of cholera can be achieved through basic water sanitation, such as boiling water of unclean sources. Cholera can kill within hours if left untreated.

The commissioner, however, said the state has instituted measures towards quick containment and control of the outbreak.

Idris explained: “Our health workers are in the community striving assiduously towards quick containment and control of spread of the disease. Chlorination of water supply has been intensified, awareness campaign is on-going and cases are been promptly diagnosed and appropriately managed in our hospitals.”

Other prevention and control measures instituted by the state government include: Identifying the three vendors of contaminated Abacha at Cele Bus Stop; ban on sale and caution in eating of Abacha when not prepared by you; and distributing factsheets on cholera to the Medical Directors of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and 26 General Hospitals in Lagos State and Medical Officers in all the 57 LGAs/LCDAs for circulation to all health workers in their facilities.

The commissioner advised the general public to take the following precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease: Wash your hands with soap and water frequently and thoroughly especially after using the rest room; boil water before drinking, especially if you are not sure of the source; keep all cooking utensils, plates, cutleries, cups and other materials clean before and after use.

Others are cover foods and water sources; cook foods adequately; store foods in fridges; wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly; dispose of waste materials appropriately; and limit body contact, especially hand contact with faeces.

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Missing 12-year-old girl found dead in latrine in Ekiti

A typical latrine

A twelve-year-old girl, simply known as Blessing, reportedly died when she fell into a pit latrine at Asin-Ekiti, in Ikole Local Council of Ekiti State.

A witness, Ruth Bamidele, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday that the deceased was running an errand for her parents on Monday evening when the incident occurred.

Bamidele said the girl mistakenly stepped on the rusty and weak concrete that covered the pit latrine and fell into it with nobody around to rescue her.

She said her parents raised the alarm on Monday night when she did not return home and the search for her whereabouts continued till Tuesday morning.

“One of the neighbours in search of the missing girl noticed the collapsed lid of the pit toilet in a residential building situated behind the Alasin palace.

“A lifeless body was sighted inside the pit and was later brought out; it was the missing girl and the incident threw the entire community into mourning,” she said.

It was learnt that the deceased was in happy mood when her parents sent her on errand on the day of the incident, unknown that it was a journey of no return.

Many residents of the community were seen sympathising with the deceased parents, Rotimi and Helen, who were wailing uncontrollable.

Meanwhile, the Ikole Local Council has warned all landlords in the area with uncompleted or damaged pit latrines to, as a matter of urgency, put them in good shape.

Head, Environment Department in the council, Tunde Famuyisan, gave the warning yesterday when reacting to the unfortunate incident that claimed the life of the innocent girl.

Famuyisan said all sanitary inspectors in the area have been directed to move from house to house to ensure that every residential building in the council has functional toilets, as well as demolish life-threatening pit toilets.

He appealed to residents to give useful information to the council workers, so as to detect houses with unsafe pit toilets.

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Microsoft, CcHub partner to groom 20 startups for Lagos

PHOTO: Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

Microsoft has partnered with Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) to groom 20 technology startups in the country.

Specifically, the startups, which would be incubated for about six months, are expected to develop solutions that would solve social problems, especially in Lagos.

The two bodies explained that the partnership is an entrepreneurial mentorship and support programme through an initiative termed Windows Insiders for Good (#WINsiders4Good) Fellowship.

The announcement marked the first step by the program to deepen its relationship with Africa, starting with Nigeria.  The partnership with CcHUB is meant to open opportunities to Nigerian entrepreneurs who have brilliant ideas that they want to use to change their world.

According to Director of Software Engineering, Microsoft Corp, Bambo Sofola, WINsiders4Good focuses on how to use technology to solve complex problems.

“We have thousands of Windows Insiders in Nigeria, and tens of thousands across Africa. We want to collaborate more closely with them and other Windows users to make this a truly international product. One in seven Africans is Nigerian, computer usage is soaring, and tech centers like Yaba represent a manifestation of that growth. We think it is a great time and place to learn from like-minded techies and entrepreneurs who are solving complex problems and creating opportunities in Lagos and greater Nigeria,” Sofola stated.

Application for the WINsiders4Good Fellowship is on and will close on 10th October 2016.  Nigerians seeking to apply should visit http://ift.tt/2da0yPz for more information and the application form. Entrepreneurs who qualify for the Fellowship program will receive Microsoft hardware, software and six months of tailored technical mentorship to help bring their innovative ideas to life, while also allowing them to collaborate with the world’s largest community of people who use simple technology to solve problems.

Confirming this, Sofola stated that “Microsoft and CcHUB will connect entrepreneurs to a global community of people like them, prioritize and fix the technical issues that can hinder them from reaching their goal, provide mentors for technical and strategic questions for six months, and provide hardware and software to bring their ideas to life.”

