Nigeria launches national action plan to combat antibiotics resistance

As part of activities to mark the 2017 World Antibiotics Awareness week in Nigeria, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has launched the Antimicrobial Resistance National Action Plan, this was done at the AMR symposium.

Speaking during the launch, the CEO of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu said there is no health issue that will challenge stakeholders to work together like antimicrobial resistance.

“The plan will not solve our problems, bit by bit implementation with strong commitment will go a long way,” he said.

According to the WHO, Antibiotic resistance is rising to dangerously high levels in all parts of the world and threatening our ability to treat common infectious diseases. Infections affecting people – including pneumonia, tuberculosis, blood poisoning and gonorrhoea – and animals alike are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics become less effective.

Chikwe also highlighted the need for patients to seek medical advice from reliable health professionals before taking medications, he also tasked the health professionals to keep up to date with happenings in the sector to enable them give quality advice to patients.

“If you’re ill, think twice, seek advice. If you’re a health professional, educate & equip yourself to give the best advice to avoid Antibiotic Resistance” he said.

Also speaking at the event, the WHO Representative and Head of Mission in Nigeria, Dr. Wondi Alemu said antibiotic resistance is fast becoming the biggest threat to global health & development. We’re proud of this event; Nigeria’s first commemoration of World Antibiotics Awareness Week”

The country coordinator of the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP), Onyi Estelle Mbadiwe said they worked with NCDC and other partners to develop the National Action Plan on AMR, which was recognized globally as the quickest developed plan and one of the most comprehensive.

The symposium was also attended by representatives and stakeholders from key sectors including the Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
Cuddled from healthnewsng.com

PREVENT ANIMALS FROM DISEASE BY IMPROVING HYGIENE NOT BY INCREASING MEDICINES

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has enjoined the food industry to stop using antibiotics to boost growth in healthy animals, the organsation said this in new guidelines that are meant to curb use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals.

Download WHO guidelines on use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals

In some countries, 80 percent of all the used antibiotics end up as growth-promotion medication in the animal sector, according to the Geneva-based United Nations health agency. It added that over-medication of animals and humans further raises the existing threat of antibiotic resistance, which has advanced to a stage where there are no more medications to treat some types of bacteria.

“A lack of effective antibiotics is as serious a security threat as a sudden and deadly disease outbreak,’’ WHO Chief, Tedros Ghebreyesus, said.

In its updated guidelines, WHO says that animals that are reared for their meat, milk or eggs should only be treated with antibiotics if they are actually sick, or if there is an infection among their herd, flock or shoal.

Instead of medicines, farmers should prevent disease by improving hygiene, through vaccinations, WHO recommends. According to research published in The Lancet Planetary Health on Tuesday, restricting antibiotic use in food-producing animals reduced resistant bacteria in these animals by up to 39 percent.

“The volume of antibiotics used in animals is continuing to increase worldwide, driven by a growing demand for foods of animal origin, often produced through intensive animal husbandry,’’said Kazuaki Miyagishima, WHO’s Chief Food Safety Expert.

Foreign medical students help New York more than the state's do

The op-ed "Curb overseas medical schools" closes with the statement, “Protecting New York State’s clinical clerkship slots will allow our students to become the great doctors we need them to be.”

The author fails to mention that graduates of New York state medical colleges, who participate in clerkships in New York hospitals, do not practice medicine in the state of New York. In fact, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, only 36.4% of graduates of New York medical colleges actually remain in the state to practice medicine.

The medical community has long argued that there is a critical shortage of family physicians. Yet New York medical colleges are not training students to practice in this area. According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, in 2013, New York University School of Medicine did not have a single graduate enter a family medicine residency nationwide. In total, all 11 New York medical schools had only 78 graduates choose family medicine throughout the U.S., a dismal 4.9% of their graduates. This year alone, the school I lead, American University of Antigua College of Medicine, had 71 graduates secure a residency in family medicine.
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In total, 41% of all residency positions in New York state are filled by graduates of international medical schools, the majority in primary care, which has the greatest shortage. New York medical school graduates leave the state, often times pursuing more lucrative specialties, leaving international medical school graduates to practice in our underserved communities.

