Hypertension ,don't ignore.....

Hypertension

 

Hypertension, also known as high or raised blood pressure, is a condition in which the blood vessels have persistently raised pressure.

 Blood is carried from the heart to all parts of the body in the vessels. Each time the heart beats, it pumps blood into the vessels. 

Blood pressure is created by the force of blood pushing against the walls of blood vessels (arteries) as it is pumped by the heart. The higher the pressure the harder the heart has to pump.

Asbestos , dangerous for health.

Asbestos: elimination of asbestos-related danger

What is asbestos?

Asbestos is a group of naturally occurring fibrous minerals with current or historical commercial usefulness due to their extraordinary tensile strength, poor heat conduction, and relative resistance to chemical attack. For these reasons, asbestos is used for insulation in buildings and as an ingredient in a number of products, such as roofing shingles, water supply lines, and fire blankets, as well as clutches and brake linings, gaskets, and pads for automobiles.

The main forms of asbestos are chrysotile (white asbestos) and crocidolite (blue asbestos). Other forms include amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite and actinolite.

Why is asbestos a problem?

All forms of asbestos are carcinogenic to humans. Exposure to asbestos, including chrysotile, causes cancer of the lung, larynx, and ovaries, and also mesothelioma (a cancer of the pleural and peritoneal linings). Asbestos exposure is also responsible for other diseases such as asbestosis (fibrosis of the lungs), and plaques, thickening and effusion in the pleura.

Currently, about 125 million people in the world are exposed to asbestos at the workplace. Approximately half of the deaths from occupational cancer are estimated to be caused by asbestos. In addition, it is estimated that several thousand deaths annually can be attributed to exposure to asbestos in the home.

It has also been shown that co-exposure to tobacco smoke and asbestos fibres substantially increases the risk for lung cancer – and the heavier the smoking, the greater the risk.

What about asbestos substitute materials?

Many fibre substitutes for chrysotile asbestos  pose a relatively low hazard to human health, though, the carcinogenic hazard of some fibre substitutes was found to be high. However, there are many non-fibre low hazard materials that can substitute for chrysotile asbestos in various uses, such as conventional building materials.

What is Healthy Ageing?

Every person – in every country in the world – should have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. Yet, the environments in which we live can favour health or be harmful to it. Environments are highly influential on our behaviour, our exposure to health risks (for example air pollution, violence), our access to quality health and social care and the opportunities that ageing brings.

Healthy Ageing is about creating the environments and opportunities that enable people to be and do what they value throughout their lives. Everybody can experience Healthy Ageing. Being free of disease or infirmity is not a requirement for Healthy Ageing as many older adults have one or more health conditions that, when well controlled, have little influence on their wellbeing.

Healthy Ageing and functional ability

WHO defines Healthy Ageing “as the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables wellbeing in older age”. Functional ability is about having the capabilities that enable all people to be and do what they have reason to value. This includes a person’s ability to:

• meet their basic needs;
• to learn, grow and make decisions;
• to be mobile;
• to build and maintain relationships; and
• to contribute to society.

Functional ability is made up of the intrinsic capacity of the individual, relevant environmental characteristics and the interaction between them.

Intrinsic capacity comprises all the mental and physical capacities that a person can draw on and includes their ability to walk, think, see, hear and remember. The level of intrinsic capacity is influenced by a number of factors such as the presence of diseases, injuries and age-related changes.

Environments include the home, community and broader society, and all the factors within them such as the built environment, people and their relationships, attitudes and values, health and social policies, the systems that support them and the services that they implement. Being able to live in environments that support and maintain your intrinsic capacity and functional ability is key to Healthy Ageing.

Key considerations of Healthy Ageing

Diversity: There is no typical older person. Some 80-year-olds have levels of physical and mental capacity that compare favourably with 30-year-olds. Others of the same age may require extensive care and support for basic activities like dressing and eating. Policy should be framed to improve the functional ability of all older people, whether they are robust, care dependent or in between.

Inequity: A large proportion (approximately 75%) of the diversity in capacity and circumstance observed in older age is the result of the cumulative impact of advantage and disadvantage across people’s lives. Importantly, the relationships we have with our environments are shaped by factors such as the family we were born into, our sex, our ethnicity, level of education and financial resources.

Vaccines

A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. 

A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins. 

The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters.

                                         Microcephaly

Key facts

• Microcephaly is a condition where a baby is born with a small head or the head stops growing after birth.
• Microcephaly is a rare condition. One baby in several thousand is born with microcephaly.
• The most reliable way to assess whether a baby has microcephaly is to measure head circumference 24 hours after birth, compare the value with WHO growth standards, and continue to measure the rate of head growth in early infancy.
• Babies born with microcephaly may develop convulsions and suffer physical and learning disabilities as they grow older.
• There are no specific tests to determine if a baby will be born with microcephaly, but ultrasound scans in the third trimester of pregnancy can sometimes identify the problem.
• There is no specific treatment for microcephaly.

Microcephaly is a condition where a baby has a head size much smaller compared with other babies of the same age and sex. Head size is an important measurement to monitor a child’s brain growth. The severity of microcephaly ranges from mild to severe. Microcephaly can be present at birth (congenital) or may develop postnatally (acquired).

Scope of the problem

Microcephaly is a rare condition. Reported estimate incidence of microcephaly has wide variation due to the differences in the definition and target population.