Speaking alongside Bambo Sofola, Co-Founder, Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), Femi Longe, noted that the future of young Nigerians is in technology and there is every need to create platforms that will help them access and conquer their future needs and challenges.

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No ‘strained relationship’ with CAF president, says Pinnick

Amaju Pinnick

• Urges Nigerians to focus on Super Eagles’ World Cup qualifier against Zambia

President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has said that there is ‘nothing strained’ in the relationship between him and CAF President, Issa Hayatou.

There are insinuations in some quarters that the relationship between Pinnick and Hayatou has been sour since July, when FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Secretary General Fatma Samba Samoura visited Nigeria.

According to http://ift.tt/2cVVGhP, the CAF boss is angry with Pinnick for leaving him out of the elaborate visit of Infantino and Samoura to Nigeria. The report further stated that following the strained relationship between the duo, Nigeria could lose the hosting right of the Africa Beach Soccer Nations Cup, which is scheduled to hold in Lagos in December.

However, Pinnick told The Guardian yesterday in a telephone chat that his relationship with Hayatou remained cordial, adding that the NFF actually dispatched a letter to CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt inviting Hayatou and his executives for the visit of Infantino and Samoura to Nigeria.

“Anybody suggesting that the Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets got knocked out of the qualifiers to the 2017 African U-20 and U-17 championships because of a strained relationship between me and Hayatou is not saying the truth. Everybody saw what happened at the Teslim Balogun Stadium during the game between the Flying Eagles and their counterparts from Sudan. Our boys had several scoring opportunities but failed to make good use of it. Was it Hayatou that is supposed to convert those chances for our boys?

“During our preparation for the visit of FIFA President and the Secretary General to Nigeria, we sent a letter of invitation to CAF. I think what should be our main focus for now is how to prepare the Super Eagles for our World Cup qualifiers against Zambia next month. That is my focus and I urge all well-meaning Nigerian football fans to think in that direction,” Pinnick stated.

The report by http://ift.tt/2cVVGhP yesterday stated that the CAF boss is not ready to call off his grouse with Pinnick, stating that the body would soon withdraw the hosting right of the Africa Beach Soccer Nations Cup from Nigeria on the ground that they have lost confidence in the country’s readiness to host the event in December.

According to the report, since the ‘strained relationship’ between Hayatou and Pinnick started in July, Nigerian football had been the worst hit as the Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets got knocked out of the 2017 African championship qualifiers owing largely to some obvious poor officiating against Nigeria.

The report added: “Our source has also confirmed plans to frustrate Nigeria’s Super Falcons from successfully defending the Africa Women’s Nations Cup they won two years ago in Namibia, when the competition starts later in the year in Hayatou’s country, Camerooun,”

Meanwhile, CAF said yesterday that draws for the 2nd edition of the Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations, Nigeria 2016, would take place tomorrow (Saturday, 24 September) at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo, Egypt at 16H00 local time (14H00 GMT).

The qualified teams are host Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Libya, Madagascar, Morocco and Senegal.

The statement stated that the final tournament would be held from 13-18 December 2016 in Lagos with the finalists qualifying to represent the continent at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Bahamas in 2017.

NFF First Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi, is the head of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) set up by Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, for the competition.

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Sitting for long periods causes four percent of deaths

Sitting for long periods causes four percent of deaths

The next time you wrap up your workday and realise you’ve been sitting in front of the computer for almost eight straight hours, maybe you won’t feel so proud of yourself. A new study, conducted in 54 countries around the world, declares that 3.8 per cent of all deaths are due to the fact that society spends more than three hours a day sitting down.

Each year people go into September with a number of resolutions. Exercising and not spending so much time on the couch tend to be some of these good intentions. 31 per cent of the worldwide population does not meet the current recommendations for physical activity according to several studies published in 2012 by the journal The Lancet.

In addition, a lack of exercise is associated with major non-communicable diseases and with deaths of any cause -inactivity is the culprit behind six per cent to nine per cent of total worldwide deaths.

Today’s lifestyle has an impact on these numbers. In fact, various studies over the last decade have demonstrated how the excessive amount of time we spend sitting down may increase the risk of death, regardless of whether or not we exercise.

A new study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine and in which San Jorge University in Zaragoza (Spain) participated, now estimates the proportion of deaths attributable to that ‘chair effect’ in the population of 54 countries, using data from 2002 to 2011.

“It is important to minimise sedentary behaviour in order to prevent premature deaths around the world,” Leandro Rezende, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) explains. He also highlights that “cutting down on the amount of time we sit could increase life expectancy by 0.20 years in the countries analysed.”

