Health

Dr Veronica Akuete, A Consultant Optometrist and , Medical Director, Forst Eye Clinic, Lagos, on Friday, warned that studies have shown relative increase in the cases of glaucoma in the country.

“There were likely to be more cases, because of low awareness about the disease that causes irreversible blindness.

“Studies have shown that we have 16.7 per cent prevalence of glaucoma in Nigeria, but I can tell you that it can even be more.

“Awareness is very low. We really need to focus on glaucoma because it is becoming an epidemic,” she said.

The Borno State government has confirmed the demise of 3 persons as a result of cholera disease outbreak in the state.

Commissioner of Health in the state, Dr Haruna Mshelia, made the disclosure during an interview with the press on Thursday in Maiduguri.

According to Dr Mshelia, so far about 693 persons have been diagnosed with the disease in villages around the Lake Chad area of the state.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) on Tuesday said it has intercepted 33 containers of Tramadol which were being conveyed to a yet-to-be-ascertained location in the country. The Director-General of NAFDAC Prof Christiana Adeyeye who disclosed this in Abuja while speaking at the National Chemical Security Training Conference also hinted that 3 trucks laden with tramadol were seized at the Apapa Ports in Lagos.

Two types of blood pressure medications — alpha blockers and alpha 2 agonist — show increased variability in blood pressure measurements between doctor visits, which is associated with an increased risk of death, according to new research from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has added a so-called Disease X to its list of maladies that could potentially harm humanity and result to an epidemic of global proportions, despite the fact scientists are yet to discover it.

The unknown disease could be as detrimental as some diseases that spread terror across the world centuries ago, before modern medicine techniques appeared and fought diseases that were thought to be incurable.

WHO on its website said “Disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease.”

The Federal Government says treatment for Lassa fever remains free and urged members of the public to disregard news to the contrary.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, said this in a statement on Sunday.

The NCDC boss disclosed this in a reaction to newspaper reports that the high cost of treating Lassa fever was responsible for the high mortality rate recorded so far in the country.