If the deans of New York medical schools were really concerned about the education of the doctors who participate in residency training, they would be concerned that not enough clinical clerkship opportunities are available for international medical school students, who are much more likely to practice medicine in New York than graduates of New York medical schools are.

A diverse population deserves a diverse physician workforce. Caribbean medical schools, not U.S. medical schools, are responsible for creating a diverse physician workforce. The author of the op-ed states that minority enrollment has increased by 31%. The latest data from the Association of American Medical Colleges show the number of first-year African-Americans at U.S.-based medical schools has actually decreased from a woeful low of 1,417 in 2009-10 to 1,397 in 2012-12. The number of African-Americans at medical schools like AUA is more than double the percentage of African-Americans in U.S. schools, as is the number of graduates.

Denying U.S. citizens attending approved international medical schools access to clinical clerkships in New York will only result in a more critical physician shortage and a less diverse physician workforce in New York, while New York's medical schools will continue to educate physicians to practice in other states.

5 reasons why IMGs will save U.S. health care

Spoiler alert: I am biased. I graduated from St. George’s University, a medical school in Grenada that graduates more physicians annually than any other medical school in the world. It is a school comprised of people who are so determined to become doctors that they are willing to move to a different country  —  some taking their families with them, some leaving everything behind  —  to study medicine. My peers came from all over the United States and Canada and had prior graduate degrees, prior jobs and life experiences. Eventually, we all came to the same conclusion: No career would make us happier than a career in medicine.

We fought for our medical education. I was lucky to have supportive deans and clinical instructors, but certain things are out of administrative control. Power outages, tropical storms, water shortages. Alumni from earlier classes remember sitting in lecture halls post-hurricane Ivan, with rain falling through gaping holes in the roof onto their notepads. I’ll never forget the time (which turned out to be multiple times) when the local airline workers went on strike, and I slept and studied in the airport in Trinidad for two days. We joked that our school was like Hogwarts from Harry Potter  —  the elusive school that could only be reached by magic. Most significantly, we were all thousands of miles from friends and family, our support systems, our rocks.

All of this in fear of Match Day. International medical graduates (IMGs) have less success matching to PGY1 residency positions than do U.S. medical graduates. I’ve mentored third- and fourth-year students through the application process. They are so afraid that all the hard work and sacrifice will yield to the demeaning claim of IMGs as inferior medical professionals.

Because of our struggle, there are a number of professional advantages to having been an IMG:

1. We work hard. I remember interviewing with some U.S. grads who barely passed the USMLEs and still didn’t doubt they would match into a residency program. As IMGs, we had to achieve higher grades, higher USMLE scores and publish more research to be considered on the same level as U.S. applicants. We also applied to at least three-times the number of programs, knowing that the odds of an interview invitation were against us. By the time we reach residency, our determination is so well-developed that it is part of our normal work ethic. In the end, I pitied the students who were never asked to prove themselves. Ultimately, our need to be competitive is what made us realize our potential.

2. We never developed a sense of entitlement. Everyone — especially anyone who’s ever been a patient — can agree there’s nothing worse than an arrogant doctor who feels entitled to respect. As IMGs, nothing was ever guaranteed to us except a tough road ahead. We were told from the very beginning that even if we got high grades and scored above the 90th percentile for USMLEs, we still might not match into a residency program. While there are bound to be complainers in any group, I have found my peers (now colleagues) to be grateful for work. Period.

3. It takes a lot for us to complain. Because of the aforementioned wringer we’ve been through, and the gratitude we feel for being granted our dream job, it would take a severely morbid work environment to make us complain. I remember when the electricity ran out in our main library, no one even blinked; we learned to save all our documents off-line, and the light from our laptops collectively allowed us to finish our work. In resource-poor, inner city hospitals, we make do with what we have and move forward. This tends to be a favorable personality in team work. We know there is no point to complaining when there’s work to be done.

