MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014 HEALTH & SCIENCE

Boko Haram violence hits healthcare in Nigeria

KANO: Healthcare services have col- some 500 people killed in suspected The gruelling trek takes its toll, said which is also under emergency rule and remain, with hospitals in Maiduguri hav- lapsed in the northern part of Nigeria’s Islamist attacks since the start of the Modu Faltaye, a local chief in Wulgo, on suffering from Boko Haram attacks. ing to take the strain, despite staff short- Borno state as doctors, nurses and phar- year. the shores of Lake Chad.”By the time the One Borno immunisation official said ages. Two of the hospital’s three macists flee for their lives from brutal Worst hit by militant attacks are vil- sick reach the hospital (in Cameroon), childhood jabs were now only given in orthopaedic surgeons have quit, said violence unleashed by Islamist Boko lages in remote, rural areas near Borno’s they are in a worse state, which is why the state capital, Maiduguri, because doctor Kabiru Ibrahim. Haram militants. border with Cameroon, despite an we lose a lot of our sick,” he said. vaccinators were afraid to travel to many A number of senior specialists are Medical professionals say health serv- increased military presence in the state. “Naturally, the rate of maternal and parts of the state. either on leave of absence or sabbatical ices in the region have largely shut Hospitals and clinics have not infant mortality is bound to rise in the In Baga, a fishing village near Lake pending an end to the violence, he down, with mortality rates and vaccina- escaped raids, even after Nigeria’s gov- area as a result of complications arising Chad, a suspected cerebral fever has added. “Patients with special ailments tion programmes severely hit and pres- ernment imposed emergency rule on from poor transportation facilities to killed scores of people since December like HIV, diabetic and hypertensive sure heaped on the skeleton staff that Borno and two other northeastern states hospital,” added Babakura. last year but residents have been unable patients need to access drugs at regular remain. in May last year. Medical personnel have Nigeria is one of only three countries to seek treatment. “People are dying like intervals and those drugs can only be “The whole healthcare system in been kidnapped, either for ransom or to in the world-along with Afghanistan and fowls,” said local man Husseini Goni. found in Maiduguri,” said Ibrahim. northern Borno has collapsed and treat wounded fighters in Boko Haram’s Pakistan-where polio is endemic but vio- “But these types of patients are some- healthcare delivery is nil,” said Musa ranks, while pharmacies-mostly run by lence against immunisation workers Pressure on staff times denied the chance to come and Babakura, a surgeon at the University of Christians-have faced armed robberies have affected programmes. Difficulties in delivering drugs to vio- take their drugs due to Boko Haram car- Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). and looting. At least nine people were killed in lence-affected areas and the closure of rying out highway attacks.” Babakura said the situation was a February last year, when gunmen pharmacies have increased costs of med- Babakura said hospitals such as the “growing health crisis”, with the sick Vaccination programes attacked stormed two vaccination clinics in the ication by as much as 35 percent, local UMTH were now forced to provide treat- forced to trek vasts distances to receive The insecurity has forced local people northern city of Kano, hampering efforts people say. ment that would ordinarily be given at medical attention and vaccination pro- to cross into neighbouring Cameroon in to inoculate children against the virus. Hospital treatment in Cameroon is primary care level. “(Closures have) sub- grammes for children compromised. search of treatment, with pregnant In 2013, there were 53 recorded cases also more expensive than in Nigeria, stantially increased the patient burden Violence by Boko Haram militants has women and the infirm using donkeys of polio in Nigeria, the Global Polio according to doctors and nurses. But the on us, which makes us work longer hours raged since 2009, but has been particu- and auto-rickshaws to negotiate the dif- Eradication Initiative said. Just over half closure of healthcare facilities in rural that could compromise efficiency,” he larly ferocious in recent weeks, with ficult terrain. were in Borno and neighbouring Yobe, areas has added pressure on those who added. — AFP Stigma hinders efforts to combat leprosy in India ‘We face a thousand indignities every day’

