JAPiN bags Nollywood Defender of the Girl Child Award

A MEDIA advocacy  group, the Journalists Alliance for PMTCT in Nigeria, JAPiN, has been awarded the Defender of the Girl Child Award.

Presenting the award during the group’s 2016 National Meeting in Lagos, Nollywood film producer, Mr. Dozie Eboh, said the award was in recognition of JAPiN’s  contributions towards the welfare and protection of the Nigerian girl child, adolescents and women in general.

Eboh, who is the CEO of View Trend Entertainment Limited, produced a movie on the Girl Child entitled Reality, that is  an expose on girl child labour, early marriage, vulnerability to rape, abuse and prostitution that consequently lead to infections such as HIV infection, entailing the need for the eMTCT/PMTCT campaign.

He noted that View Trend and JAPiN would work together  towards dissemination of the movie and building up the story line.

Receiving the Award, JAPiN’s National Coordinator, Sola Ogundipe, said it would spur the group to be more committed towards ensuring that the girl child is protected from early marriage, teenage pregnancy  and other forms of social vices that increase the risk of mother to child transmission of HIV.

UNICEF HIV Specialist, Dr. Abiola Davies  enjoined the group to   brainstorm and come up with ideas that would help in projecting the movie in good light and to ensure that the technical angle/content of the story is put in the right perspective.

Since inception in 2004, JAPiN has garnered a critical mass of journalists as change agents for the prevention and elimination of mother- to- child transmission of HIV, PMTCT and eMTCT issues.

Established as a national and zonal network of journalists, the group has brought a fresh perspective into related HIV/AIDS issues in the media and   helped enable positive response to related issues of MTCT of HIV within the community.  

At UN, global leaders step up fight against antimicrobial resistance

For the first time ever, world leaders have committed to taking a broad, coordinated approach to address the root causes of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that cause common and life-threatening infections across multiple sectors, especially human health, animal health and agriculture.

This was disclosed at a high-level meeting convened in Geneva Switzerland at 71st session of the UN General Assembly.

This is the fourth time a health issue has been taken up by the UN General Assembly after HIV, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Ebola.

Antimicrobial resistance happens when bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi develop resistance against medicines that were previously able to cure them.

Countries reaffirmed their commitment to develop national action plans on AMR, based on the "Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance" — the blueprint for tackling AMR developed in 2015 by WHO in coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).

Such plans are needed to understand the full scale of the problem and stop the misuse of antimicrobial medicines in human health, animal health and agriculture.

Leaders recognized the need for stronger systems to monitor drug-resistant infections and the volume of antimicrobials used in humans, animals, and crops, as well as increased international cooperation and funding.

They pledged to strengthen regulation of antimicrobials, improve knowledge and awareness, and promote best practices — as well as to foster innovative approaches using alternatives to antimicrobials and new technologies for diagnosis and vaccines.

According to President of the 71^st UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, "Antimicrobial resistance threatens the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and requires a global response.

He said Member States have agreed upon a strong political declaration that provides a good basis for the international community to move forward. No one country, sector or organization can address this issue alone."

Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, noted: "Antimicrobial resistance poses a fundamental threat to human health, development, and security. The commitments made today must now be translated into swift, effective, lifesaving actions across the human, animal, and environmental health sectors. We are running out of time."

As a result of AMR, diseases such as pneumonia, gonorrhoea, and post-operative infections, as well as HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, all of which that are increasingly becoming untreatable.

Left unchecked, AMR is predicted to have significant social, health security, and economic repercussions that will seriously undermine the development of countries.

High levels of AMR already seen in the world today are the result of overuse and misuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobials in humans, animals (including farmed fish), and crops, as well as the spread of residues of these medicines in soil, crops, and water. Within the broader context of AMR, resistance to antibiotics is considered the greatest and most urgent global risk requiring international and national attention.

Leaders at the UN meeting called on WHO, FAO and OIE, in collaboration with development banks such the World Bank and other relevant stakeholders, to coordinate their planning and actions and to report back to the UN General Assembly in September 2018.

Countries called for better use of existing, cost-effective tools for preventing infections in humans and animals. These include immunization, safe water and sanitation, good hygiene in hospitals, and animal husbandry. Putting in place systems to ensure more appropriate use of existing and new antibiotics is also essential.

They highlighted market failures, and called for new incentives for investment in research and development of new, effective and affordable medicines, rapid diagnostic tests, and other important therapies to replace those that are losing their power.

Get tested for HIV if you are pregnant

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) is the spread of HIV from an HIV-infected woman to her child during pregnancy, childbirth (labour and delivery), or breastfeeding (through breast milk).
Mother-to-child transmission is the most common way that children become infected with HIV.
•The goal of ART is to reduce the amount of HIV in your body An HIV-positive mother can transmit HIV to her baby in three ways: During pregnancy, vaginal childbirth or breastfeeding. Fortunately, if you are HIV-positive, treatment with a combination of HIV medicines (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) can improve your health and greatly lower the chance that you will pass HIV to your baby before, during, or after birth. The treatment is most effective for preventing HIV transmission to babies when started as early as possible during pregnancy.
However, there are still great a benefit to begin treatment even during labour or shortly after the baby is born.