4. We are trained to know our patients. From day one, studying in a developing country, we are trained to understand the context in which we practice. We met diabetic amputees who lost their limbs because they could afford either shoes or insulin, but not both. In our third and fourth years of medical school, most of us trained in high-volume, inner city community hospitals. There we saw similar, morbidly advanced stages of disease among the homeless and uninsured. The medicine we know is medicine for people with limited access to care. That skill — the skill of eliciting context and socioeconomic origins of disease — not only make us more thorough, but also more compassionate.

5. We are dreamers. The from the moment we stepped on a plane wondering what the next four, or eight, or 12 years would entail, we began to develop our own version of a dream worth defending for the rest of our careers. It’s not a dream we let go of. Whether it’s owning our own private practice, improving medicine in hospitals or whole health care systems, or improving health care in our home communities, the dream of practicing medicine is something we’ve reinforced throughout our challenges.

In a time of severe physician shortage, growing health care disparities, millions of people without health insurance, and additional millions who may have their health care rights taken away, it is critical now than ever to enlist hard-working, compassionate physicians to the health care workforce. The professional qualities of grace, gratitude, hard work and determination so well-cultivated among IMGs can be encouraged throughout the medical profession as a whole. I am clearly proud and clearly biased. Nonetheless, I stand by my humble, small statement that I’m sure no one will argue with: International medical graduates will save the U.S. health care system.
Cuddled from kelvins.Com

American University of Antigua Finds Success with Diversity Mission

Dr. Eddie Copelin II served in Iraq as part of the US Marine Corps Reserves. So when he returned from overseas and decided to pursue a degree in medicine at the American University of Antigua (AUA) College of Medicine, he was disappointed to learn that an outdated U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy prohibited him from carrying out the clinical training of his medical school education at any of the many VA Hospitals in the United States.

“It was disappointing,” said Dr. Copelin. “I’m a veteran and I was in a position to help other veterans and I couldn’t.”

The VA operates the nation’s largest integrated health care system, with more than 1,700 medical facilities nationwide. While international medical school graduates are permitted to work as residents in VA hospitals, medical students are prohibited from training in clerkships at VA hospitals. Medical students spend the last two years of their medical education in clinical settings at hospitals.

Neal Simon, the President of AUA says this should change. “It should change because nothing better prepares a physician for success in a particular hospital or field of medicine than doing their training in the environment where they hope to practice.”

According to the agency’s most recent data, 526,000 veterans are waiting more than a month for care. Furthermore, about 88,000 of them are waiting more than three months. The physician shortage seen at VA hospitals reflects a growing dilemma happening nationwide.

According to a Kaiser Family Foundation report, California is meeting just 62% of its primary care physician needs. Florida is only meeting about 41% of its needs.

As the physician shortage grows and U.S. based medical schools are unable to train enough qualified students to fit the demand, international medical schools are increasingly filling this critical gap. Since 2012, the number of graduates of international medical schools (IMGs) who obtained residencies in the US has risen by almost 25 percent.

Another area of increasing interest to those in the medical profession is the lack of diversity among physicians. Nowhere is it more apparent than in a 2016 University of Virginia Medical School study. In the study it was revealed that white medical students believed that black patients feel less pain than their white counterparts. How is this bias impacting treatment?

AUA is committed to addressing these issues. 20% of AUA’s students are African-American compared with less than 7% at US-based medical schools. Furthermore 76% of AUA’s graduates pursue primary care residencies. This is significantly higher than US-based medical schools.

“We are also proud to say that many have gone on to practices in the areas where they are most needed like rural communities and inner cities” said Neal Simon.

Dr. Copelin is now a 2nd year internal medicine resident at Roger Williams Medical Center, an affiliate of the Boston University School of Medicine. Ironically, the facility is right across the street from Rhode Island’s VA hospital. “As a Marine I had to deal with the VA medical system firsthand. It was incredibly difficult to get an appointment. It simply doesn’t make sense not to offer clerkships to qualified international medical school students. It would decrease the workload for those presently in the system, provide much needed medical care for those in need, and prepare a new cadre of physicians for generations to come. It would be a win-win situation.”

