Actually, in this blog i will make the nigeria students to understand that nigeria is a good country.
Got to think of what a friend told me, "when i finish my secondary school, i will run to abroad, that's where i will study and get job"; He was serious about it and with a good point.
Now, the reason why many nigeria student say's such thing is because the felt that there is not high standard of education and that there is no good job in Nigeria.
My advice goes mainly to the medical student, taking you back to my secondary school saying that "we are the one to make it a better place for me and for you and the entire human hold". Take a step after studies, invent, and make research to make Nigeria what GOD want it to be.
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Infectious Disease > General Infectious Disease
Chickens a Sentinel Species for West NileResearchers in California using domesticated fowl to track viral spread
by Usha Lee McFarling,STAT News
September 30, 2017
EL MONTE, Calif. -- The chickens are used to the needles.
They don't fuss when vector ecologist Tanya Posey pulls opens the door of a coop in a community garden here, firmly grasps a Leghorn, and pulls a blood sample out of its wing vein. She's so good, she can bleed a chicken in about 30 seconds.
That's helpful, because she has a lot of chickens to test.
More than six dozen sentinel chickens, living in coops dotted around Los Angeles, make up one of the first lines of defense in this sprawling county's fight against West Nile virus. The disease has been a background threat for years here, but cases have spiked this fall to worrisome levels. Six deaths have been reported by Los Angeles County this year -- including three just last week.
And the cases are alarmingly severe: Of 98 reported infections here this year, 79 have led to serious neurological side effects, and 87 have required hospitalization. Because it's still peak mosquito season, more deaths are expected.
So local public health officials this week launched an all-out attack. They're sending teams of green-shirted vector control agents door to door to tell residents to wear bug spray, install window screens, and dump the stagnant water where the insects breed. They're plastering the county with posters that read "It's Not Just a Bite" and "No Es Solo Un Piquete." They've even created a rap videofeaturing a fetid swimming pool, a giant dancing mosquito, and teams of uniformed agents rapping, "You've got to dump the water out, drain the water flow, tip the water out, toss the water slow."
On a national level, a duo from Johns Hopkins and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last week petitioned for a new mosquito emoji, arguing that it could lend some buzz to public health efforts.
West Nile virus causes no symptoms in 8 of 10 infected people, according to the CDC. But some, particularly the very young and very old, can get fevers, fatigue, and flu-like symptoms. (Lyle Petersen, MD, the director of the CDC's division of vector-borne diseases, experienced that misery himself back in 2003, when he was infected with West Nile virusafter going out to pick up his mail without insect repellent.)
The virus has caused more than 2,000 deaths in the U.S. since it first appeared in New York in 1999. States hit hardest in recent years include California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and South Dakota. This year, 22 states have already reported 49 deathsand 658 of the most severe cases, known as "neuroinvasive," which can involve meningitis, encephalitis, and paralysis.
But at least here in Southern California, residents don't seem to be concerned.
"You can't imagine how much outreach we're doing, but it's really hard to get people to pay attention," said Kelly Middleton, who directs community affairs for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District.
Some experts blame complacency, because West Nile is old news. Others blame the months of media coverage over the past year on Zika, another mosquito-borne virus that can cause grave birth defectswhen it infects pregnant women. Though there's no evidence Zika is being transmitted by mosquitoes in Southern California, residents nonetheless seem focused on that -- instead of the far more prevalent threat of West Nile.
"Certainly we all care about infants and birth defects, so Zika gets a lot of attention," said Dr. Benjamin Schwartz, deputy chief of the county's program for acute communicable disease control. "But West Nile causes more deaths than Zika does -- and it causes them every year."
Flocks of Chickens Generate Vital Data
To control West Nile virus first, you have to know where it's lurking. It's a monumental task for the district, which covers a territory of more than 1,340 square miles -- roughly the size of Rhode Island.
The district has some 180 mosquito traps. Checking them all involves grueling drives five days a week by two field assistants.
But simply detecting virus inside mosquitoes doesn't confirm that the insects are infectious. Finding infected birds does. The district collects and tests dead birds -- crows and blue jays -- when residents alert them, but such reports can be spotty.
So the district relies on its sentinel chickens, checking their blood for West Nile virus antibodies every two weeks.
On a recent day, Posey and her teammate Harold Morales checked a group of 10 white Leghorns -- the iconic white chickens with bright red combs. (An attempt to use Rhode Island Reds failed miserably; the birds couldn't handle the Southern California heat.) Seven of the chickens had already tested positive for West Nile, so Morales bled the three that hadn't, dropping a few milliliters of blood onto filter papers he would later send to a state testing lab.