HIV screen test
Get tested for HIV when you are planning a pregnancy or as soon as possible after you find out you are pregnant, even if you have been tested before.
Some women need to receive a second HIV test in their third trimester if they meet certain criteria, such as continuing to engage in behaviours that put you at high risk for getting HIV. Not all health care facilities offer an automatic HIV test for pregnant women.
Be sure to request one if it isn’t offered. Some women go into labour before they have been tested.
If a pregnant woman goes into labor without having had an HIV test, she may be given a rapid HIV test in the labour and delivery room.
That way, if the test is positive, the doctors can work with her to help prevent passing HIV to the baby.

HIV transmission before birth
If you are HIV-positive and pregnant, you can greatly lower your risk of passing HIV to your baby and protect your own health by taking ART during pregnancy, labour, and delivery.
The goal of ART is to reduce the amount of HIV in your body to an undetectable level (called an undetectable viral load). As a pregnant woman, you can safely use many HIV medicines during pregnancy.
Talk to your health care provider about the benefits and risks of specific HIV medicines when choosing an HIV regimen to use during pregnancy.
And if you are already on ART, don’t stop taking your medicine. It is important to stay on treatment to protect your health and prevent passing HIV to your baby.
But your HIV regimen may change during pregnancy because pregnancy can affect how the body processes medicine.
Work closely with your health care provider to find an HIV regimen that is right for you and always talk to your provider before making any changes.

Delivery options
Also talk to your health care provider about your delivery options. A scheduled Cesarean delivery (C-section) at 38 weeks of pregnancy is recommended to reduce the risk of mother-to-child transmission for women with a high or unknown HIV viral load near the time of delivery.
All decisions regarding the use of HIV medicines during childbirth and the choice of a cesarean delivery are made jointly by a woman and her health care providers, and depend on the woman’s individual situation.

Prevention after birth
If you are HIV-positive, your baby will receive a special drug for six weeks after birth. This drug is intended to protect the baby from infection with any HIV that passed from you during childbirth.
Your baby will be tested several times over the course of six months to determine whether the baby has HIV. If testing shows that the baby does have HIV, the baby will be switched to ART.

Genes store memories of heart attack episodes

Heredity and environmental factors influence our risk of cardiovascular disease, says a new study, by researchers at Uppsala University that shows that the memory of a heart attack can be stored in our genes through epigenetic changes.

According to the results published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics, we inherit our genes from our parents at birth but during our lifetime, chemical modifications of DNA that turn off or on our genes, so-called epigenetic changes, occur.

These changes can lead to the development of various diseases. In the current study, the researchers examined epigenetic changes in people who have had a previous heart attack.

Åsa Johansson, a researcher at the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology, who led the study explains: “During a heart attack the body signals by activating certain genes. This mechanism protects the tissue during the acute phase of the disease, and restores the body after the heart attack. It is therefore likely that it also occurs epigenetic changes associated a heart attack”.

Results of the study showed that there are many epigenetic changes in individuals who had experienced a heart attack. Several of these changes are in genes that are linked to cardiovascular disease.

However it was not possible to determine whether these differences had contributed to the development of the disease, or if they live on as a memory of gene activation associated with the heart attack.

Johansson hopes the new results should contribute to increasing the knowledge of the importance of epigenetic in the clinical picture of a heart attack, which in the long run could lead to better drugs and treatments.

African leaders, partners commit $30bn to agriculture

African leaders, businesses, and major development partners have pledged more than US $30 billion in investments to increase production, income and employment for smallholder farmers and local African agriculture businesses over the next 10 years.

The historic investments represent just the first wave of support for the new “Seize the Moment” campaign, one backed by the African Union Commission, the new Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, the African Development Bank  (AfDB), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), among others.
The collective pledges, made in Nairobi, Kenya, at the opening of the 6th African Green Revolution Forum , AGRF, represents the largest package of financial commitments to the African agricultural sector to date.

Backed by the broadest coalitions ever assembled in support of food production on the continent, the gathering attracted more than 1,500 influential figures from 40 countries to broker new agricultural initiatives.
Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta,  officially opened the forum with an announcement that his government will invest  US$200 million to at least 150,000 young farmers and young agriculture entrepreneurs can gain access to markets, finance, and insurance.
Kenyatta, who is Chair of the African Peer Review Mechanism called for a continental scorecard that will measure and track the commitments to agriculture transformation and ensure they translate into action.

Gayle Smith, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), set the tone for the day with a call for investors and donors to be bold and do their part to achieve “A Food-Secure 2030”.

Already, the US government has invested more than $6.6 billion in global food security and nutrition efforts through its Feed the Future initiative.

This commitment is now locked in for the long-term following approval in July of the bipartisan Global Food Security Act legislation.