New York is home to three of the country’s 20 best hospitals, according to a new analysis from U.S. News.

New York is home to three of the country’s 20 best hospitals, according to a new analysis from U.S. News.

International medical schools often send third- and fourth-year students to these institutions to gain hands-on experience. That’s miffed many administrators at New York medical schools. They worry that students educated abroad take opportunities from their students.

These fears are baseless. There’s no shortage of training slots in New York. Further, many international students are American citizens who simply went abroad for medical school. Denying them training opportunities would prevent them from working in their home country and yield worse care for patients.

Most medical students complete a “clerkship” before they graduate. Clerkships allow students to apply the knowledge they’ve acquired in the classroom in the real world. Thousands of international students are completing their clinical clerkships in hospitals across New York.

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The Medical Society of the State of New York has argued that local medical students are being “booted” from clerkships by international students. But a top official with the Associated Medical Schools of New York admitted that he didn’t know of any New York-educated students unable to secure clerkships because of international medical students.

Many “foreign” medical students who train in New York aren’t foreign at all. Two in three students at the school where I work, St. George’s University in Grenada, are U.S. citizens. Close to half of students attending Saba University in the Caribbean Netherlands are American.

New York medical schools also criticize international institutions for paying hospitals for clerkships. But there’s nothing wrong with that. Hospitals devote precious time and resources to educating these students. It’s reasonable that schools provide funding to help defray the cost of training them. Further, hospitals need the money.

St. George’s pays more than $12 million to NYC Health + Hospitals, New York City’s public hospital system, each year to cover the clerkship costs of up to 380 of its students.
Paid clerkships also ease the state’s primary care shortage. More than three-quarters of hospital systems surveyed by the Healthcare Association of New York State don’t have enough primary care doctors. By 2030, New York will need an additional 1,220 primary care providers.

International medical graduates are also more likely to enter primary care. Seventy percent of St. George’s graduates, for instance, go into primary care. Only one-quarter of students from U.S. schools do the same.

Clerkships for international students provide much-needed funding to New York hospitals and reduce the state’s doctor shortage – without disadvantaging students at local medical schools. The Empire State ought to welcome these aspiring doctors.

Fred M. Jacobs, M.D., J.D., is executive vice president of St. George’s University in Grenada. He is the former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.
CUDDLED FROM BUFALONEWS

the emergence of antibiotic resistance has been complicating the management of infectious diseases especially where successes have been recorded in the last few years.

the emergence of antibiotic resistance has been complicating the management of infectious diseases especially where successes have been recorded in the last few years.

“The antibiotics that where once life savers are becoming a problem because of the misuse and this has led to a situation where antibiotics are not responding to the treatment of infections any longer and this is adversely affecting the human and animal health system and the economy. Developing countries will suffer more if a solution is not found to it.

“Antibiotic resistance is a problem that complicates both common and complex surgeries. It is meant to help to prevent from the risk of death or contacting infections from the surgery, however things are fast changing the the desired effect of the use of antibiotics is fast declining,” he added.

He said ”the threat of when antibiotics will fail to serve their roles in combating infectious diseases is currently the biggest fear of the entire global health system.”

He added that global bodies such as WHO, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, FAO, and the World Organisation for Animal Health are advocating for responsible use of antibiotics in humans and animals.

Mr. Ihekweazu said, in response to this emerging crises, NCDC recently brought together experts from various ministries and agencies, academia and the private sector to chart a path towards a National Action Plan to combat antimicrobial resistance in Nigeria.

He added though that Nigeria is not yet where it should be with the curbing of indiscriminate antibiotics use, he is however optimistic that the country is on the right path.

The agency, as part of the events lined up for the week also had a road walk on Monday in collaboration with WHO, members of the National Youth Service Corp, NYSC, and other health partners to sensitise Nigerians on the dangers of using antibiotics without proper medical investigations and prescription.
NYSC members in collaboration with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on a road walk to sensitize Nigerians about antibiotics resistance awareness week in Abuja
NYSC members in collaboration with Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on a road walk to sensitize Nigerians about antibiotics resistance awareness week in Abuja.

