Public Health Issues

This flooding wahala in my native land Environmental disasters are natural occurrences. Preventable at times. Sometimes, unavoidable. Nigeria is blessed with good weather, climate conditions, and less extreme natural disasters when set side-by-side with some Asian, African, and North American countries. This has made ecological and environmental issues the cynosure of contemporary debate: a debate that has transmogrified into political debacle and devastation by the recent exchanges by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (CAN). In any case, let these parties know that as they fight, they grass is suffering. The concern of all should be on the immediate and long-term fallout of the recent flooding and the much anticipated one if the West Camerounian Lake Nyos disintegrates as has been predicted by National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). According to NEMA, if Lake Nyos opens up, states like Akwa Ibom,Cross River, Rivers, Delta, Bayels...

What homelessness has got to do with it Emerging challenges facing modern-day public health efforts includes bioterrorism, globalization, urbanization, aging population, HIV/AIDS, food borne pathogens, tuberculosis, malaria, technological advancements, climate change, obesity, and environmental pollution. However, I wish to add homelessness to this long list of 21 st century public health challenges. This is why. Homelessness and housing add up to the cataclysmic surge in HIV/AIDS transmission thereby exposing neighborhoods, communities, counties, states, and nations (Wolitski, Kidder & Fenton, 2007). In the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), approximately 37% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or unsure-identifying youths and 22% of heterosexual youths reported having spent a night homeless in the past 12 months ( Rice, Fulginiti, Winetrobe, Montoya, Plant, & Kordic, 2012). Because homelessness is an emerging publi...

West Nile: The Dallas Experience The current outbreak of West Nile disease in Dallas, TX calls for re-evaluation of our preparedness to emergency health care events. In this particular incident, expectations were that the public health system will do greater good for the community, and the population under the radar (Moore, Shiell, Noseworthy, Russell, Predy, 2006). Take for example the outbreak of SARS in Toronto, Canada, the preparedness, readiness, and the capacity to contain and respond to this outbreak produced positive outcome. It was a fortunate experience for Canadians. So the question is: did the Dallas Department of Public Health and Environment rely on fortune or were there infrastructures on ground to address the threat of such an emerging infectious disease? Looking outwardly, are there mechanisms in your locality, county, state, and country, continent to prevent and control the outbreak of infectious diseases of any kind? What are the commitments of the feder...

It has become pertinent for public health to remain focused on infectious disease rather chronic disease in this day and age because of the erroneous declaration of the death of infectious disease. This assertion emanates from the challenge posed by the resurgence of infectious disease and appearance of AIDS, in particular, in the early 1980s (Schneider, 2011). Combating the re-emergence of infectious disease became highly important for public health to re-channel their efforts at containing this sudden appearance of AIDS, Ebola, and West Nile and re-appearance of infectious diseases. The mode of transmission of these infectious diseases equally highlights the essence of public health’s need to re-focus attention. In so doing, a better understanding of means and methods of proffering solutions remains important. Testing and screening of disease victims is important in the fight against HIV (Schneider, 2011). The fact that transmission pathways differ from country to country and pop...

                   It has become pertinent for public health to remain focused on infectious disease rather chronic disease in this day and age because of the erroneous declaration of the death of infectious disease. This assertion emanates from the challenge posed by the resurgence of infectious disease and appearance of AIDS, in particular, in the early 1980s (Schneider, 2011). Combating the re-emergence of infectious disease became highly important for public health to re-channel their efforts at containing this sudden appearance of AIDS, Ebola, and West Nile and re-appearance of infectious diseases.                    The mode of transmission of these infectious diseases equally highlights the essence of public health’s need to re-focus attention. In so doing, a better understanding of means and metho...

Public Health Issues: Bath salts, bad taste! : Bath salts, bad taste! It is a bitter pill to take. It is bitter in the sense that it is the modern-day reality. It is what the soci...

