ANIMAL TRANSMISSIBLE DISEASES

Have u ever gone to a party and came back otherwise? Food poisoning? Here is why.

Yesterday in honouring an invitation to witness a traditional marriage ceremony betwixt my peers, we travelled the short distance to Batoke, a lovely village in Limbe cropping on the southern fringe of the gulf of Guinea. The event was commonplace with the usual quirks of trend expositions in vestures and stilettos, music, wine, lurking gentlemen, anticipating ladies, celibates, non-celibates, exhilarating nuptial families and patronizing in laws, and most intriguing the banquet.

As would be expected, a fine mixture of Cameroonian and European cuisine, though largely dominated by local staples such as, Koki, a bean pudding whisked in palm oil and steamed in plantain leaves until it gets tender, Ekwang, a porridge meal consisting mainly of cocoyam dough wrapped in cocoyam leaves, gingerly dressed up with smoked fish and beef and stewed in palm oil, and many more I would have considered ok if it weren’t topical for another subject in the stead.

However, there was one meal which called for a lot of solicitation from the crowd. It was the popular gravy meal locally called “Bush Meat.” It consists of a gravy soup and the beef of the now protected animals such as gorilla; (generally, the animals which are very much close to the bush than to settlements), which include apes, other primates, ungulates, rodents and so on. Mindful of the rarity of these animals in the legal market due to conservation protectionism, and their tasty flesh, the meal is exceptionally compelling.

The pieces of Bushmeat are smoked for several days, using certain types of wood. After the smoking they are air-dried for another several days. Although similar to other air-dried procedures, the meat is fermented in addition to the air-drying. High-grade bushmeat is sometimes even covered with a thin layer of mold, giving it distinct aroma.

As I behold the scores of people harvesting from the cauldrons, I couldn’t help but regret the cause and effect chain of animal transmissible diseases.

Our lower brethren have from time immemorial been, our cribs and cogs. Man invented the air planes based on the paradigms of the extraterrestrial animals such as birds, discovered medicinal plants from observing the choices of animals and birds, athletics from monkeys. Man has also used the services of camels and horses for transportation, bulls for ploughing, and even the sheep for vestures. Principally, their fleshes have always provided us with pleasure and good health.

However, this good health has also very often been shortcome by the very flesh of these animals. Bushmeat such as Apes harbour pathogens that can in theory affect humans. Ebola for instance have also been found in chimps and gorillas and bonobos, and have spread to humans by handling the meat and consumption of such great apes. African squirrels (Heliosciurus, Funisciurus) have been implicated as reservoirs of the monkeypox virus in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and their use as bushmeat may be an important means of transmission to humans. Birds recently caused many deaths globally due to the Bird Flu disease.

Also, scores of disease we contract today are being caused by these lower animals. Animal diseases that are naturally communicable to humans are called zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. As long as we are in the immediate environment of animals or untreated animal products, we are at risk of contracting a disease or infection that can be traced to them.

A wide range of health problems may be linked to animals. Some common sources of disease causing organisms or infection include:

eating contaminated milk or meat,

eating foods such as fruits, vegetables and other produce particularly mushrooms that are contaminated with animal waste,

making direct contact with a living animal that causes you an injury or transfers a bacterium, virus, fungus or parasite to you,

handling contaminated materials such as soil and water that have come in contact with animals or animal waste. Even if you work with or walk on soil with unprotected hands or feet or have young children who like playing with soil, it's possible to contact bacteria or parasitic worms from animal waste that could result in disease.

So when I returned home that night though a little inebriated thanks to the cherished Matango drink, a local aphrodisiac brewed from the palm plant, I proceeded to research on the world wide web and discovered the following intriguing facts about zoonostic diseases.

From an article written by Lockie Gary (link) on how we could contract zoonoses, the author said “Openings of the nose, ears and mouth serve as easy points of entry for viruses, bacteria and parasites. This means that air, water, food, soil and direct contact with an animal play a part in assisting disease causing organisms or infectious agents to enter your body. Cuts and scrapes to the skin may provide entry points as well. Your eyes are also vulnerable.

