LET US KNOW with Isaac Eranga on Sexual and Reproductive Health

by Team GHEP | Jan 23, 2016 | Journal Blog

In this edition of Let Us Know (LUK), IJMA Blog Co-Editor Eta Ashu interviews Mr. Isaac Eranga, a maternal and child health activist and health writer from Nigeria. He calls attention to the problems of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions that deserve immediate action. 

QUESTION: If GHEP were implement one project in the field of Sexual and Reproductive Health, more specifically in Nigeria, what would you recommend?

Answer: If the organization were to tackle a problem in Nigeria, I would suggest that the organization tackles the problems of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions should be top in the scale of preference.

Limited access to sexual and reproductive health information and services leaves many African women and girls of all ages, powerless to prevent pregnancies that they do not want and cannot afford. Unsafe abortion is often their last resort.

It is on record that Nigeria has the highest burden of maternal deaths in Africa (40,000 – African Union 2013 Status Report on Maternal Newborn and Child Health).

Globally, Africa bears 62% of maternal deaths caused by unsafe abortion. Unsafe abortions claims the lives of at least 29,000 African women and girls each year – most of whom are in their prime years of life (15 – 49 years).

According to Dr. Oluwarotimi of the Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria, 23% of adolescents in Nigeria, have unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, the issues of unwanted pregnancies and unwanted abortion must be tackled. This can be done through comprehensive sexuality education. In carrying out this, peer educators are to be trained and given an assignment of mentoring a limited number of females, especially teenagers in secondary schools.

Unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions impose significant costs on families and Nigerian health systems. There is a tendency of not taking proper care of pregnancy that is not wanted. This nonchalant attitude could lead to lead to a wide range of complications that could occur the period of pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period.

Complications after unsafe abortions causes 13 percent of maternal death, says the report quoted earlier.

About Isaac Eranga
I am Isaac Eranga, I was a former Managing editor of the African Journal of Reproductive Health. I am an MPH candidate with the Peoples Open Access Education Initiative. I am an editorial board member of the International Journal of MCH and AIDS. I am also a member of the Canadian Coalition of Global Health Research. I recently obtained a post graduate continuing medical education in Medical Ethics from the Norwegian Medical Association. In 2014, I was awarded an award for excellence as family planning champion by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative. I am currently a social media volunteer with IJMA. I authored a book – Understanding Basic Facts about Breast and Cervical Cancers published in 2015.

LET US KNOW with Adedotun Owolabi on Child Health and Nutrition

by Team GHEP | Jan 23, 2016 | Journal Blog

In this edition of Let Us Know (LUK), IJMA Blog Co-Editor Eta Ashu encounters Adedotun Owolabi, a young, dynamic and ambitious public health scientist who discusses the urgent need to address child health and Nutrition in Nigeria. 

LUK: If the Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. (GHEP) were implement one project in the field of maternal and child health in developing countries, specifically in Nigeria, what would you recommend?

Answer: New findings estimate that nearly 4 in 10 Nigerian children of less than five years of age are stunted, the second highest rate of arrested development in the world, and the highest in Africa.

Child health in Nigeria requires a holistic approach as the later life of any child depends on its onset. Nutrition being the major factor that cuts across human life cycle from pregnancy to infancy through childhood unto adulthood has lost professional and important attention. Malnutrition is an important determinant of maternal and Child health, it encompasses stunting, wasting and deficiencies of essential minerals and vitamins (collectively refer to as micronutrients). Malnutrition, besides weakening the immune system accounts for a high level of morbidity and mortality especially among children under the ages of 5.

Malnutrition in Nigeria accounts for over 50% under 5 morbidity rate, the cause of this high level of malnutrition  includes inappropriate breast feeding (exclusive breastfeeding rate of 13%); and inappropriate use of complementary feeds. Seven in ten (76 percent) of children aged age 6-9 months receive complementary foods, but most time it’s given too early or too late with local gruels that are not standardized. Thirty five percent of Nigerian babies receive complementary feeds that are inadequate in energy, protein, and micronutrients such as iron, zinc, iodine and vitamin A. Micronutrient deficiencies are reported as follows; iron – 76.1%, vitamin A – 29.5%, zinc – 12.8%.

LUK: What is the Way Forward? Are you advocating for Intense Nutrition?

