Health
No Specific Treatments For Monkeypox, NCDC Warns
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control has warned that there are no specific treatments available for the monkeypox infection following the outbreak in Europe and other countires.
The centre also urged Nigerians to take certain measures to prevent contracting the disease.
The NCDC’s post on its website read: “There are no specific treatments available for monkeypox infection, although various novel antiviral have in-vitro and animal data supportive effects such as Brincindofocir and Tecovirimat.
“Measures that can be taken to prevent infection with monkeypox virus include: avoiding contact with animals that could harbour the virus, both sick or dead animals in areas where monkeypox cases have occurred; avoiding contact with any material that has been in contact with a sick animal; thoroughly cooking any animal that might have come into contact with an infected animal; handling them with standard precautions and observing monkeypox symptoms for 30 days and washing with soap and water after contact with infected animals.”
According to the World Health Organisation, the disease is endemic to West and Central African countries.
Speaking in an interview with Punch, Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora said the NCDC is doing everything possible to enhance surveillance to mitigate the spread of the disease.
“The NCDC is on it. The centre is doing all it takes in terms of surveillance, response and it is also putting in place certain measures to mitigate the spread.
“Just like we have the Lassa fever, the monkeypox is endemic to Nigeria but we have our agencies like the NCDC when it comes to response and I can assure you that they are totally on it,” the minister said.
A virologist at the University of Maiduguri, Prof Marycelin Baba, in a separate interview with the publication also corroborated NCDC’s claims, calling for caution.
Baba said, “Monkeypox is said to be a mutation from smallpox. There was no treatment for smallpox during its time. The only breakthrough was when the smallpox vaccine was introduced. This means that if you were lucky to get vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine during your time, you can be a bit safe.
“Unfortunately, most people were not born during the time the world suffered from the smallpox pandemic. Smallpox was eradicated many decades ago.
“One of the problems we have in Nigeria for instance is the absence of sufficient diagnostic kits for viral diseases. If you cannot even diagnose, how do you want to treat the problem? I am not too sure if we still have smallpox vaccines anymore in the world but as it stands, the only solution right now is vaccine. Without vaccines, I am sorry we are not going to reach anywhere.”
Health
40 Year Old Paralyzed Man Walks Again Using New AI implants That Connect His Brain With Spinal Cord
A 40-year-old man whose legs were paralyzed in a cycling accident 12 years ago can now walk thanks to implants in his brain and spinal cord.
In 2011, a cycling accident left Gert-Jan Oskam, with paralysed legs and partially paralysed arms, after his spinal cord was damaged in his neck. But these days, Oskam is back on his feet and walking, thanks to a device that creates a ‘digital bridge’ between his brain and the nerves below his injury.
The implant which works with Artificial intelligence has been life-changing, says Oskam.
“Last week, there was something that needed to be painted and there was nobody to help me. So I took the walker and the paint, and I did it myself while I was standing,” he says.
The device called a brain–spine interface — builds on previous work2 by Grégoire Courtine, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and his colleagues. In 2018, they demonstrated that, when combined with intensive training, technology that stimulates the lower spine with electrical pulses can help people with spinal-cord injuries to walk again.
Oskam was one of the participants in that trial, but after three years, his improvements stagnated. He got a new system that makes use of the spinal implant that Oskam already has, and pairs it with two disc-shaped implants inserted into his skull so that two 64-electrode grids rest against the membrane covering the brain.
When Oskam thinks about walking, the skull implants detect electrical activity in the cortex, the outer layer of the brain. This signal is wirelessly transmitted and decoded by a computer that Oskam wears in a backpack, which then transmits the information to the spinal pulse generator.
The previous device “was more of a pre-programmed stimulation” that generated robotic stepping movements, says Courtine. “Now, it’s completely different, because Gert-Jan has full control over the parameter of stimulation, which means that he can stop, he can walk, he can climb up staircases.”
“The stimulation before was controlling me and now I am controlling stimulation by my thought,” says Oskam. “When I decide to make a step, the simulation will kick in, as soon as I think about it.”