Diseased cattle and swine have had to be destroyed because eating the meat, even when cooked, would have meant the disease causing agent would infect white blood cells in humans. Sheep, mink, mule deer and elk have also been implicated in the transfer of a disease causing agent. In the United States for example it is possible to contract a form of the modern day plague directly or indirectly from squirrels and prairie dogs.”

The Wikipedia on zoonoses (link) gave a partial list of agents that can carry infectious organisms. They include:

Assassin bugs,

Bats,

Bank voles,

Birds,

Cats,

Cattle,

Chimpanzees,

Dogs,

Fish,

Fleas,

Flies,

Goats,

Hamsters,

Horses,

Humans,

Lice,

Mice,

Monkeys,

Mosquitos,

Opossums,

Pigs,

Rabbits and hares, Raccoons,

Rats,

Rodents,

Sloths,

Sheep,

Snails,

Ticks.

These can be listed according to:

Parasites,

protozoa,

helminths (cestodes and trematodes),

Fungi,

Bacteria,

Viruses,

Pria.

The Wikipedia also listed (though the list is inexhaustible) the various kinds of zoonoses. Some include:

Anthrax,

Avian Influenza (Bird Flu), Babesiosis,

Barmah Forest virus, Bartonellosis,

Bilharzia,

Bolivian hemorrhagic fever,

Brucellosis,

Borrelia (Lyme disease and others),

Borna virus infection,

Bovine tuberculosis,

Campylobacteriosis,

Chagas disease,

Chlamydophila psittaci,

Cholera,

Cowpox,

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), from bovine spongiform , ncephalopathy (BSE) or "mad cow disease",

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever,

Cryptosporidiosis,

Cutaneous larva migrans Dengue fever,

Ebola,

Echinococcosis,

Escherichia coli O157:H7,

Eastern equine encephalitis virus,

Western equine encephalitis virus,

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus,

Hantavirus,

Hendra virus,

Henipavirus,

Korean hemorrhagic fever,

Kyasanur forest disease,

Lábrea fever,

Lassa fever,

Leishmaniasis,

Leptospirosis,

Listeriosis,

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus,

Malaria,

Marburg fever,

Mediterranean spotted fever,

Monkey B,

Nipah fever,

Ocular larva migrans,

Omsk hemorrhagic fever,

Ornithosis (psittacosis),

Orf (animal disease),

Oropouche fever,

Plague,

Puumala virus,

Q-Fever,

Psittacosis, or "parrot fever",

Rabies,

Rift Valley fever,

Ringworms(Tinea canis),

Salmonellosis,

Sodoku,

Streptococcus suis,

Toxocariasis,

Toxoplasmosis,

Trichinosis,

Tularemia,or "rabbit fever",

Typhus of Rickettsiae,

Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever,

Visceral larva ,

igrans,

West Nile virus,

Yellow fever.

Other zoonoses might be:

Glanders,

SARS (possibly; civet cats may spread the disease, or may catch the disease from humans.)

This list is by no means complete. The influenza virus is an interesting example: It continually recombines genes between strains found in humans, swine and avians, producing new strains with changed characteristics, and occasionally, as in 1918, killing millions worldwide.

To continue reading a historical development of Zoonostic diseases, click here.

Karls JBilz.

WHITHER CAMEROON TRADITIONAL DOCTORS

I have perennially been bothered by a lot of issues that bear allegiance to the civil and moral man and those paradigms that guide men generally as members of societies of the one hand and as stakeholders of the blueprint of civility of the other.

As a common rule, every community around the world accounts for a dichotomy of people, variously represented who lead or not a life, in tandem with the most legit and acceptable of mores wanting of their economic, social or moral statuses. The exception to the latter seems more commonplace, yet being the kind of community I should have yearned to fashion in a profoundly detailed exposition. But owing to the very implicit nature of man to exist in discretional liberty and freewill, I shall nevertheless chafe under the purpose of form and partiality.

It will be legitimate to circumscribe this intriguing debate to the utility of tradition and ethics including all that is involved as role and currency of the subject matter by those who perform and those who appraise the stockholdings. However, though these tags may seem over-drafted if connected to the following story, it certainly will gain to parallel the enlightenment of some civilians as much as checking the ingenuity of others.

