Global Health Update

Health NewsI Malaysia has reported its first case of a pregnant woman with Zika

Malaysia has reported its first case of a pregnant woman with Zika, who lives in a state bordering Singapore where authorities have already recorded 275 cases.

The 27-year-old woman in the southern state of Johor is the third person with Zika in Malaysia, where fears of a full-blown outbreak emanating from Singapore are mounting.
Infected pregnant women can give birth to babies with microcephaly, a deformation marked by abnormally small brains and heads.

Malaysia’s health minister, Dr Subramaniam

“The woman is expecting her first child and is three to four months pregnant,” Malaysia’s health minister, S Subramaniam, said in a statement on the ministry’s Facebook page.

Last week, Malaysia reported its first case of Zika in a woman believed to have caught the virus in Singapore. On Saturday, it reported its first suspected locally transmitted case, a man in the eastern state of Sabah.

The man, who had no recent history of overseas travel, was already in fragile health and subsequently died of heart-related complications.
Subramaniam said it was not clear how the pregnant woman had contracted Zika, but she had visited Singapore six months ago and her husband regularly made trips to the city state.

Health NewsI Zika Virus- World Health Organization Issues Safe Sex Guidelines For Travelers

World Health Organization (WHO) have issued new guidelines for travelers in Zika-affected areas to practice safe sex for at least six months. This is because Zika virus could be transmitted via bodily fluids including semen.

According to WHO, more studies are confirming that sexual intercourse could be a mode of transmission of the Zika virus. WHO wants to protect pregnant women as much as possible since Zika-linked microcephaly is one of the effects of the virus. This is the case of babies being born with abnormally small brains, leading to numerous delays in physical and mental abilities.

WHO also said in their guidelines that other studies had revealed even people who have not had symptoms of the virus could infect others. Initially, WHO proposed that men and women traveling from Zika-affected areas should practice safe sex for eight weeks or two months. People who would have symptoms of having Zika virus would only experience mild changes such as a fever, rashes, or muscle and joint aches. WHO also advised pregnant women to avoid travelling to areas with ongoing Zika virus transmission.

The main transmission of Zika virus is through the Aedes mosquito bites. Zika could stay in a man's semen for months and in the blood stream of a person. It could also be found in urine. Zika has spread in Latin America, the Carribean, in Asia, and some states in the U.S. In Florida, there have been seven more people diagnosed with home-grown Zika cases. Florida now has 56 locally-acquired Zika cases. In the other guidelines sent out by WHO, they advised women to delay their pregnancy plans in order to avoid affecting the baby if they catch the Zika virus.

Health NewsI World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Sri Lanka a malaria-free nation.

World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Sri Lanka a malaria-free nation.

Regional director of WHO, Poonam Khetrapal Singh said in a statement with gletupdate that Sri Lanka had been among the most malaria-affected countries in the mid-20th century.
According to a statement received from WHO, it is said that the country had begun an anti-malaria campaign that successfully targeted the mosquito-borne parasite that causes the disease, not just mosquitoes. Health education and effective surveillance also helped the campaign.
It said no locally transmitted cases of malaria had been recorded in the country for three-and-a-half years.
To prevent parasites re-entering the country, the anti-malaria campaign is working with local and international partners to maintain surveillance and screening, it said.

The Mental Health Now (mhNOW) initiative will launch at the inaugural Financing and Innovation in Global Health (FIGH) conference today.

According to World Health Organization (WHO), mental illness is increasing worldwide. Between 1990 and 2013, the number of people suffering from depression and/or anxiety increased by nearly 50%, from 416 million to 615 million.

The mhNOW initiative aims to do more than just treat mental illness. The initiative will effectively address mental health in a way that encourages total health and supports the whole person, their families and their community.

The first International Symposium hosted by the Riddet Institute of New Zealand started on Tuesday 12th of this month and proposed to end on the 14th with 150 overseas Researchers, Academics, Health Professionals and Health Media expected to attend alongside their Kiwi counterparts. The event would focus on the Nutritional and Health benefits of kiwifruit based on the latest research and scientific evidence.

The leader of Zepri health and nutrition innovation Dr Juliet Ansell advised people to watch probably to show interest as some exciting results would be announced. She said, their will also be discussion on digetive health, vitamin c health and metabolic health.
Professor Jaap Seidell, the Director of the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Amsterdam was also a key note speaker. She was an eminent researcher with expertise across diet, healthy nutrition and the causes and effects which contribute to weight gain and obesity. Interesting topics such as Nutrient richness of kiwifruit through the properties of fibre and actindin, Kiwifruit's vitamin c health benefits and kiwifruit and metabolic health will be discussed.

It have been declared In a Joint Conference of Federal Health Officials on Monday that Aedes Aegypti (mosquito species that spread the Zika virus) are now in 30 states.