"It's just like going to the doctor and getting a blood sample," said Susanne Kluh, who heads disease surveillance for the district. "Some get feisty, but it's pretty easy on the chickens."
Wild birds don't seem to mind the needles, either. Many that have been trapped for surveillance, banded, and released return repeatedly to the traps -- where they can be tested again to see if they have immunity. "They give their blood and get free food," Middleton said. "The same birds come back week after week."
Unlike sparrows, finches, jays, and crows -- which can die from West Nile and also transmit it to new mosquitoes -- chickens don't get sick or spread the virus. Indeed, the sentinel Longhorns are healthy enough that local gardeners gather their eggs and use their manure for fertilizer. Once testing season ends in late fall, the birds are given away -- for pets or meat. "They're good eating," said Kluh.
And they're good data generators, helping Kluh and colleagues generate a precise mapof where the virus is active. The district can then target outreach and abatement efforts.
Human cases are too slow to be useful for surveillance, she said, because people often don't go to the doctor right away and doctors don't always report cases. (Indeed, the number of actual West Nile deaths is likely higher than stated because of underreporting, public health officials say.)
An Army of Invading Mosquitoes
Los Angeles County public health officials credit the vector control district with keeping the outbreak from being far worse. But for Kluh and her team, every West Nile death is difficult.
"It's hard," Kluh said. "We take it really personally."
This month, 84-year-old Julia Shepherd, an active grandmother from a Los Angeles suburb, died of West Nile after becoming paralyzed and disoriented.
The case is exactly the type public health officials fear, one that robs healthy older adults -- those most likely to be outdoors -- of either their lives or their independence. Some half of older adults who have been infected with neurological symptoms have still not recovered their ability to function independently after a year, Schwartz said.
While they're focused on West Nile, which is transmitted by Culex mosquitoes, Kluh and her team do still monitor the spread ofAedes aegypti, which can transmit Zika. She's also trackingAedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito that's a carrier of dengue and chikungunya. And she's got her eye on the newly arrived Aussie Mozzie mosquito --Aedes notoscriptus-- that transmits yet other viruses.
"I guess I've got job security," she joked.
Kluh sees a silver lining in the invasion of these aggressive new species. Unlike California's resident Culex mosquitoes, the newcomers bite humans more than birds, bite all day long, and tend to raise welts that are itchier and more noticeable. Because of this, many people here are finally starting to complain about mosquitoes -- and that's music to Kluh's ears.
"Because it's so unpleasant," she said, "people might finally start protecting themselves from getting bitten."
Usha Lee McFarling is STAT's West Coast correspondent.
This post originally appeared on STAT News

IJMB is a nine month interin program that will issue you a long lasting certificate which will offer you admission into 200level of any university of your choice. It can also be used as a credential to study abroad.
IJMB is far more better than JAMB, in the sense that 80% of IJMB applicant always gain admission to the university and course of their choice yearly unlike JAMB in which over 1.2million people write and then 20% is given admission
Hurry Today.
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NIGERIA HEALTH TODAY
It baffles me when i reason to the fact that many Nigeria Scientist especially the MEDICAL STUDENT just relax their mind, not intending to make more researches and this has greatly lead to the development of some infection, even leading to bad health in our country.
Looking straight away to other developed country, they have greatly gone deeply in research that have made them increase in their medical knowledge
I hereby advice all medical students to engage in practicals.