The campaign which kicked off from the NCDC office in Jabi through the Jabi motor park and ended at Utako market.

Mr. Abiodun Ogunniyi, an epidemiologist with NCDC, said the agency embarked on the road walk to sensitise Nigerian on the need to be cautious with the way they use drugs especially unprescribed drugs such as antibiotics which is fast becoming resistant in the treatment of ailments and bacterial infection.

Dooshiwa Kwange, Department of Pest Control Service, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also urged the government to implement policies that will protect both humans and animals.

Ten things to know about antibiotics

1. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care professional before taking antibiotics.

2. Antibiotics do not treat viral infections such as cold and flu.

3. You can help prevent infection through good hygiene.

4. Always get a laboratory test done to rule out type of infections before taking antibiotics.

5. Never share antibiotics. Always finish your dosage. Antibiotics ‘is never too small but can be too many,’ always stick to the recommended dosage.

6. Anybody can become antibiotic resistant no matter the age or country.

7. Antibiotics resistance poses a big threat to global health.

8. Constant and unnecessary treatment of animals with antibiotics can lead to antibiotic resistance.

9. When a human becomes antibiotic resistant, common antibiotics may stop working for them and they would have to spend more to buy advanced antibiotics to treat common infections.

10. The rise of antibiotics resistance is leading to infections not being treatable and the threat can affect anyone.

Commonly misused antibiotics in Nigeria

1. Penicillins such as amoxicillin;

2. Ciprotab, Ciprofolxacin;

3. Gentamicin;

4. Tetracycline, doxycycline.

Cuddled from premium times

using antibiotics without prescription from medical experts is one of the major problems causing antibiotic resistance across the world leading to greater challenges in health management

using antibiotics without prescription from medical experts is one of the major problems causing antibiotic resistance across the world leading to greater challenges in health management.

The experts also said lack of effective regulation and implementation of government policies and guidelines on the use and sale of drugs also cause high rise in drug abuse and antibiotic resistance.

Omotayo Hamzat, the National Professional Officer, Essential Drugs and Medicine, World Health Organisation, WHO, during a press briefing at the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, on Tuesday, in Abuja said the problem Nigeria is facing on antibiotic resistance is not the lack of policies but non-implementation and lack of regulation of available ones.

The press briefing was to commemorate the World Antibiotics Awareness Week, WAAW, which celebrated November 13-19. The theme of this year, being the maiden edition is “Handle Antibiotics with Care – think twice, seek advice”.

There is an increasing global problem of antimicrobial resistance, whereby antibiotics are no longer effective for the treatment of infectious diseases which they were specifically designed to fight. Concerns about growing global antibiotic resistance have plunged into new depths as the World Health Organisation, WHO, is now warning that the world is ”running out of antibiotics.”

Antibiotics, known as antibacterials, are drugs that destroy or slow down the growth of bacteria. They are meant to be used in treating specific types of bacteria and in general cannot be interchanged to treat any infection other than that they were designed for. But today they are indiscriminately used to treat diverse kinds of ailments.

The experts lamented that people now use antibiotics to treat infections like cold, flu, cough, and at times sore throat, caused by viruses.

Mr. Hamzat urged Nigerians to desist from self medication and indiscriminate use of antibiotics in other to reduce the threat of antibiotics resistance in their bodies.

“When we were younger, what we knew of was Septrin and Flagyl and those diseases that these drugs cure in those days. You realise in these days that you have to take a stronger antibiotics because we have abused the drugs. It (drug) is open and access is free without any investigation done on what is wrong.

A health board has apologised to relatives of a man who died waiting to get an appointment for his heart condition at Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd

A health board has apologised to relatives of a man who died waiting to get an appointment for his heart condition at Bangor's Ysbyty Gwynedd.