The Principal Deputy Director of CDC, Dr. Anne Schuchat, told us that the range at which this mosquito is spreading this virus is far larger than what was initially thought and the disease is causing

There are many chemicals in tobacco smoke, most of which are active and harm nearly every organs in the body system. Presence of nicotine in smokes makes it difficult for smokers to quit smoking. Cigarettes contain chemicals that are poisonous and some leads to cancer. Smoking affect organs of the body system.

Effects of smoking in the organs of the body system include:
Nervous System
It affect the CNS by producing nicotine which is a mood-altering drug that reaches the brain in a short time. Sometimes when you smoke, you feel more energized but after a little while, you feel more tired. That is the effect of nicotine. Smoking have effect on other organs of the nervous system such as cataracts, sense of taste and smell weakens. Smoking also increases womans risk of cervical cancer.

Digestive Systems
Use of tobacco can cause gum inflammation, lead to tooth

World Health Day is celebrated to mark the anniversary of the founding of World Health Organisation (WHO) annually on April 7th since 1950. WHO-a specialized organisation of the United Nations that is Concerned with international public health, which was established on 7th April, 1948 has played a leading role in the eradication of some diseases.

Diabetes is a condition where people don't produce enough insulin to meet their body's needs and/or their cells don't respond properly to insulin. Insulin is important because it moves glucose, a simple sugar, into the body's cells from the blood. It also has a number of other effects on metabolism. Glucose is provided from the food we eat to the body which is used as a source of energy by the cells. If insulin isn't available or doesn't work correctly to move glucose from the blood into cells, glucose will stay in the blood. High blood glucose levels are toxic, and cells that don't get glucose are

Facts about 'Epilepsy' that you must know

Epilepsy is a central neurological disorder in which nerve cell activity in the brain disintegrate, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations and sometimes loss of consciousness. Epilepsy has many possible causes, including illness, brain injury, and abnormal brain development. In many cases, the cause is unknown. Doctors use brain

2016 World TB Day: Unite to end TB

World Tuberculosis Day remembered on March 24 annually, is held to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis(TB) and efforts to curb the disease. In 1982, on the one-hundredth anniversary of Robert Koch's presentation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) proposed that March 24 be proclaimed an official World TB Day. This was part of a year-long centennial effort by the IUATLD and the World Health Organization under the theme “Defeat TB: Now and Forever.” World TB Day was not officially recognized as an annual occurrence by WHO's World Health Assembly and the United Nations until over a decade later. In the fall of 1995, WHO and the Royal Netherlands Tuberculosis Foundation (KNCV) hosted the first World TB Day advocacy planning meeting in Den Haag, Netherlands; an event they would continue co-sponsor over the next few years. In 1996, WHO, KNCV, the IUATLD and other concerned organizations joined to conduct a wide range of World TB Day activities.
For World TB Day 1997, WHO held a news conference in Berlin during which WHO Director-General Hiroshi Nakajima declared that “DOTS is the biggest health breakthrough of this decade, according to lives we will be able to save.” WHO's Global TB Programme Director, Dr. Arata Kochi, promised that, "Today the situation of the global TB epidemic is about to change, because we have made a breakthrough. It is the breakthrough of health management systems that makes it possible to control TB not only in wealthy countries, but in all parts of the developing world, where 95 percent of all TB cases now exist." By 1998, nearly 200 organizations conducted public outreach activities on World TB Day. During its World TB Day 1998 news conference in London, WHO for the first time identified the top twenty-two countries with the world’s highest TB burden. The next year, over 60 key TB advocates from 18 countries attended the three-day WHO/KNCV planning meeting for World TB Day 1999. U.S. President Bill Clinton marked World TB Day 2000 by administering the WHO-recommended DOTS treatment to patients at the Mahavir Hospital in Hyderabad, India. According to Clinton, “These are human tragedies, economic calamities, and far more than crises for you, they are crises for the world.
The spread of disease is the one global problem for which . . . no nation is immune.” In Canada, the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health noted on World TB Day 2014 that 64% of TB cases reported nationally were among foreign-born individuals and 23% among Aboriginal people, highlighting TB as a key area of concern about health equity. Today the Stop TB Partnership, a network of organizations and countries fighting TB (the IUATLD is a member and WHO houses the Stop TB Partnership secretariat in Geneva), organizes the Day to highlight the scope of the disease and how to prevent and cure it. TB ranks alongside HIV/AIDS the world’s top infectious disease killer. In 2014, 9.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million died from the disease, including 380 000 among people living with HIV. More than 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, and TB is among the top 5 causes of death for women aged 15 to 44. In 2014, an estimated 1 million children became ill with TB and 140 000 children died.
TB is a leading killer of HIV-positive people: in 2014, 1 in 3 HIV deaths was due to TB. Globally, in 2014, an estimated 480 000 people developed MDR-TB. The TB death rate dropped by 47% between 1990 and 2015. An estimated 43 million lives were saved through TB diagnosis and treatment between 2000 and 2014. The WHO End TB Strategy aims to reduce TB deaths by 90% and to cut new cases by 80% between 2015 and 2030, and to ensure that no TB-affected family faces catastrophic costs. Each World TB Day addresses a different theme. The theme for 2016 World TB Day is Unite to End TB
.