Bath salts, bad taste! It is a bitter pill to take. It is bitter in the sense that it is the modern-day reality. It is what the society is battling to cage. Bath salts have ravaged and vanquished so many young Americans in the recent past. The recent sordid and unsavory story about bath salts is that of a 24 year old Florida man by name Randy Eugene who chopped off the face of a 64 year man Ronal Poppo on May 26 th , 2012 due to high inhalation of ( http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2012/05/31/erin-new-pics-bath-salt-cannibal.cnn?iref=allsearch ) bath salts. In Colorado, the strangulation death of a 19-year-old man could be linked to the emerging threat posed by the ingestion of bath salts ( http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_20762986/bath-salt-drugs-called-emerging-threat-colo ). What bath salt is not? Bath salt is never bath salt. It is not anything close to the name. What bath salt is? Bath salt is a stimulant that is sold under the guise of bath salt or pla...

Public Health Issues: Dana Crash and public health : The Dana plane crash in Lagos and public health implications No doubt that there must be some health fall-outs from the Dana airline...

The Dana plane crash in Lagos and public health implications No doubt that there must be some health fall-outs from the Dana airline plane that crashed in Lagos, Nigeria, on the 3 rd of June, 2012. The public stand at risk of jeopardizing their health especially those with pulmonary problems. There are speculations that within the vicinity of the crash will be newborn babies with immature lungs, fragile and immuno-compromised old men and women, young men that smoke cigarettes and second-hand smokers, young women that has been exposed to smokes that exudes during cooking on kerosene stove, firewood or even gas ovens and pregnant women. With an already saturated and polluted air, compounded with the countless generators in almost every apartment or compound, the inflamed flight and charred bodies have added more risk to the population around the crash scene and eye-witnesses. It is observable that most people that ran to the scene of the crash had no nose mask, safety boots ...

Public Health Issues: Genomics and public health : Your gene, your health, our future: The contemporaneity of genomics Individuals are different and therefore respond differently to med...

Your gene, your health, our future: The contemporaneity of genomics Individuals are different and therefore respond differently to medical treatments. This uniqueness is well understood by experienced physicians 1 . Evaluating the structure and biology of genomes, understanding the biology of disease, advancing the science of medicine, and improving the effectiveness of health care 2 validates the celerity needed and the importance of recent currency genomics is globally gaining. Genomics as a novel field in public health seeks to intersect the findings of research in genetic and molecular technology with public health 3 . Genomics is relevant to public health because it has the potential for improved disease diagnosis, treatment and individualized and population-based prevention 3 . An ailment which affects an individual, if not properly treated and contained, could affect the population within the carrier’s proximity hence, the need to prevent diseases from source and not ...

Public Health Issues: FRACKING FOIBLES : Fracking Foibles Fracking is simply a stimulation process whereby fluids are forced into an oil formation surrounding a well bore....

Fracking Foibles Fracking is simply a stimulation process whereby fluids are forced into an oil formation surrounding a well bore. When this forced fluid gets to measured fractured inclination the rock divides and the fluid continues its journey. Usually, pressurized water, sand and some chemicals are pumped into shale rock formations to disengage and released gagged natural gas. This process was first used in Hugoton, Kansas. Since then it has had names like fracturing, fracking and, or hydraulic fracturing. This drilling method has had some environmental downsides. Environmentalist claim that fracking pollutes rivers and waters, produces flammable water, exudes radiation and even change quiet farmlands into boisterous industrial locations. Complaints of breathing-related problems, nauseated feelings, cancer and headaches have been noted by those living in communities where this drilling process takes place. These pose a problem to the health of the population or commu...

Waste Management and Incineration: The Nigerian Experience In developing countries, the management of waste remains a colossal challenge 1 . Measurable attention has not been paid to this 21 st century multi-faceted quandary in a promising country like Nigeria. Bottlenecks like proper institutional arrangement, insufficient financial resources, absence of bylaws and standards, inflexible work schedules, insufficient information on quantity and composition of waste, and inappropriate technology 1 have continued to rear its anti-photogenic head. Issues like lack of statistical records, embezzlement of allocations and corrupt practices, dishonesty of agencies and contractors, government lipstick approach, unenthusiastic private sector involvement adds to the laxity in handling waste management in Nigeria. Collection of waste and disposing of it and other elements in-between is a process that needs urgent attention. However, efforts at addressing this issue to meet global best pra...