The patient, referred to as Mr Y, died on July 20, 2016, the day before a letter arrived inviting him to make an "urgent" appointment.

The man's brother, Dr X, complained that the GP's referral to the clinic was not acted upon in a timely manner.

Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board has said it is implementing changes.

The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales found that Mr Y, who died of ischaemic heart disease, should have been seen at the rapid access chest pain clinic (RACPC) within seven days of his GP's urgent referral.

The letter for an appointment was sent to Mr Y 12 days after the referral, despite a consultant identifying his heart readings as abnormal and suggesting it was an emergency.

The ombudsman said it was also unacceptable that Dr X had waited four months for a "meaningful response" from the health board to his initial complaint.

Betsi Cadwaladr UHB agreed to apologise to Dr X and to Mr Y's partner for the delay in both the appointment and the response.

It also agreed to review:

    The percentage of referrals to the RACPC not triaged within 24 hours or the next working day
    Whether job plans need to be modified or more cardiologists used to deliver RACPC "in a timely manner"
    Consider developing a protocol for GP referrals to RACPC

'Unacceptable delay'

Reena Cartmell, the health board's deputy director of nursing and midwifery, said: "We apologise that we did not deliver the standard of care that we should have and for the unacceptable delay in responding to the family's complaint."

"We have taken note of all of the ombudsman's comments and are in the process of implementing all the recommendations he has made."

She said the board was also "working hard" to improve its concerns process.

Cuddled from BBC

The number of people dying prematurely from coronary heart disease in Wales has been cut by nearly 70% in the past 20 years,

The number of people dying prematurely from coronary heart disease in Wales has been cut by nearly 70% in the past 20 years, a new report has revealed.

Cardiovascular (heart and circulatory) disease is the biggest killer in Wales, with more than 9,000 deaths each year.

Health Secretary Vaughan Gething said its study showed the Welsh NHS was making "continued progress" in improving patients' care.

British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru said the new stats were "encouraging".

There are about 375,000 people living with cardiovascular disease in Wales - 4% of the population - according to the Welsh Government's Annual Statement of Progress on Heart Disease report.
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    Fewer deaths and cases of heart disease in Wales
    Almost 200,000 women in Wales live with heart disease
    Cholesterol-lowering jab to help prevent heart disease
    12 die from heart attacks each week, BHF Cymru says

It showed there had been a 68% reduction in the rate of people dying from premature coronary heart disease, which includes heart attacks or angina, before the age of 75.

There has been a 20% reduction since 2009 alone.

The report said this was due to the improved detection of heart disease among GPs, the ban on smoking in public places and other public health interventions, and NHS better treatments.

But it did state there were 4,085 deaths in Wales in 2015 where coronary heart disease was the underlying cause - an average of 11 deaths a day.

Of those, more than 1,400 were people under the age of 75.
Improvements:

    The number of people dying from a heart attack has fallen by 134 over the last five years, to 1,478
    The number of people dying from heart failure has reduced by nearly 40% in the last five years - by 192 deaths, to 332 deaths in 2015
    In 2015-16, the total number of people living with coronary heart disease in Wales was 120,620 - down 822 on the previous 12 months

Areas of focus:

    Late diagnoses - there were almost 35,000 emergency admissions for cardiovascular disease in 2015-16
    Improving waiting times
    Reducing premature cardiac death - there are about 8,000 victims of sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest each year in Wales and "survival rates are low"

Cuddled from BBC

Dog owners have a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease or other causes

Dog owners have a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease or other causes, a study of 3.4 million Swedes has found.

The team analysed national registries for people aged 40 to 80, and compared them to dog ownership registers.

They found there was a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in owners of dogs, particularly of hunting breeds.

While owning a dog may help physical activity, researchers said it may be active people who choose to own dogs.

They also said owning a dog may protect people from cardiovascular disease by increasing their social contact or wellbeing, or by changing the owner's bacterial microbiome.