The results reveal that over 60 per cent of people worldwide spend more than three hours a day sitting down -the average in adults is 4.7 hours/day-, and this is the culprit behind 3.8 per cent of deaths (approximately 433,000 deaths/year).

Among the territories studied, there were more deaths in the regions of the Western Pacific, followed by European countries, the Eastern Mediterranean, America and Southeast Asia. The highest rates were found in Lebanon (11.6 per cent), the Netherlands (7.6 per cent) and Denmark (6.9 per cent), while the lowest rates were in Mexico (0.6 per cent), Myanmar (1.3 per cent) and Bhutan (1.6 per cent). Spain falls within the average range with 3.7 per cent of deaths due to this ‘chair effect’.
More movement, fewer deaths

The authors calculate that reducing the amount of time we sit by about two hours (that is, 50 per cent) would mean a 2.3 per cent decrease in mortality (three times less), although it is not possible to confirm whether this is a causal relationship.

Even a more modest reduction in sitting time, by 10 per cent or half an hour per day, could have an immediate impact on all causes of mortality (0.6 per cent) in the countries evaluated.

In the words of the experts, measures aimed at addressing the determining factors behind this sedentary conduct would be necessary. “Some examples of this approach were recently highlighted by the World Health Organization,” adds Rezende.

“For example, a strategic health communication campaign was developed to promote physical activity among women in Tonga (Oceania), while a bicycle-sharing system was developed in Iran in addition to a sustainable transport system in Germany,” he concludes.

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Hypertension drugs counter leading cause of mortality in malaria patients

Hypertension drugs

Adding a popular high blood pressure drug to standard malaria treatment more than tripled the survival rate of infected mice. That is the finding of a study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infection where a bite passes a parasite into the bloodstream. Eliminated from the United States in the 1950s, the disease still kills hundreds of thousands each year, mostly children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study results address cerebral malaria, where the parasite causes swelling and bleeding in the brain. Around one percent of the 216 million people infected globally each year develop cerebral malaria. Of those, 15 to 20 percent die, likely representing the majority of the 438,000 deaths attributed to malaria last year, say the study authors.

“About one in five patients with cerebral malaria die within 48 hours of being admitted to the hospital, the time it takes for the parasite-killing drug to take effect,” says senior study author Ana Rodriguez, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone. “If we could add a drug that stopped hemorrhages during that window, it would buy time and save lives.”

In experiments, mice were divided into groups either treated only with chloroquine, a drug commonly used to kill the parasite, or with chloroquine in combination with one of two anti-hypertensive treatments. While just 18 percent of mice treated only with chloroquine survived, 65 percent of mice also given irbersartan, an angiotensin receptor 1 blocker, survived, as did 73 percent of mice also treated with C21, an experimental drug that increases signaling through angiotensin receptor 2.

The team also found that infected mice treated with one of the two angiotensin-influencing drugs experienced fewer, smaller hemorrhages, and in most cases fully recovered.

It was known going into the study that blood cells infected with malaria produce more of a protein that makes them stick to blood vessel walls. Also known was that malaria parasites multiply inside blood cells, which finally burst after about two days to release more parasites.

The new study found that the bursting of infected blood cells, by showering their contents on the vessel walls they are stuck to, sends signals that interfere with the ability of wall-lining cells to cling to each other. Each cell in the walls holds on less tightly to its neighbors, opening gaps through which first blood serum and later whole blood can escape into brain tissue.

The researcher team used a genetically engineered version of the malaria parasite that enabled them to control the timing of blood cell bursts by adding a trigger molecule. Endothelial cell-cell junctions were fine before the blood cells burst, but compromised afterward.

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Smoking may affect human genetic material for more than 30 years

Smoking

Smoking leaves its “footprint” on the human genome in the form of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA)/genetic material methylation, a process by which cells control gene activity, according to new research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics, an American Heart Association journal.

The new findings suggest that DNA methylation could be an important sign that reveals an individual’s smoking history, and could provide researchers with potential targets for new therapies. “These results are important because methylation, as one of the mechanisms of the regulation of gene expression, affects what genes are turned on, which has implications for the development of smoking-related diseases,” said Prof. Stephanie J. London, last author and deputy chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. “Equally important is our finding that even after someone stops smoking, we still see the effects of smoking on their DNA.”

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death worldwide, despite a decline in smoking in many countries as a result of smoking cessation campaigns and legislative action. Even decades after stopping, former smokers are at long-term risk of developing diseases including some cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and stroke. While the molecular mechanisms responsible for these long-term effects remain poorly understood, previous studies linking DNA methylation sites to genes involved with coronary heart disease and pulmonary disease suggest it may play an important role.

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