Nigerian News Beat

While applauding the Lagos State House of Assembly for recently passing the bill banning smoking in public places in the state, some groups have solicited the same speedy feat to be repeated at the federal level where the National Tobacco Control Bill (NTCB) is yet to be given the requisite attention and pride of place.

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) presented a joint statement to the media on the urgency for the lawmakers at the national level to prioritise the health and wellness of the citizens by speeding up work on the Bill to make it law. They also advised the lawmakers to put aside party sentiments and personal ambitions in order to confront a common challenge, which the tobacco menace poses to the nation.

For them, the visibility that British American Tobacco Nigeria (BATN) intended to create by ingratiating with elected representatives is proof that the company is unrelenting in its ploy to pull wool over the eyes of Nigerians. The company, it said  is now oiling its so-called corporate social responsibility initiatives which are to effectively thwart legislation that would regulate the marketing, sale and product of its lethal products in Nigeria.

“The passage of the tobacco control bill and its implementation will save us from further deaths and the health complications of the young generation. In all ramifications, the bill will be a vital legislation to hold the tobacco companies accountable for their deception,” it he added.

Chronicling the state of the bill which have passed the first and second reading and is awaiting  public hearing after  work is done by the Joint Committee on Justice and Health,  the  Director, Corporate Accountability, ERA/FoEN, Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi  announced that everyone is awaiting the fast tracking in the mode of the legislation, adding that efforts should  be made for the legislators to be weary of the antics employed by the tobacco companies which is meant to stall any of such bills from becoming law. For him, Nigeria is obligated by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) which Nigeria signed in 2004 to domesticate those provisions of the bill which are to: ban all tobacco adverts and promotion, hundred percent smoke-free policies, ban of sales to minors, taxation issues and improvement on several other measures like education and public awareness etc.

“We’ve seen a lot of African countries initiating tobacco control laws. Every country is now moving to protect their citizens from the hazards of tobacco smoking. Nigeria is the last frontier for tobacco control on the continent, the last war front. There is no cigarette manufacturing plant again almost across the West African belt. They are having them in Nigeria. It’s no doubt that the industry is putting the most outrageous efforts. For them, the market is huge and the backlash is also huge on both sides. If Nigeria gets it right, the entire region will get it right,” he stated.

Further acknowledging the various efforts made by different state governments in putting up laws to protect citizens in their various states and constituencies, the co-ordinator, Coalition Against Tobacco, Onaolapo Olatoyosi in her  remarks complained on why such pragmatic actions isn’t felt at the federal level. Reeling out the various actions by their group at the federal level which dates back to 2006, Olatoyosi noted that it was unfortunate that a lot of politics had come first against the health and lives of the masses.

 

One in five lung transplant patients are given organs from 20-a-day smokers, research has  revealed.

Overall, almost a half of donated lungs come from someone who had smoked, according to a major  British study.

Using lung transplants from smokers is a way of boosting supply as there is a constant shortage of donor organs.

But for one in five patients, their donors had smoked a packet a day or more for at least 20 years.

Despite this, the researchers said patients' survival rate  was not harmed by receiving  a smoker's lung and the research should ease patients' fears about donors who had smoked.

The study showed that patients who received lungs from non-smokers actually had a slightly lower one-year survival rate. The research was carried out at Harefield Hospital in north-west London. 

A teenager is being forced to attend an all-boys school because he is dangerous to women - at least if they're pregnant.

Bryant Hackett, 14, has been diagnosed with cytomegalovirus (CMV) and has been told by medics he is to avoid close contact with expectant women for the foreseeable future.

Although the virus is not causing Bryant to suffer any symptoms, it could be harmful if contracted by a pregnant woman.

He is even unable to have any contact with his sister Terri Wooton, 20, who is expecting a baby in a few weeks’ time.

Bryant, of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, said: ‘I miss my sister a lot and can’t wait until she gives birth. She is due in a few weeks.’

Bryant was diagnosed with the virus in July of last year after a rare strain of hepatitis he believes he picked up while on holiday in Majorca left him with a catalogue of health problems.

It caused him to develop liver failure and end up a with a blood platelet count of just four – the normal level is between 150 and 400.

He suffered bone marrow failure and had to have two bone marrow transplants which first required him to have chemotherapy to clear his existing bone marrow.

He was left with a weakened immune system, which caused him to contract pneumonia which his mother says almost killed him.

After undergoing the bone marrow transplants last year, he spent five months in isolation in the Royal Victoria Infirmary, in Newcastle, receiving chemotherapy.

Following his recovery, he had been due to start at a co-ed school.

However, after doctors told him he was suffering from CMV, which is harmful to unborn babies, he has been forced to attend a boys-only school instead.

CMV is a common virus that is part of the herpes family of viruses.

It causes few symptoms in most people and so most do not know they are infected.

Once someone has been infected, the virus stays in their body for the rest of their life without usually causing problems.

However, it can sometimes cause symptoms if a person has a weakened immune system, for example, if they are having chemotherapy.

CMV can also cause serious problems if a woman becomes infecting during pregnancy as this can lead to hearing loss and learning difficulties in the baby.

A mother was killed in front of her family when she was struck by lightning on a Brazilian beach.

Rosangela Biavati a 36-year-old married mother of one, died instantly when she was hit by the bolt of electricity during a trip to Guaruja, a popular seaside resort on the coast of Sao Paulo.

The first photograph shows the victim heading towards the water with outstretched arms as she warns her 11-year-old son to get out of the sea because of the gathering storm overhead. The next image captures the electrical discharge streaking down.

