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Nurses Association Decries Quackery

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The National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), Bayelsa State branch yesterday decried the high rate of quackery in the state and pledged to tackle the menace.
The association, while pointing out the adverse effect on public health, said that the ugly trend was giving nursing a bad name and sought the support of stakeholders in the health sector to stamp out quackery.
The Chairman of NANNM, Mrs Sonia Andabai, who spoke on the development in an interview with newsmen source in Yenagoa, said quackery was more prevalent in the private hospitals in the State.
Andabai appealed to medical practitioners running private clinics and other professional colleagues to desist from providing apprenticeships that would produce quack nurses.
She said anyone caught would not be spared, “as the NANNM Bayelsa Council is on their trail’’.
She lamented that the ugly trend had claimed the lives of many patients, saying that “Bayelsa is one of the states where unauthorised apprenticeship for quack nurses in the private clinics is prevalent.’’
The NANNM chairman said that the Nursing and Midwifery Council was currently reviewing the law guiding nursing practice, adding that it was presently before the National Assembly to provide stiffer penalties for quacks in the nursing profession.
According to her, the draft amendment proposes imprisonment upon conviction without option of fine for quackery.
Andabai called on the state government, Federal Ministry of Health and the committee responsible for quackery to step up their surveillance roles to ensure that quackery was eliminated.
“I want to appeal to those running clinics to stop training quack nurses because, soon we will come after them.
“You see in a clinic, you have only one or two qualified nurses and the rest are quacks because they cannot pay the qualified nurses.
“I want to also beg my fellow professional colleagues to desist from training quack nurses. Why is it that those who open the clinic protect their professions and do not train quacks of their own profession?
 ”If quackery is good for nurses, it should also be good for pharmacy and medicine.
“I am very bitter about the issue of quackery. It is very high in Bayelsa, I want to also say that Bayelsa is one of the states that are turning out the highest number of apprenticeship for quack nurses in the hospitals and clinics.
“They should please desist from it. And any other nurse that knows that she is responsible wherever she is should desist because if we get them they would be brought to book,” she warned.
Andabai called for improvement in the welfare of nurses, saying that certain cadres of nurses were not being paid their teaching allowances and appealed for the reinstatement of the teaching allowances for teaching nurses at every cadre.
She also appealed to the Head of Service of Bayelsa to implement the Call Duty Allowance of all nurses that was adjusted since 2014.
She said that Bayelsa was the only state amongst South-South that was yet to pay call duty allowance approved for nurses.

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Health

Gender Violence Increases HIV/AIDS,RSG Warns

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The Rivers State Government has warned that gender-based violence increases incidence of HIV/AIDs, unwanted pregnancies among other health ailments.
The state Commissioner for Health ,Dr. Adaeze Oreh made the disclosure during the kick-off of the 16-days statewide campaign against gender-based violence.
“She also listed other health problems associated with gender based-violence that include sexually transmitted diseases (STDS), rectal incontinence and addictive behaviours.
“The commissioner used the occasion to enlist the support of individuals, organisations, government around the world to eliminate gender -based violence.“
“Dr. Oreh in a broadcast last weekend to commence the campaign against gender-based violence stressed the need to check the menace which she believed affects families and the society.
“According to her, all forms of anti-social behaviours like rape, sexual and child slavery, forced prostitution, forced abortion and pregnancy perpetrated against the girl child and women should be eliminated.
Said she, the concern of the Rivers State Government is the health implications of gender-based violence which includes increased HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.
She reiterated that the citizens have key role to play to prevent gender- based violence and its consequences by reporting cases promptly to health facilities in the state.