Smith said the initiative “signals the US government's enduring commitment to global food security and nutrition and is the largest development authorization the US Congress has made in a decade.”  
While African agriculture has seen significant progress in the last 10 years, the “Seize the Moment” campaign is a frank acknowledgment that much more is needed for African countries to achieve inclusive economic development—and ultimately realize the international community’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The campaign is a decisive push for the political, policy, and financial commitments essential to transforming Africa’s agricultural sector. The goal: a new era of business opportunities for the 70 percent of the African population that depend on farming for food and income, yet too often face poverty and poor nutrition.
The African Development Bank, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Group, OCP Africa, World Food Programme, Yara International ASA, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), are among agriculture investors and development partners who announced new financial and policy commitments.

Vaccine shortage threatens yellow fever response

 Limited supplies of the yellow fever vaccine is stalling full response efforts to the yellow fever outbreak in parts of Africa It takes six months to develop the vaccine. Confronted by acute shortage of vaccines to protect millions potentially at risk of yellow fever, public health officials are struggling to manage the disease outbreak in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo, even as worries that the virus could spread are making the rounds.
 The prevailing yellow fever transmission has been explosive and has rapidly exhausted global emergency stockpile of at least six million vaccine doses.
It is feared that a second outbreak in a densely populated country could deplete the dangerously low vaccine supply. Currently, experts are anxiously watching the progress of the outbreak and are concerned it could spread to countries that have never faced large scale outbreaks of the virus before and therefore have little natural immunity.
 As a stop-gap measure aimed at providing at least some protection, the World Health Organization (WHO), is vaccinating14 million people against the disease in 8,000 locations by diluting the vaccine to one-fifth the dose.
 Millions have already been vaccinated with a full dose of the protective yellow fever vaccine that provides lifelong protection, but as supplies have dwindled, health officials are implementing the emergency measure that involves diluting the vaccine further so that it will provide protection for one year.
 Health experts say the current vaccination plan may be inadequate to protect enough people, hence they have warned that the virus could spread and possibly reach densely populated regions in Africa and Asia, where the disease could rapidly become endemic.
 "Protecting as many people as possible is at the heart of this strategy. With a limited supply we need to use these vaccines very carefully," said William Perea, Coordinator for the Control of Epidemic Diseases Unit at WHO said in a statement.
 Yellow fever "transmission in 2016 has been explosive and rapidly exhausted the usual global emergency stockpile of at least six million vaccine doses. But a second outbreak in a densely populated country could deplete the dangerously low vaccine supply.
 Since December 2015, the yellow fever outbreak has infected over 5,000 persons with over 400 deaths in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The disease is spread by mosquitoes, especially the Aedes aegypti mosquito that also spreads Zika virus.
 Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, chills, severe headache, back pain and nausea; the virus has been fatal in approximately 20 percent of cases. Health officials are fighting the virus on two fronts, by treating people and reducing mosquito populations so it doesn't spread across the continent or globe.
Researchers from the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention said: "This epidemic in the three countries and its introduction to seven other countries illustrates how all countries are connected and that a threat in one country is a threat everywhere."
 It is believed that Yellow fever is "tenacious" and the number of cases in Africa is probably far higher than what had been reported.
 About 99 per cent of people develop immunity within one month of vaccination with the Yellow fever vaccine, which is a live-virus vaccine that has been used for several decades. A single dose provides lifelong protection for most people.

New layers of immunity found in TB/HIV co-infections

Researchers at the Tulane University have discovered that some monkeys whose immune systems are depleted by the Simian strain of HIV have a second line of defense against tuberculosis. 

The research led by Deepak Kaushal, a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Tulane National Primate Research Center,  said it could have significant impacts on future vaccines for TB. 

People co-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and HIV are up to 20 times more likely than people without HIV to develop active, clinical tuberculosis over their lifetimes. 

HIV targets CD4 T cells and researchers believe depletion of those cells, the first layer of immune response, drives up the progression of TB. Currently, most vaccines being developed for TB only target the CD4 arm of immunity.

Kaushal's research team exposed macaques to Mtb and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) to replicate human co-infection. They discovered one-third of the animals maintained latent TB despite complete loss of lung CD4 T cells. 

A study of the lung tissue revealed CD8 cells and B cells both worked to provide immunity against active TB.

Kaushal says future vaccines for tuberculosis should try to elicit immune responses from not only CD4 cells but also CD8 and B cells.

"This monkey model is the closest we can get to the human environment of these two diseases," Kaushal says. "This discovery is important because it lays out the whole gambit of the different immune functions that are required for an optimum response."

The research revealed a sub-population of macaques better able to fight TB and HIV co-infection, and Kaushal says it can be presumed this sub-population of humans also exists. He believes the difference is genetic.

Kaushal hopes to continue the research and move on to the next step of developing a vaccine. "Our job now is to find out the mechanism of why these differences occurred," Kaushal says.

The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,