World Water Day is held internationally on the 22nd of March every year as an opportunity to focus attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. An international day to celebrate freshwater was recommended at the 1992

Mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus buzz arround local people near the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda who are unaware of the emergency the virus have caused.
Some residents spoke with our reporter stating that they haven't heard of 'Zika' before. Many also said that 'This forest

What you don't know about the 'Zika Virus'

Zika fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease caused by Zika virus (ZIKV), consisting of mild fever, rash (mostly maculo-papular), headaches, arthralgia, myalgia, asthenia, and non-purulent conjunctivitis, occurring about two to seven days after the mosquito vector bite.
One out of four people may develop symptoms, but in those who are affected the disease is usually mild with symptoms that can last between two and seven days. Its clinical manifestation is often similar to dengue, also a mosquito-borne illness.

What you have to know about the 'Lassa Fever' (cont.)

PREVENTION Control of the Mastomys rodent population is impractical, so measures are limited to keeping rodents out of homes and food supplies, as well as maintaining effective personal hygiene. Gloves, masks, laboratory coats, and goggles are advised while in contact with an infected person. These issues in many countries are monitored by a department of public health. In less developed countries, these types of organizations may not have the necessary means to effectively control outbreaks.
Researchers at the USAMRIID facility, where military biologists study infectious diseases, have a promising vaccine candidate. They have developed a replication-competent vaccine against Lassa virus based on recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus vectors expressing the Lassa virus glycoprotein. After a single intramuscular injection, test primates have survived lethal challenge, while showing no clinical symptoms.

What you have to know about the 'Lassa Fever' (cont.)

CAUSES Lassa virus is zoonotic (transmitted from animals), in that it spreads to humans from rodents, specifically multimammate mice (Mastomys natalensis). This is probably the most common mouse in equatorial Africa, ubiquitous in human households and eaten as a delicacy in some areas.In these rodents, infection is in a persistent asymptomatic state.
The virus is shed in their excreta (urine and feces), which can be aerosolized. In fatal cases, Lassa fever is characterized by impaired or delayed cellular immunity leading to fulminant viremia. Infection in humans typically occurs by exposure to animal excrement through the respiratory or gastrointestinal tracts.Inhalation of tiny particles of infectious material (aerosol) is believed to be the most significant means of exposure. It is possible to acquire the infection through broken skinor mucous membranes that are directly exposed to infectious material. Transmission from person to person has also been established, presenting a disease risk for healthcare workers. Frequency of transmission by sexual contact has not been established.

What you have to know about the 'Lassa Fever' (cont.)

PROGNOSIS About 15-20% of hospitalized Lassa fever patients will die from the illness. The overall mortality rate is estimated to be 1%, but during epidemics, mortality can climb as high as 50%.
The mortality rate is greater than 80% when it occurs in pregnant women during their third trimester; fetal death also occurs in nearly all those cases. Abortion decreases the risk of death to the mother. Some survivors experience lasting effects of the disease. Because of treatment with ribavirin, fatality rates are continuing to decline.

Cosmetics and Effects on the Skin

The mammalian skin is the outer covering of humans or other mammals. It is an organ of the integumentary system made up of multiple layers of ectodermal tissue and guards the underlying muscles, bones, ligaments and internal organs. The skin plays a key role in protecting the body against pathogens and excessive water loss.

Other functions of the skin include:
*. Insulation
*. Temperature regulation
*. Sensation
*. Production of vitamin D folates.
Cosmetics are powders, creams, etc that you use on your face and body in order to look more attractive.
Thickness of the skin
*. Under eyes and around eyelids - 0.5mm
*. Palms and soles of the feet - 4mm
*. Back - 14mm.
Cosmetics causes some effects on the skin which include: *. Damages to your skin.

These cosmetics soften the thickness of the skin stated above, thus, resulting in skin malfunction
. *. Some cheap brands can give you an allergic reaction
*. Different brands are used for different skin types, you may get the wrong skin type
*. Cosmetics can leave you with nasty make-up lines
*. Clog your eyelashes together
*. Dry your lips out
*. Can get into your eyes.