By: Kevin Nengia

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Getting Trimmed Naturally

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There are a lot of misconceptions about weight gain. The first is that weight gain comes from extra calories we do consume that we do not expend. Experts say we eat too much and exercise little. So if one gets fatter, then, surely he or she must be eating too much.
The other misconception is that once we cut our food, then, we will naturally become trimmed. All these are hinged on the diet theory, which only works for some time.
Over the past 40 years, studies have shown that you can not get clinically significant effect from cutting down on your calories. Even though experts are saying that sloth is responsible for weight gains- they overlook one basic truth that dieting only works for a short period.
The new study that seems to break those myths about body fat is now revealing some stunning facts. The kind of food we eat makes us fat. Two scientists at University of Pennsylvania, Mitchell Lazar and Cardiologist Allan Sniderman at McGill University, all in the United States have shown that food that we eat often makes us pack in flesh. These include bread, plain baked potatoes, and plain pasta, rice, sweet corn. They confirmed that fatty foods are not the enemy but easily digested carbohydrates, while steak, burgers, cheese or sour cream help us lose weight and keep our heart healthy.
This sounds ironical, but it has been discovered that those who do diet and avoid those foods end up getting hungry. What happens is that when you conserve energy or burn less energy, you are bound to add more flesh. Many public health authorities want us to practise energy balance, which is a new way to say that you should not take more calories than one expends.
No matter how one counts what he or she eats, it is impossible to determine calories and know when we are over board. No matter how good you are at counting calories, you can’t do it. So its couple of sips of soft drinks and few bites of humburger that can make you add weight. That means it at the point when we eat extra than the body want that the body store excess as fat.
The myth of exercising to reduce weight is really making waves. Exercise is helpful but it is not the main ingredient for fat burning. The funny truth is that the two things we tell people to do in order to lose weight-eat less and exercise more- are the exact two things that make one more hungry. Thus, there is need for balance. If one must exercise, then it should be done moderately so as to allow the body to recover the strenght.
The reality is that insulin is the primary hormone that makes one to add weight, especially one eats food that spikes insulin like bread, biscuits, sweets, soft drinks. It is refined carbohydrates that raise insulin levels in the body. Explained in simple terms, your fat tissue is more like your wallet, and your meals are like going to the ATM. You know how you use the ATM: You put the cash in your wallet and gradually spend it, and when you get too low on cash, you go back to the ATM. It is the insulin that locks the money in your wallet, so you keep going to the ATM, and your fat cells are getting fatter and fatter. More often, you become hungry and you eat again because the insulin can not get at the fatty acids leading to weight gain.
Low carb diet is key if you are to get trimmed. In Africa where stables are more of carbohydrate it is best to choose those with fibre. It is difficult to follow the Atkins diet like eating skinless chicken and green salad, melted mozzarella cheese and all those western diet.
An example of a workable diet is to include eggs more often and cut down on processed foods, especially processed carbohydrate. Complex carbohydrate, and vegetables have more fibre and make you get filled quickly. Instead of Irish potato, go for sweet potatoes, oats that have more fibre. I advise people to eat garri than processed plantain and wheat meals. By the way, processed wheat can worsen the body ails.

By: Kelvin Nengia

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Health

Who Formulates New Drug Treatment For Children

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The World Health Organisation(WHO) has disclosed plans for new child care  formulations.
The new programme if approved will drive innovations for better paediatric medicines.
The world health apex body since 2015 has reported decline in infant and child mortality but observed that there is a lack of research into new life-saving tools targeted at children.
This  it said is partly due to the complexity of conducting studies including the youngest age groups.
“Children cannot swallow tablets or capsules, often cannot bear the taste of liquid medicines and metabolise drugs differently as they develop and grow.”
New drugs formulations is aimed at making  medicines palatable, scored, crushable, dispersible (i.e. disintegrates quickly in water), chewable, sprinkled on food orr mixed with breast milk.
Stressing the need to  improve the lives of infants and children , WHO stated that most drugs are not quality assured, especiallyin low income countries.
Once this is acheived it noted that it will help drive Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 3, for good health and wellbeing, and the related target to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030.
Already, GAP-f network partners are working together to remove barriers to developing and delivering appropriate, quality, affordable and accessible medicines for children.

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