TAHIRPUR: At first, Ashok Yadav ignored the patches of pink skin on his arm. But when pale sores erupted on his body and he lost sensation in his fingertips, a doctor issued the devastating diagnosis: Yadav had leprosy. “What followed was like a nightmare,” said Yadav, who has lived in Kasturba Gram, a leper colony outside New Delhi, since his diagnosis 30 years ago. “I lost my job. My parents felt I would spoil my sisters’ chances of getting married. My family felt it would be better if I left home.” The stigma of leprosy endures in India, even though the country has made great strides against the disease, which is neither highly con- tagious nor fatal. Now the number of new annu- Scientists find that al cases has risen slightly after years of steady decline, and medical experts say the enormous was scourge of Europe fear surrounding leprosy is hindering efforts to finally eliminate it. WASHINGTON: In Europe 150 million Savage lizard People continue to hide their diagnoses from years ago, this dude was the biggest, bad- Plant-eating living in the area families and loved ones out of fear they will be dest bully in town. Two scientists in included the huge, long-necked , ostracized. Employers regularly turn away peo- Portugal announced last week that they the armored, tank-like Dracopelta and the ple who have had the disease, even if they’ve have identified the largest carnivorous spiky-tailed Miragaia, Mateus added. been treated and cured. Many struggle to get dinosaur ever found in Europe, a 33-foot- The two scientists said this is the second driver’s licenses and other routine documents. long (10-meter-long) brute called species of the genus . The other Even the disease-free children of leprosy Torvosaurus gurneyi that was the scourge one, Torvosaurus tanneri, lived at the same patients are shunned. NEW DELHI: In this Feb. 5, 2014 photo, Indian men suffering from leprosy sunbathe at a leper of its domain in the Jurassic Period. time in North America. It was known from “We face a thousand indignities every day,” colony in New Delhi, India. Although India has made great strides against leprosy over the “It was indeed better not to cross the the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming said Neelawati Devi, a longtime resident of years, the stigma of the disease is as intractable as ever, hindering efforts to eliminate the dis- way of this large, carnivorous dinosaur,” and was identified in 1979. Kasturba Gram. Some 10,000 people live there, ease entirely. — AP said paleontologist Christophe Hendrickx Its genus name, Torvosaurus, means including the children of leprosy patients. of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu “savage lizard.” Its species name, gurneyi, leprosy. In 2005, India declared victory, with workers to 209 districts seen as high endemic da Lourinh„ in Portugal. honors James Gurney, the author and illus- Country-wide campaigns launched health authorities reporting less than one case areas in 16 states. But that won’t end the pain Torvosaurus gurneyi was an imposing trator of the popular “Dinotopia” book “Our children face taunts and slights when for every 10,000 people. But pockets of the and stigma that leprosy brings to patients and beast. It was bipedal, weighed four to five series. Torvosaurus gurneyi was not the they go to school,” said Devi, holding out her country continue to have problems with leprosy, their families. “Our children shouldn’t have the tons, had a skull almost 4 feet long (1.2 only meat-eating dinosaur in its neighbor- hands, the stubs of her fingers wrapped in gauze including in the central state of Chattisgarh, shadow of leprosy hanging over their lives,” said meters), boasted powerful jaws lined with hood. For example, there was a European bandages. “But we want them to get an educa- Maharashtra in western India and Bihar and West G. Venugopal, one of the elders at Kasturba blade-shaped teeth four inches (10 cm) species of the well-known North American tion and get jobs. Their future should not be Bengal in the east. Gram, as he sat outside his home under Delhi’s long, and may have been covered with an Jurassic predator Allosaurus, but the ruined.” According to the health ministry, during weak winter sun. early type of feather, Hendrickx said. Torvosaurus found in Portugal was larger. Public health centers across the country have 2012-2013 India detected 134,752 new cases of “They often face taunts in school. People are “Torvosaurus gurneyi was obviously a Torvosaurus gurneyi not only is the launched campaigns describing leprosy as the leprosy, slightly more than the 127,295 cases cruel. They will say: ‘Oh, this is the son of a leper.’ super predator feeding on large prey like largest known meat-eating dinosaur from world’s “least contagious communicable dis- reported a year earlier. India accounts for 58 per- Then the children say they don’t want to go to herbivorous dinosaurs,” Hendrickx said. Europe, but is the biggest land predator of ease.” Health workers are trying to spread the cent of newly diagnosed leprosy cases in the school and we have to push them,” he said. Remains of the new species were any kind ever found on the continent, they word that leprosy is not hereditary and does not world, according to the World Health Gopal, who has worked with leprosy patients unearthed in Portugal by an amateur fossil added. There were larger dinosaur carni- spread through normal contact. Organization. The disease also remains a prob- for more than 40 years, said the stigma persists hunter in 2003 in the rock cliffs of Lourinh„, vores elsewhere, however. Tyrannosaurus in But the deformities that