The microbiome is the collection of microscopic species that live in the gut. It's thought a dog may influence its owner's microbiomes as dogs change the dirt in home environments, exposing people to bacteria they may not have encountered otherwise.
Image copyright Getty Images

The researchers said dogs had a particularly protective effect for those who live alone.

"The results showed that single dog owners had a 33% reduction in risk of death and 11% reduction in risk of heart attack," compared to single non-owners, said lead study author Mwenya Mubanga of Uppsala University.

People who live alone have been shown previously to be at a higher risk of cardiovascular death.

Dr Mubanga said: "Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households."

For their study, published in Scientific Reports, the team looked at data from 2001 to 2012. In Sweden, every visit to a hospital is recorded in national databases - while dog ownership registration has been mandatory since 2001.

Owning a dog from breeds originally bred for hunting, such as terriers, retrievers and scent hounds, was associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular disorder.
Image copyright Nick Triggle/Amber Evans

Dr Mike Knapton of the British Heart Foundation, said: "Owning a dog is associated with reduced mortality and risk of having heart disease. Previous studies have shown this association but have not been as conclusive - largely due to the population size studied here.

"Dog ownership has many benefits, and we may now be able to count better heart health as one of them.

"However, as many dog owners may agree, the main reason for owning a dog is the sheer joy.

"Whether you're a dog owner or not, keeping active is a great way to help improve your heart health."

Tove Fall, senior author of the study, said there were some limitations: "These kind of epidemiological studies look for associations in large populations but do not provide answers on whether and how dogs could protect from cardiovascular disease.

"There might also be differences between owners and non-owners already before buying a dog, which could have influenced our results, such as those people choosing to get a dog tending to be more active and of better health."

Cuddled from BBC

Health news

The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who was the discussion leader at the plenary, said that the Edo State government is on the verge of domesticating the National Health Act, noting that the move will greatly improve healthcare delivery in the state.

According to him, “Not only is the Edo State government on the verge of domesticating the National Health Act, it is also working to have a health insurance scheme that will cover all. The state will also serve as a pilot for the implementation of the primary healthcare programme.”

Former Chief Medical Director at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Prof. Michael Ibadin, said that there was need for more private sector participation in healthcare delivery.

Arguing that the dominance of government in health sector has stifled growth, he said, “We can improve healthcare delivery when we get more private sector participation. When we do this, we would have less incessant strikes. There is evidence that private hospitals are delivering good services. But most people have been left to suffer because a lot of people depend on service in public hospitals. We need this trend to change.”

Dr. Christopher Otabor of Alliance Hospital, Abuja, said that Governor Godwin Obaseki’s experience in the private sector is one of the greatest assets he is bringing to governance, noting that government should provide guarantees that will allow people access healthcare cost-efficiently.

“When it appears healthcare is anchored on private sector investment and accessing services is hard for the poor, government can provide insurance. The stage is being set in Edo State for this. Government doesn’t necessarily have to bring money to fund hospitals. It can provide guarantees and ensure that there is a stable environment for hospitals to thrive,” he said.

Prof. Jonny Ikimalo of Prime Hospital said that the reason for poor health indices in Nigeria is due to poor budgetary allocations, condemning the fact that a lot of people have to pay for services out of their pockets when they are already in hospitals.

According to him, “Healthcare is expensive and I have a problem when people talk about health insurance for the poor. People think that anything that relates with insurance is expensive because what we ordinary associate with insurance are cars, life and the likes. We should rather call it health plans. Healthcare is a social responsibility. So, much as we suggest that government should allow private investment, it should also provide cover for the poor.

“What I understand from the visionary stance of the state governor, is that the state is already putting in place a health insurance scheme which will provide health coverage for everybody, including the underprivileged. I think it is work in progress and it is expected that this summit will make input into it.”

Rev. Fr. Anslem Adodo of Pax Herbal Clinic noted that the there was need to promote traditional medicine in the quest to attain universal health coverage, noting, “One of the surest means to provide healthcare to the people is to recognise the place of traditional healthcare. But to do this, we must reform and integrate traditional medicine in our health system in Edo State.”
Cuddled from VANGUARD