Health hub

Written by Timothy Okooboh It is a common practice in most health facilities to ensure almost every patient who walks into the facility leaves with at least one health supplement. For instance, a client who comes just to buy one sachet of paracetamol could end up leaving with a supplement of over two thousand naira. No doubt, health supplements are good for the body. They contain vitamins, minerals, amino acids, fatty acids and some contain herbal extracts such as ginseng. Some of the amino acids and fatty acids contained in health supplements are essential. That is, the body cannot naturally produce them on its own, hence the need for supplements and healthy diets. However, in some facilities, even non health care providers such as sales girls and cashiers recommend supplements to patients. This act reveals that to a large extent there is a general perception among health and non health care providers that supplements are products with very minimal or no side effects, products wi...

Written by Timothy Okooboh                           The Artemether-lumefantrine clock Recently, there have been widespread reports regarding the ineffectiveness of Artemether-lumefantrine for the treatment of malaria infection. This treatment failure is mostly due to a poor understanding of the correct dosage interval of Artemether-lumefantrine, that is, the various times of the day the drug should be taken during the three day therapy. Below are two common case scenarios of a health care provider and patient interaction that take place in health care facilities across the world especially Sub-Saharan Africa where malaria is most prevalent. Scenario one Health care provider : Good morning madam. This is Artemether-lumefantrine 80/480 mg. It is a medicine that will take care of your malaria infection. Take one tablet when you get home and one tablet 8 hrs later. Then from tomorrow, take one tablet ...

Written by Timothy Okooboh Diabetes mellitus is one of the leading causes of non-traumatic lower extremity amputation (LEA) worldwide. Prevalence rates of diabetic foot lesions vary from 0.9 - 8.3 % in Nigeria. Diabetes is a disease in which blood glucose levels are elevated either as a result of insulin deficiency or impaired sensitivity of insulin receptors. Insulin is the hormone that promotes the absorption of glucose into the liver, fat and skeletal mucles. Therefore, problems with insulin secretion or impaired response to insulin production will lead to the build up of glucose in the blood, known as hyperglycemia. Complications due to diabetes can be classified into two groups: macrovascular and microvascular complications. Macrovascular complications due to diabetes include coronary artery disease, peripheral arterial disease and stroke. Microvascular complications due to diabetes include diabetic neuropathy, diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy. Peripheral ...

Written by Timothy Okooboh There are drugs that should not be prescribed without regularly monitoring the patient or drug concentration in the plasma or serum. In this era of pharmaceutical care, these are medications a pharmacist should dispense after ensuring that the patient is under regular monitoring at the health facility the drug was prescribed. Some drugs have narrow therapeutic index, meaning that small differences in dosage or blood concentration may lead to treatment failure or adverse drug reactions. Some drugs without  a narrow therapeutic index are even potentially toxic hence, patients on these drugs need to be monitored through out therapy. Some patients may already have liver or kidney problems before starting a medication. These patients belong to a high risk group and need to be monitored while on some medications because most drugs are metabolized and cleared by the liver or kidneys and for patients who already have problems with these organs, dru...

Written by Timothy Okooboh (PharmD)  Erectile dysfunction (ED)   commonly known as impotence, is a sexual disorder experienced by men in which a man has difficulty achieving penile erection sufficient enough to enjoy sexual intercourse. The man could be unable to achieve erection, unable to achieve hard enough erection or he could be unable to sustain the erection long enough to enjoy sexual intercourse with his partner. Erectile dysfunction can affect men of all ages. Getting older doesn't cause ED, it only increases the chances of developing ED. 50 percent of men between the ages of 40 and 70 have ED. 7 in 10 men aged 70 and and above have ED. Erectile dysfunction can be very embarrassing for a man to even discuss with friends or even a medical personnel. It can adversely affect marriages and other sexual relationships as it could lead to infidelity, divorce, low self esteem and depression.  Hence it is worth learning about in order to know how to reduce the ri...

       Written by Timothy Okooboh (PharmD)                                 World Health Day                                #HealthForAll                                                                                    "Health is a human right. No one should get sick and die just because they are poor or because they cannot access the health services they need."    Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus   WHO Director General.  The focus of this year's World Health Day is  Universal health coverage through the # HealthForAll campaign. Universal Health Coverage me...

Written by Blessing Ogbomo (PharmD)    " Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism " Carl Jung.  Drug abuse  clinically known as substance use disorder, is the indiscriminate use of any chemical substance including cigarettes, inhalants, alcohol and others. -At least 15.3 million persons have drug use disorders. -The harmful use of alcohol results in 3.3 million deaths each year. -On average every person in the world aged 15 years or older drinks 6.2 litres of pure alcohol per year. -It is estimated that 255 million people used illicit drugs such as cannabis, amphetamines, opioids and cocaine, in 2015 which translates into an annual prevalence of illicit drug use of 5.3 percent. Reference from : World drug report, 2017. (www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/en/). "Addiction isn't about substance - you aren't addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood th...

Breast cancer occurs when the cells of the breast divide rapidly than healthy cells do and continue  to accumulate forming a mass or lump.  It occurs in men but is mostly common in women.  Statistics on Breast Cancer  - Breast Cancer is the most frequent cancer among women, impacting over 1.5 million women each year  and also has the greatest number of cancer-related deaths among women.  - In year 2015, 570,000 women died from breast cancer.  Symptoms of Breast Cancer  - Breast Lump or thickening. - Changes in size, shape or appearance of the breast.  - A newly inverted nipple. - Redness or pitting of the skin over your breast.  -peeling, scaling, crushing or flaking of the pigmented area of skin surrounding the nipple or breast skin.  Risk factors for breast cancer  * Being a woman is the biggest risk of developing breast cancer. However, the risk of developing breast cancer rises as a w...

How Antimicrobial Resistance Spreads and the Phenomenon of Selective Pressure  Hello everyone, I continue my post on the   Antimicrobial Resistance series. As promised, I will be talking about how antimicrobial resistance spreads and the phenomenon of Selective Pressure. Just take a few minutes to look at the image above. It perfectly summarizes how antimicrobial resistance spreads between humans, animals and the environment. Antimicrobial resistance is said to have spread when resistant microbes spread from person to person. Antimicrobial Resistance spreads same way infections are spread such as through poor hygiene, unclean facilities, sexual contacts, air borne e.t.c. Hence there goes the saying, Resistance anywhere is Resistance everywhere.  Secondly,  I must establish the concept of Selective Pressure.  When antibiotics are consumed in the presence of a drug-resistant microbe, the antibiotic will destroy susceptible microbes and promote the...