Whilst in an express commercial bus travelling from Yaoundé to Limbé recently and in sheer eagerness to beat a deadline, a drisly event occurred that defied even the least conceivable characteristic of social mores. This happened somewhere in the environment of an hour subsequent to our departure, when some finely dressed gentleman who had swapped his seat for the sake of using the aisle started delivering what seemingly appeared to be a hackneyed proforma oratory (only ‘second fouls’ wouldn’t seem to commend). The marvelous luxury of a solemn journey everyone was starting to enjoy petering out in tacit responsion. He claimed to the 70+ passengers aboard to be a traditional doctor and one competent enough to have researched into malignant human pathologies and consequently came up with amazing remedies that ‘cure’ legions of maladies and infections in very short periods of time. Photostats showing among other things his branded syrups and ground spices made from root vegetables, barks of plants etc were given to each passenger to pore and acknowledge. He spoke impressively in French and English, interspersing with the lingua franca (pidgin), informing everyone (some already made guilty by the remarkable revelation of common infections in currency) of the necessity to benefit from these relatively more efficient and affordable drugs he was so vivacious to have forfeited other serious businesses in order to deliver to us (lucky benefactors). He exhibited some of the drugs successively while proffering along with the prescriptions and modes of application. Such included the following do-it-yourself- off-the-shelf medications for their corresponding ailments:

Common resources like ear wax for the treatment and cure of snakebites, the liquid of washed rice to be administered orally to those who are seized with the inability to stifle urination, the paste of roaches and millipede to treat dermatitis like warts and wicklow respectively, potato leaf to chew, gargle and be left in the mouth for a while for the treatment of repugnant mouth odour and breath, some branded syrups and powders to act as a medical panacea treating tons of diseases ranging from sexually transmitted infections to even renal and disease of the bone and peritonea, even plants he demonstrated which would protect someone from poisoning during a drinking spree.

Before this gentleman had finished a quarter of his allotted timescale of his short journey with us, he had sold all the available stocks he had. The bus that was once appealing to the luxury of sobriety had suddenly become a busy place of a market; passenger bargaining here and there and some appealing to have the last piece of his branded drugs.

In practice, this kind of activity is gaining currency in many parts of the country where you will find gentlemen properly dressed, scamming these traditional medicines in township buses. Some of them do call themselves doctors of traditional medicines while others would tag themselves members of some research organization. They are more competent in marketing and oratory than anything else. They represent nowadays, the apprentices of erstwhile legends who themselves were architects of contemporary medicine that was characterized by a lot of falsities and unacceptable tentative methodology and black magic in treating patients especially in those communities as they were generally, wherein members had little or no choice mindful of impecuniosities and native belief. Their entire fates were totally dependent upon these ridiculous hypotheses that bear no allegiance to the actual problem or to the underlying causes.

These independent architects of yesterday are today, in spite of the abridged versions of the methodology to mix the granulated herbs, paralleling such bids to treat civility with added inconceivable approaches and techniques that unfortunately baffle the intelligence and discretion of even the most educated and civilized members of our communities today. Because these members are so conservative, they still compromise on these forms of treatment irrespective of their financial situation.

A study in Canada by examining the acculturation of Ghanaian immigrants in Greater Toronto Area (Canada) and focusing particularly on attitudes towards and usage of Ghanaian traditional medicine (TRM) revealed that 73% of the Ghanaian immigrants in Canada still have a positive attitude toward Ghanaian Traditional Medicine (TRM). This is in comparison with less than 30% who have changed their attitude for various reasons. Some of the attraction of TRM lies in its holistic origin. Ghanaians in the GTA have been pursuing 'integration' and 'assimilation' in their acculturation in Canada. Some have given up or modified some of their attitudes and opinions toward TRM to embrace the 'modern' or 'civilized' way of living. (link).

Inferring from our local instances, before the coming of the white man civilization to Cameroon and yonder henceforth, thousands of communities have lost members during crisis periods of epidemics such as malaria, cholera, polio, abdominal masses etc, - these diseases commonplace as now fathomed – amidst the prevalence of traditional doctors who we are told and have experienced first hand, had been benefitting from the honour to remain the mainstay of health mending and providence in these communities.