are the hallmark of lem in Brazil, China, Indonesia and East Timor. “because it’s very difficult to change people’s a small town about 45 miles (72 km) north North America, Carcharodontosaurus and leprosy contribute to the fear surrounding the C.M. Agarwal, the health ministry official in attitude over a short period of time.” of Lisbon, Hendrickx said. He said fossilized Spinosaurus in North Africa and disease, a chronic bacterial infection that often charge of the country’s leprosy campaign, says “As things are, the fear of leprosy is so great embryos probably belonging to this Giganotosaurus in Argentina all were bigger, lies dormant for years before attacking the the rise in cases is the result of an intensified that people refuse to come forward for treat- species were identified last year in but appeared on Earth much later than body’s nerves and slowly causing numbness. campaign against leprosy, meaning health work- ment. This has had an adverse effect on the suc- Portugal. Torvosaurus, during the Period Hands and feet eventually claw inward and seri- ers are reporting cases that otherwise would cess of the leprosy program,” he said. Venugopal The findings were published in the jour- that followed the Jurassic Period. “This ani- ous injuries often go unnoticed because no pain have gone unnoticed. But some activists dis- has been working with non-governmental agen- nal PLOS ONE. At the time that Torvosaurus mal, Torvosaurus, was already a fossil for 80 is felt. Often fingers and toes are lost due to agree. They say that after India’s 2005 declara- cies to lobby the government to expand the dis- prowled the landscape, the region was a million years before the T. rex ever walked injuries and sores. Scientists believe it is spread tion, the leprosy program was merged with the ability allowances that some leprosy survivors lush river delta with abundant fresh water the Earth,” Mateus said. During the Jurassic through droplets from coughing or sneezing country’s public health scheme and scarce get. “They pay us a monthly allowance of 1,800 and vegetation. The area teemed with Period from about 200 million years ago to during prolonged contact with someone infect- resources were reassigned for other urgent caus- rupees ($29), which is a pittance,” he said. dinosaurs and flying reptiles known as 145 million years ago, carnivorous dinosaurs ed, but they are still not completely sure. es. They also say the problem might be worse The money does not even pay for the band- pterosaurs, primitive birds, crocodiles, tur- generally were medium-sized, with an aver- Also called Hansen’s disease, leprosy has than anyone realizes because of leprosy’s long ages that leprosy patients use every day on their tles and mouse-sized mammals, according age length of about 7 to 16 feet (2 to 5 been curable since the 1940s thanks to antibi- gestation period. “The incubation period can sores, said Uttam Kumar, another resident. to paleontologist Oct·vio Mateus, also of meters). Larger ones like Torvosaurus, otics, and the worst physical deformities can be stretch from five years to 15 before the first signs Like many others in Kasturba Gram, Kumar Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museu Allosaurus and Saurophaganax arrived in avoided if it is caught in time. About 95 percent become detectable. And by then, many others was thrown out of his home because neighbors da Lourinha. the Period. —Reuters of people have a natural immunity. could become infected,” said P.K. Gopal of the objected to having a leprosy patient in their Worldwide, the number of new leprosy National Forum of Persons Affected by Leprosy, a midst. Kumar, whose bandaged feet are the only patients dropped from around 10 million in 1991 nongovernmental organization working with sign of his ailment, spent months on the road to around 230,000 last year as countries intensi- leprosy patients. before finding a refuge in the warren of one- Dazzling Chinese fossils fied efforts to fight the disease. In India, hospi- room tenements in Kasturba Gram. tals and clinics began treating patients with a Pain and stigma “Here we are all anonymous yet we are all fel- offer portal into the past combination of drugs that effectively kills The government is stepping up its fight low sufferers,” Kumar said. “Everyone has their mycobacterium leprae, the germ that causes against the disease, assigning additional health own sorrows, but our pain is the same.” — AP WASHINGTON: A spectacular array of beauti- Liaoning Province and nearby areas. It was an fully preserved fossils unearthed in northeast- inland region filled with trees, dotted with lakes ern China over the past two decades provides a and teeming with life 160 million years ago. unique portal on life 160 million years ago in The level of preservation has been excep- New Mowasat Hospital welcomes world the Jurassic Period, an international team of sci- tional, with only a handful of other places in the entists said this week. world offering fossils as good. pioneer gastroenterology consultant Among them are outlandish feathered dinosaurs, a quirky flying reptile, the earliest Soft tissue known