A Mitsubishi pickup obscures the moment the bolt hits the woman as she steps towards the water’s edge but the tragic outcome is clearly evident in the following image in the sequence of shots.

Three men, including the victim’s husband who is wearing white swimming trucks, drag her lifeless body onto the beach.

These shocking images show the damage alcohol can do to the body - even at a very young age.

Mother-of-four Beverley Pickorer faces certain death from liver disease as a result of years of heavy drinking.

The 35-year-old is plagued by epileptic seizures, her teeth are rotting, her stomach is swollen and her skin is thin and jaundiced.

Now, her distraught partner Anthony Howard, 31, is pleading for her to be allowed to return to her home in Sheffield to die.

If he is being denied his wish, she will spend her last days being nursed around the clock at Haythorne Place Care Home, in Shiregreen.

Ms Pickorer has been drink-dependent for years and at her worst was downing up to 24 cans of lager plus a bottle of perry - pear cider - in the morning, then visiting the pub, then drinking as many as 16 cans when she returned home.

Her four children have all been taken into care.

She has spent the last eight months receiving palliative care in the home, where most other residents are elderly. Before that, she spent four months in hospital.

‘I've been looking after my partner for five-and-a-half years, and she's constantly been in and out of hospital with liver cirrhosis,’ said Mr Howard.

Ogun State Police command have arrested a-45-year-old  man,  pastor  Daniel  Samuel for stabbing his wife over the later refusal to attend church activities.

Daniel , an  Apostolic Church pastor  was reported to have  used a cutlass to inflict a deep cut on his wife, Patient  Samuel in her neck  in Owode-Egba in Ibafemi Owode local government area of Ogun State.

It was gathered that, the offence of the 42 -year -old wife of the Pastor was because she gave preference to  her work over the  church programmes.

It was further gathered that, shortly after the man attacked his wife with cutlass, he alerted the neighbours that his wife has been matcheted by some unknown men , urging the people to help him take his wife to  hospital.

A teenager suffers from a rare condition that causes her to cry and sweat blood.

Delfina Cedeno, 19, began suffering from the bizarre disorder - which also causes blood to seep from her fingernails and belly button - four years ago.

As her condition deteriorated, she started crying the red fluid, having nosebleeds and suffering hair loss.

At her worst, she has bled for up to 15 days and was once left in such a critical condition that she needed a blood transfusion.

But despite hundreds of tests, doctors in her hometown of Veron, in the Dominican Republic, were left baffled.

Miss Cedeno said: 'When this started happening to me I didn't know what to think - I was terrified and in complete shock.

'At first no one could help me and they looked at me like a crazy person when I told them what was going on.

'It was only when I started bleeding in front of a doctor one day that they began to take me seriously.'

'I'd gone into cardiac arrest and they had to give me electric shocks. There was a chance I might have lost the use of my limbs.

'But amazingly I recovered. And now I'm really glad because after that my life started to get better.'

A few months later she met her boyfriend, Recaris Avila, who paid her a visit in hospital after hearing her story.

She said: 'He said I was beautiful. I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.'

Now, four years after it all began, specialists have finally made a breakthrough.

It is thought Miss Cedeno suffers with a rare condition called hematidrosis, which means she has 20 times the level of adrenaline of a normal person.

The anxiety attacks it causes makes her blood pressure rise so severely that she sweats - and this sweat comes out of her body as blood.

The condition is extremely rare. According to a study published in the Indian Journal of Dermatology, the many blood vessels which surround the sweat gland constrict, or narrow, under the pressure of stress. 

As the anxiety increases, the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture. The blood goes into the sweat glands, which push it along with sweat to the surface, presenting as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.

The President, National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr Jibril Abdullahi, said the nationwide strike by the association was suspended in the public interest, on Friday.

Abdullahi said this in an interview with  Journalists  in Abuja on Friday.

The association suspended its more than three-week long strike, which began on Oct. 1, after its National Executive Council meeting held in Abuja on Thursday.

He made it clear that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the suspension of the strike was signed at the meeting between the leadership of the association and representatives of the Federal Government and labour.

“Our last discussion was on Monday Oct. 21; that was exactly three weeks after the start of the strike.

“The government made some concessions, although they did not meet the target of our members.

“We felt in the interest of what is happening in the country, namely: the outbreak of cholera in Lagos and Gusau; the outbreak of Lassa fever in Abakaliki, it was high time we soft-pedaled and allowed dialogue to continue, hoping that the government will play its own role in ensuring our agreement is implemented.

“The President and Commander-In-Chief has already mandated the Minister of Health and Minister of Finance to work together in resolving this impasse.

“We felt the commitment of the President is good enough for us to tell our members in the interest of the country, the health of our people, we should soft pedal and resume our duties.“

Dr Abdullahi said that the Federal Government constituted a task force to ensure the immediate payment of the funds released for the settlement of salary arrears owed its members in 15 hospitals across the country.

He added that an inter-ministerial committee on residency training would also be constituted to work toward a comprehensive residency training framework for the country.

Abdullahi called on patriotic Nigerians to take up the issue of residency training as a matter of national discourse which would help in transforming the health sector collectively.

He said: “Residency training is not only in our interest but first of all in the interest of the whole nation.

“So, we can ensure our country attains the level of expertise whereby we will end this waste of foreign exchange in the pursuit of medical tourism abroad.’’

The association went on strike over the non-payment of salary arrears of some doctors for over four months under the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) arrangement.

Some issues were the training and retraining of resident doctors and the implementation of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) at the Enugu State University Teaching Hospital (NAN).