Increased number or clustering of cases of microcephaly have been reported in context of outbreaks of Zika virus infection. The most likely explanation of available evidence is that Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of congenital brain abnormalities including microcephaly.

In addition to microcephaly, a range of manifestations of varying severity has been reported among newborns that were exposed to Zika virus in utero. These include malformations of the head, seizures, swallowing problems, hearing and sight abnormalities. Other outcomes associated with Zika virus infection in utero may involve miscarriages and stillbirths. Together, this spectrum is referred to as ‘congenital Zika virus syndrome.’

Diagnosis

Early diagnosis of microcephaly can sometimes be made by fetal ultrasound. Ultrasounds have the best diagnosis possibility if they are made at the end of the second trimester, around 28 weeks, or in the third trimester of pregnancy. Often diagnosis is made at birth or at a later stage.

Babies should have their head circumference measured in the first 24 hours after birth and compared with WHO growth standards. The result will be interpreted in relation to the gestational age of the baby, and also the baby’s weight and length. Suspected cases should be reviewed by a paediatrician, have brain imaging scans, and have their head circumference measured at monthly intervals in early infancy and compared with growth standards. Doctors should also test for known causes of microcephaly.

Causes of microcephaly

There are many potential causes of microcephaly, but often the cause remains unknown. The most common causes include:

• infections during pregnancy: toxoplasmosis (caused by a parasite found in undercooked meat), Campylobacter pylori, rubella, herpes, syphilis, cytomegalovirus, HIV and Zika;
• exposure to toxic chemicals: maternal exposure to heavy metals like arsenic and mercury, alcohol, radiation, and smoking;
• pre- and perinatal injuries to the developing brain (hypoxia-ischemia, trauma);
• genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome; and
• severe malnutrition during fetal life.

Based on a systematic review of the literature up to 30 May 2016, WHO has concluded that Zika virus infection during pregnancy is a cause of congenital brain abnormalities, including microcephaly; and that Zika virus is a trigger of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Signs and symptoms

Many babies born with microcephaly may demonstrate no other symptoms at birth but go on to develop epilepsy, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, hearing loss and vision problems. In some cases, children with microcephaly develop entirely normally.

Treatment and care

There is no specific treatment for microcephaly. A multidisciplinary team is important to assess and care for babies and children with microcephaly. Early intervention with stimulation and play programmes may show positive impacts on development. Family counselling and support for parents is also extremely important.

Escherichia coli;

Escherichia coli infections

Escherichia coli;

 is a bacterium that is commonly found in the gut of humans and other warm-blooded animals. While most strains are harmless, some can cause severe foodborne disease.

 E. coli infection is usually transmitted through consumption of contaminated water or food, such as undercooked meat products and raw milk.

Symptoms of disease include abdominal cramps and diarrhoea, which may be bloody. Fever and vomiting may also occur. Most patients recover within 10 days, although in a few cases the disease may become life-threatening.

Largest cholera vaccine drive in history

A spate of cholera outbreaks across Africa has prompted the largest cholera vaccination drive in history, with more than two million people across the continent set to receive oral cholera vaccine (OCV).

                                                                                                

The vaccines, funded by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, were sourced from the global stockpile and are being used to carry out five major campaigns in Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, South Sudan and Nigeria. The campaigns, which will be completed by mid-June, are being implemented by the respective Ministries of Health supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners of the Global Task Force on Cholera Control (GTFCC), and mostly in reaction to recent cholera outbreaks.

                                                                                                                          

In the 15 years between 1997 and 2012 just 1.5 million doses of cholera vaccines were used worldwide. In 2017 alone almost 11 million were used, from Sierra Leone to Somalia to Bangladesh. In the first four months of 2018 over 15 million doses have already been approved for use worldwide.

                                                                                                                                     

“This is an unprecedented response to a spike in cholera outbreaks across Africa,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “We have worked hard to ensure there is now enough vaccine supply to keep the global stockpile topped up and ready for most eventualities. However with more and more people now succumbing to this terrible, preventable disease, the need for improved water and sanitation – the only long-term, sustainable solution to cholera outbreaks – has never been clearer.”

Through its Regional Office for Africa, WHO regularly provides technical and operational support to countries often affected by cholera in Africa. In particular, since the beginning of 2018 WHO has led on providing technical expertise and guidance, working closely with Ministries of Health in the five countries to plan and implement the campaigns with different partners. This is part of a global push to reduce cholera deaths by 90 percent by 2030.

“Oral cholera vaccines are a key weapon in our fight against cholera,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “But there are many other things we need to do to keep people safe. WHO and our partners are saving lives every day by improving access to clean water and sanitation, establishing treatment centres, delivering supplies, distributing public health guidance, training health workers, and working with communities on prevention.”

The burden of cholera remains high in many African countries. As of 7 May many countries are facing cholera outbreaks, with at least 12 areas or countries reporting active cholera transmission in sub-Saharan Africa. Recent developments in the use of OCVs show that the strong mobilisation of countries and partners can effectively tackle the disease when tools for prevention and control are readily available.

“Every rainy season, cholera springs up and brings devastation to communities across Africa,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa. “With this historic cholera vaccination drive, countries in the region are demonstrating their commitment to stopping cholera from claiming more lives. We need to build on this momentum through a multisectoral approach and ensure that everyone has access to clean water and sanitation, no matter where they are located.”