gliding mammal, the earliest known Scientists count themselves lucky if even the KUWAIT: New Mowasat hospital is small bowel and colon diseases. Dr Video Capsule Endoscopy for small swimming mammal - and a salamander that hard parts of an like bones and teeth inviting Dr Marc Giovannini on a Omar added that New Mowasat bowel and colon are also currently turned up everywhere. become fossils. In the Daohugou Biota, many three-day visit to hospital from15 Hospital has a special unit for available at New Mowasat Hospital. Writing in the Journal of Vertebrate show soft tissue including feathers, fur, skin and, March, till 17 March, 2014. Digestive Endoscopy that provides all Recently, the hospital received the Paleontology, they said the plant and animal in some of salamanders, even delicate external Dr Giovannini is a gastroenterology diagnostic and therapeutic tech- first machine in Kuwait that examine fossils collectively represent a distinct ecological gills. The Jurassic is the second of three time consultant and head of the Digestive niques required to diagnose and treat the contraction of esophageal mus- grouping - or biota - of life forms that existed periods that make up the Mesozoic Era, some- Diseases Department & Chief of digestive diseases. These include cles and the propagation of food alongside one another. times called the Age of Dinosaurs. The Digestive Endoscopy unit at Institute endoscopic examinations of esopha- through it. The test is required for The fossil record of life on Earth is notorious- preceded it and the Cretaceous followed it. Paoli - Calmettes in Marseilles, France. gus, stomach and duodenum, endo- those with chronic reflux symptoms, ly spotty, with some spans of time remaining all The and plants of the Daohugou In addition, Dr Giovannini is a pio- scopic examinations of colon, endo- chronic cough especially after but unknown. That is not the case in what these Biota were found in the same part of China as a neer in the field of gastroscopy, scopic therapy for gut bleeding bariatric operations. scientists call the Daohugou Biota, named for a group of similarly amazing fossils that are 30 colonoscopy, and ERCP. He has alone lesions such as bleeding ulcers, vascu- The unit uses the latest technology village in the region the fossils have been found. million years younger, from the Cretaceous. puplished more than 200 articles in lar anomalies and bleeding varcies in disinfecting and sterilizing the “It is an unprecedentedly good window into Those later remains - including primitive birds these fields. using injection therapy, clips, loops, endoscopes and accessories through that particular place and time,” paleontologist and more feathered dinosaurs - comprise what On this occasion, Clinical Director band legation or APC. a fully automated machine. All proce- Corwin Sullivan of the Institute of Vertebrate is called the Jehol Biota. of Internal Medicine Department at “The unit also provides treatment dures are done under conscious seda- Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, The Daohugou Biota includes the earliest the New Mowasat Hospital Dr to problems such as swallowing diffi- tion according to international proto- who led the research, said in a telephone inter- dinosaurs preserved with feathers. Some, like Mahmoud M Omar, stressed that Dr culty through dilation or inserting cols. Patients are fully monitored by Dr Marc Giovannini view. “It is a time when a lot of interesting things Epidendrosaurus and Epidexipteryx, are Giovannini’s visit is part of New stent (tube), extraction of foreign bod- well experienced staff through and allows sampling of areaes not accessi- are happening,” paleontologist David Hone of remarkably bird-like. Mowasat Hospital’s Visiting Doctors ies, placement of feeding tubes, after procedures. Dr Omar said that ble by other techniques. Recently, Dr Queen Mary University of London added in a Scientists say birds evolved from small, program carried out to offer various removal of polyps and performing Dr Giovannini one of the doctors who Giovannini has developed a new tech- telephone interview. “We’ve got feathered feathered meat-eating dinosaurs. The earliest treatments in the country including endoscopic examinations of biliary designed the new intervention ultra- nique of tissue characterization using dinosaurs. We’ve got weird mammals. We’ve got known bird is Archaeopteryx, from 150 million for pancreatitis, pancreatic cysts and and pancreatic system (ERCP) with sound endoscope, which allows diag- elastosonography for visualization of fish. We’ve got lizards. We’ve got all this wonder- years ago. Scientists are eager to find even earli- tumors, managing biliary obstruction removal of stones and worms or by- nosing pancreatic diseases, diseases tissue elasticity during usal EUS exam- ful, wonderful stuff.” er birds and think this might be an ideal place to through ERCP, treating gut obstruc- passing obstructions by placing of the bile and the early detection of ination. The fossils have been found in western look.—Reuters tion, stomach disorders as well as stents”, said Dr Omar. tumors of the digestive glands also