Cosmetics involves some chemicals that are also dangerous to humans health. Those chemicals include:
*.Lead [which is a proven neurotoxin, linked to learning, language and behavioural problems. It has also been linked to miscarriage, reduced fertility in men and women, and delays in puberty onset in girls]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: nail colours, lipsticks and whitening toothpaste.
*. Phthalates [which has been linked to early puberty in girls and also a risk factor for later-life breast cancer]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: nail polish, perfumes and fragrance ingredients.
*. Triclosan [which can affect the body's hormone systems especially thyroid hormones]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: deodorants and antibacterial soaps.
*. Parabens [which are absorbed through the skin and has been identified in biopsy samples from breast tumours]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: lotions, ointments and underarm deodorants.
*. Placenta Extract [which has been identified as an anticipated carcinogen by the National Toxicology Program (NTP)]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: hair conditioners and shampoos.
*. Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) [which have been shown to increase risk for breast cancer]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: shampoos and some cosmetics.
*. Ethylene Oxide [which has been identified as mammary carcinogens in animals by National Toxicology Program (NTP)]. Cosmetics associated with this chemical include: shampoos and body washes.
Meanwhile, make up looks good but can ruin yournatural beauty.

Water and your Health

Water (H2O) is a transparent fluid which forms the world's streams, lakes, oceans and rain, and is the major constituent of the fluids of organisms. Water makes up more than two thirds of human body weight, and without water, we would die in a few days. The human brain is made up of 95% water, blood is 82% and lungs 90%. A mere 2% drop in our body's water supply can trigger signs of dehydration: fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on smaller print, such as a computer screen. Water(pure) is tasteless and odorless. Water can dissolve many different substances, giving it varying tastes and odors. Humans, and other animals, have developed senses that enable them to evaluate the potabilityof water by avoiding water that is too salty or putrid.
The taste of spring waterand mineral water, often advertised in marketing of consumer products, derives from the minerals dissolved in it. The advertised purity of spring and mineral water refers to absence of toxins, pollutants, and microbes, not to the absence of naturally occurring minerals. Safe drinking wateris essential to humans and other lifeforms even though it provides no caloriesor organic nutrients.
Access to safe drinking water has improved over the last decades in almost every part of the world, but approximately one billion people still lack access to safe water and over 2.5 billion lack access to adequate sanitation. However, some observers have estimated that by 2025 more than half of the world populationwill be facing water-based vulnerability. A report, issued in November 2009, suggests that by 2030, in some developing regions of the world, water demand will exceed supply by 50%. Water plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solventfor a wide variety of chemical substances and facilitates industrial cooling and transportation.
Approximately 70% of the freshwater used by humans goes to agriculture. Water serves as a lubricant in digestion and almost all other body processes. The water in our saliva helps facilitate chewing and swallowing, ensuring that food will slide easily down the esophagus. Water also lubricates our joints and cartilages and allows them to (pardon the pun) move more fluidly. When dehydrated, the body rations water away from the joints. Less lubrication equals greater friction and that can cause joint, knee and back pain potentially leading to injuries and arthritis. Even our eyeballs need plenty of lubrication to work well and remain healthy.
Boiling, steaming, and simmering are popular cooking methods that often require immersing food in water or its gaseous state, steam. Water is also used for dish washing. Water also plays many critical roles within the field of food science. It is important for a food scientist to understand the roles that water plays within food processing to ensure the success of their products.
Our bodies can control over-heating through perspiration from sweat glands in the skin and from evaporation which produces a cooling effect. Blood is also routed into areas close to the surface of the skin where it can be cooled and then carried back to the interior of the body. Conversing in a cold environment, the skin maintains proper body temperature by shunting the blood away from the exterior surface thereby conserving heat within the body. The movement of water within our cellular systems also transports vital blood plasma which is 92% made of water. Blood plasma play a critical role in buffering the body’s pH, circulating antibodies from the immune system, and regulating osmotic balance which all helps to maintain proper body temperature

Down syndrome (DS or DNS), also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. Our bodies are made up of millions of cells. In each cell there are 46 chromosomes.
The DNA in our chromosomes determines how we develop. People with Down syndrome have 47 chromosomes in their cells instead of 46. They have an extra chromosome 21, which is why Down syndrome is also sometimes known as trisomy 21. The physical features and medical problems associated with Down syndrome can vary widely from child to child. While some kids with DS need a lot of medical attention, others lead healthy lives.
The parents of the affected individual are typically genetically

Global Health Update

Health NewsI Malaysia has reported its first case of a pregnant woman with Zika

Health NewsI Zika Virus- World Health Organization Issues Safe Sex Guidelines For Travelers

Health NewsI World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Sri Lanka a malaria-free nation.

Health News| Global Community Leaders launch mhNOW partnership to improve Mental Health

Health News| The First International Symposium begins

Health News| Health Officials say "Zika Virus now in 30 States"