After around 40 rehabilitation sessions using the brain–spine interface, Oskam had regained the ability to voluntarily move his legs and feet. That type of voluntary movement was not possible after spinal stimulation alone, and suggests that the training sessions with the new device prompted further recovery in nerve cells that were not completely severed during his injury. Oskam can also walk short distances without the device if he uses crutches.
Bruce Harland, a neuroscientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, says that this continued improvement in spinal function is great news for anyone with a spinal-cord injury, “because even if it’s a longer-term chronic injury, there’s still a few different ways that healing could happen”.
“It’s certainly a huge jump” towards improved function for people with spinal-cord injuries, says neuroscientist Anna Leonard at the University of Adelaide in Australia. And, she says, there is still room for other interventions — such as stem cells — to improve outcomes further. She adds that although the brain–spine interface restores walking, other functions such as bladder and bowel control are not targeted by the device. “So, there’s certainly still room for other areas of research that could help progress improvements in outcomes for these other sort of realms,” she says.
Minister of Science Technology and Innovation, Adeleke Mamora, has announced that his ministry has developed sickle cell and venom vaccines.
Speaking on Monday, December 12, at the 10th edition of the PMB Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023), Mamora said the ministry achieved the use of local herbs for the production of drugs for sickle cell as the country had a high number of people with sickle cell anaemia, Daily Trust reports.
Also announcing some of the achievements of his ministry, Mamora added;
“There is also the development of an anti-venom vaccine, an anti-penic that reduces fat in the body.
“The Ministry, through Raw Materials Research and Development Council’s programme on development of the dairy sector, introduced the technology of increasing daily milk yield from our cows from 1-1.5 litres of milk per cow to over 15 litres per cow in a day.
“The National Space Research and Development Agency is working to establish a Space Museum and Planetarium that is expected to realise about N30 billion, boost tourism activities, provide 5000 direct jobs; 20,000 indirect jobs and improve the teaching of STI.
“Our future is full of optimism as long as we keep faith and leverage on the enormous power of STI coupled with demand-driven R&D programmes and projects.
“The fourth industrial revolution will register Nigeria’s presence and effective participation if we sustain and escalate current commitment and interest in research and innovation as principal push factors for technological advancement.
“We need courage, discipline and focus on fundamental principles of the culture of result-based management logical framework where all policy implementation efforts will produce outcomes.”
The Nigeria Tobacco Control Alliance (NTCA) has said that an estimated 28, 000 people die in Nigeria annually, due to tobacco use, while warning that compliance of regulations on other substances that contain tobacco like Shisha and snuff is at an all time low.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja on Tuesday, November 8, Akinbode Oluwafemi, Chairman, of NTCA, said recent survey showed increase in the compliance level on cigarette packs, but a reduction in compliance level of snuff and shisha.
“As an Alliance, we have continued to work to strengthen the gains made so far on the policy. Therefore, as recently as October 2022, we commissioned a survey to ascertain the compliance level of the policy on all tobacco products in the country. The survey was carried out in Ekiti, Adamawa, Cross River, Abia, Abuja and Kano.”
“When results from this survey were compared with results from a similar survey we conducted in 2021, the results showed a significant increase in the compliance level on cigarette packs, with an estimated 90% compliance.”
“However, it is deeply concerning to find out that other tobacco products such as snuff and shisha (which has become notoriously popular among young people) have no graphic health warnings and still carry the outdated text warnings. The compliance level of this group of tobacco products is estimated to be below 10%”, he said.
“We therefore call on the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Ministries of Health and Environment, the National Security and Civil Defense Corps and all agencies charged with monitoring and enforcing of the National Tobacco Control Act to wake up to their responsibilities.
“Enforcement agencies must particularly monitor and enforce the policy on all tobacco products, not only on cigarette packs.”
“Also, policy implementation cannot continue to be centered in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and Lagos. A good policy is not only good for urban centres. There is need to take enforcement of the graphic health warnings policy to Nigeria’s hinterlands to ensure compliance. We note that it is possible that non-compliant products may be moved far inland where enforcement is low or non-existent”, he said.
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