Answer: Beyond providing the tools for stemming the tide of malnourishment and eliminating child morbidity and mortality occurrence, there is a need for intensive awareness campaigns on the impact of poor nutrition on child health, short and long term consequences of poor nutrition in children. Advocacy should include seminars/presentations on nutrition for the first 1000 days of life. Target groups should include adult of marriageable ages and pregnant women receiving anti natal and post natal.

Exclusive breastfeeding should be advocated for the first six months of life because growth faltering, malnutrition and infection have been observed to set in at about the sixth month, when complementary feeding is introduced. Most deaths from malnutrition occur in the first two years of the baby’s life.

Enlightenment is essential both in urban and rural settings as there are some residents who may have the means but due to ignorance or negligence do not give their children the appropriate food they need to aid their proper growth and help them start out healthy early in life. Most places of work in Nigeria do not have crèches for the mothers to keep their babies and breastfeed; this in turn does not in any way encourage the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among busy mothers. Workplaces should be encouraged make it a policy to have crèches.

The life of children should be given the urgent attention it deserves for the healthy growth of the next generation.

About Owolabi Joshus Adedotun

Adedotun Owolabi is a young dynamic and ambitious public health scientist, a graduate of food science and technology from the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. He holds a master’s degree in human nutrition from Nigeria’s premier university, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.

His research interest lies between the intersections of child health and nutrition, nutrition education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them, promotion of food and nutrition security, maternal and child care, including family planning, prevention and control of locally endemic and epidemic diseases.

Adedotun Owolabi has been selected by the United Nations information service, Geneva, to participate at the 2015 edition of graduate study program. He is a recipient of an excellence award offered by Nigerian top executives in the medicine and pharmaceutical industries based on his international business network strength.

LET US KNOW with Dr. Olaoluwa P. Akinwale on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)

by Team GHEP | Jan 23, 2016 | Journal Blog

In this edition of Let Us Know (LUK), IJMA Blog Co-Editor Eta Ashu interviews Dr. Olaoluwa Pheabian Akinwale, the Director of Research (Neglected Tropical Diseases) and head of the Molecular Parasitology Research Laboratory, Public Health Division, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research. He calls for urgent action on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). 

LUK: If GHEP were implement one project in the field of Infectious Disease and Chronic Diseases, specifically in Nigeria, what would you recommend?

Answer: If GHEP was to carry out one project in the field of Infectious and Chronic diseases, more specifically in Nigeria, I would you recommend schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease (NTD). This is because in Nigeria there is a low level of knowledge and awareness of NTDs and their prevention compared with knowledge and awareness on HIV and malaria, and this is really having a negative impact on local funding for research on NTDs.

The country has the greatest burden for NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa, having the highest prevalence of helminth infections such as hookworm, schistosomiasis, ascariasis, trichuriasis, and lymphatic filariasis.

For example, schistosomiasis is widely distributed in Nigeria and is hyper-endemic in many states of the north and southwest with moderate to low endemicity in the southeast. The infection occurs in all the states of the federation, while an estimated 33.5 million people, mainly children aged 5–19 years, are currently at risk of the infection. The country is on the verge of completing epidemiological mapping of schistosomiasis with 32 out of 36 states completely mapped. Though there is a National Control Program established in 1988, the program itself has not witnessed large-scale control efforts.

Huge treatment gaps still exist with only about 3,907,807 people currently accessing treatment through mass drug administration (MDA), thus a compelling need to scale up MDA program in Nigeria. To further improve MDA in the country, a number of knowledge gaps needs to be filled, which include – a better understanding of the minimum coverage rate of MDA that will have an impact on transmission, factors responsible for continuous mission in many endemic areas in spite of repeated chemotherapy, and determinants of treatment coverage rates in endemic communities.

Nigeria being a country with the greatest burden of most of the NTDs in Africa, my current focus therefore is to improve our understanding of more effective ways to address these issues through operational research.

About Dr. Akinwale

Dr. Olaoluwa Pheabian Akinwale is the Director of Research (Neglected Tropical Diseases) and head of the Molecular Parasitology Research Laboratory, Public Health Division, Nigerian Institute of Medical Research. Her research group consists of research scientists who specialize in various aspects of public health including molecular parasitology, epidemiology, molecular entomology, sociology, research ethics, and biostatistics. The group has enjoyed close successful collaborative research links with national and international experts to develop molecular diagnostic assays for parasite detection and characterization of their agents of transmission. Dr Akinwale has published extensively in national and international peer reviewed scientific journals. At the academic level, she has been involved in the teaching at postgraduate levels courses on parasitology and molecular biology of tropical parasites, and has served on several committees and institutional administrative assignments.