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SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES IN NIGERIA
Available data show that sexually transmitted diseases constitute great medical, social and economic problems in Nigeria. Apart from the heavy affliction of urban dwellers, there is rapid excursion of these diseases to the rural areas as well. This situation is serious enough to attract government attention so that necessary control measures may be initiated in good time in order to avert the serious consequences.PIP:
Gonorrhea is the most prevalent sexually transmitted disease (STD) in Nigeria. In fact, in 1963, WHO found Lagos to have the highest gonorrhea rate in the world. Recent surveys report gonorrhea prevalence to be as high as 28.1%. Further some studies show a clear association between gonorrhea and male and female infertility. Penicillinase producing Neisseria gonorrhea prevalence varies from 44.4% in Zaria to 80% in Ibadan. There is an increase in the prevalence of gonorrhea among girls, mostly due to sociocultural factors such as the belief that sexual intercourse with a girl who has urethritis cures the condition. Gonorrhea is not always the most common form of urethritis, however. For example, in a study in Ibadan, 61% of male urethritis cases had nonspecific urethritis. Further schistosomiasis often causes urethral symptoms like those of gonorrhea. Most women at STD clinics have vaginitis and vaginal discharge. Even though the prevalence of trichomoniasis and candidiasis are rather high (10.2-22.3% and 4.33.1% respectively), bacterial vaginosis is the leading cause of vaginitis and vaginal discharge in Nigeria. The predominant malignancy of women in Nigeria is cervical cancer which my be due to the high rates of infection of trichomoniasis and Herpes virus II. Another prevalent STD is syphilis, yet many people with the infection are asymptomatic. For example, a study reports that 10.3% of women in a prenatal clinic in Lagos tested positive for syphilis, but the physician believed only 1.5% had syphilis. Tropical venereal diseases still cause genital ulcers in Nigeria. Dermatophyte infection, genital warts, and pedicubsis pubis also occur, but scant data exist. Many people believe they have an STD and do not, yet they insist they do. This phenomenon may be a result of the common fear of infertility which results from STDs. In conclusion, the government should allocate adequate funds for health programs and research, particularly those associated with STDs.
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*NATURAL PROTEIN MAY HELP TO PREVENT BLINDNESS*
Scientists may be on the brink of a new strategy to prevent blindness, after discovering a naturally occurring protein that protects the eye from one of the leading causes: glaucoma.
Glaucomais an umbrella term for a number of diseases that damage the optic nerve, which is the cluster of nerve fibers that links the retina - the light-sensitive tissue that lines the back of the eye - to the brain.
Optic nerve damage disrupts the transmission of visual signals to the brain, which can result in vision loss and blindness.
Glaucoma is most commonly caused by a buildup of eye pressure, which can damage the optic nerve. However, the precise mechanisms by which optic nerve damage occurs have been unclear, but researchers from Macquarie University in Australia may have shed some light.
The team found that a protein called neuroserpin plays a key role in retinal health, but that this protein is inactivated in glaucoma. They suggest that their findings may lead to much-needed strategies to prevent and treat the disease.
Lead study author Dr. Vivek Gupta, of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Macquarie University, and colleagues recently published their results in the journalScientific Reports.
Neuroserpin and glaucoma
Neuroserpin is already established as a protein that blocks the activity of an enzyme called plasmin, protecting neurons, or nerve cells, against plasmin-induced damage.
For their study, Dr. Gupta and colleagues set out to determine how neuroserpin and plasmin are affected by glaucoma.
The researchers came to their findings by analyzing retinal cells derived from humans with and without glaucoma, as well as retinas from rat models of the disease.
Vitamin B-3 successfully prevents glaucoma in mice
A study suggests that vitamin B-3 could help to prevent glaucoma.
The analysis revealed that neuroserpin is deactivated in response to oxidativestress, which can be triggered by environmental factors such as air pollution.
Oxidativestressis an imbalance between the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) - which are molecules that can damage cell structures - and the body's ability to offset their harmful effects.
Interestingly, the researchers found that neuroserpin was inactive in retinal cells from glaucoma patients and in the retinas of glaucoma rat models, which prevented the protein from inhibiting plasmin activity.
"Over a long period of time," explains Dr. Gupta, "increased enzyme activity gradually digests the eye tissue and promotes cell death causing the adverse effects associated with glaucoma."
'Breakthrough findings'
It is estimated that glaucoma affects around 2.2 million adultsaged 40 and older in the United States, and it is one of the country's leading causes of vision loss and blindness.
There is currently no cure for glaucoma, but there are treatments that can help to slow progression of the disease if it is detected early enough.
Dr. Gupta and team hope that their findings will open the door to new strategies that could help to prevent or treat glaucoma.
"Ophthalmologists and vision scientists have always wondered what damages the optic nerve in the back of the eyes, which is widely observed in glaucoma," notes study co-author Dr. Mehdi Mirzaei, of the Department of Chemistry and Biomolecular Sciences at Macquarie University.
"The breakthrough findings of this study," he adds, "help us understand the disease mechanism and answer a key question that has eluded scientists for several years."
"This long-term collaborative study has opened up a completely new line of investigation in glaucoma research that will lead to new treatment avenues for the disease."Dr. Vivek Gupta
In future studies, the team plans to investigate whether or not antioxidants- which are molecules that help to prevent cell damage caused by ROS - could be an effective treatment for glaucoma.
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