Brainwashed benefactors of some of these doctors unfortunately still believe in the limitlessness of these practitioners who have caused many natives to be oblivious of the distinction between ‘treatment’ and ‘cure’. They have always based their proceedings following symptomatic manifestations of diseases ignorant of the availability of ambiguity in the nature of many diseases. Because treatment which these traditional medicines offer but rather without curing their patients is apparently cheaper than cure, (and cure being the result of a chain process of laboratory investigation, topical prescription with appropriate dosage, control and re-laboratory investigation for ascertainment), our hospitals are often inundated with tons of patients, majority of whom are transferred as terminal cases from the care of some of these tradi-practitioners.

More than 150 years on, scores of unfortunate occasions in hospitals regarding deaths and terminal diseases are still being promoted by our traditional doctors. Below, I’ll provide just a couple of abstracts written by Africans who are also as concerned as anyone would under the circumstance in order to ascertain the incumbency in questioning our allegiance.

Dr. Osifo O.D, regarding abdominal masses (tropical splenomegaly due to malaria fever, frequently seen in children) noted on the Pakistan Journal of Medical Science website (link) that “Abdominal masses are very common in Nigeria.

These have been managed by traditional doctors even before the advent of orthodox medications. Traditional doctors are however, not able to distinguish between the various causes of abdominal swellings, hence all are diagnosed and managed as splenomegaly (ude). Their modes of treatment are scarification, tattooing and concoction application in different combinations. We retrospectively studied twenty two patients who were mismanaged by traditional doctors before presenting to us at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City – Nigeria. They all presented very late with life threatening complications and advanced diseases. Treatment offered on presentation included wound dressing, resuscitation, blood transfusion, antibiotics and laparotomy with resection of the masses, depending on diagnoses. These could only salvage 13(59.1%) of the patients while a high mortality of 9(40.9%) was recorded. The need to improve on our health care delivery system is stressed.”

He continued to note that “The high mortality rate recorded in this study is in keeping with other forms of treatment by traditional doctors. Osime et al2 reported the high morbidity and mortality associated with management of gunshot injuries by traditional doctors. Omololu et al3 and Onuminya et al4 from the western part of the country drew attention to the high complications and avoidable amputations resulting from traditional bonesetters treatment. Reports from the northern part of the country by Yakubu et al, 5 also revealed the high rate of avoidable limb amputations due to treatment by traditional doctors”

“Apart from complications resulting from poor management, all the patients presented very late and at times in terminal stage of the disease. Many of them got the assurance that the ailment can only be handled by traditional methods. This is in consonance with the work of other researchers who reported that superstitious beliefs still play a major role in delaying and at times prevent seeking orthodox medication in many African countries.11-13 Poor responses to treatment were blamed on some spiritual forces which cannot be handled by orthodox medications except sacrifice, incantations, tattoos scarification and application of concoction. These made even the enlightened people to have faith in them, only to seek orthodox help when the case was terminal” he concluded.

The Mnegi website posted an article depicting a situation in Botswana where Chandapiwa Baputaki revealed that the Gaborone City Council has raised concerns on the number of traditional doctors that continued to flock into the country promising their clients miracles. One councillor Keitumile Gabonewe asserted that the doctors have made it their business to even parade the traditional medicines in the streets.

"A traditional doctor that helps you must know your totem and you wonder how these doctors can claim to cure people if they cannot even tell what your totem is," Gabonewe said. As a follow-up question a young lady asked on the website (copied verbatim) “Dear Sir, I am Tumelo Mofokng From South Africa Free State I went to a doctor few day ago and told that I am HIV positive. so my uncle took to tradition healer but my uncle doesn’t about my status. and traditional healer told me that I have been witched The HIV that I have it is a fake. What I want to know is that if traditional healer what he say it is true. thus this fake Hiv can affect the person maybe I can sleep with” (link) the post concluded.

However, these instances might be scores but on the other side of the coin, we may not refuse to acknowledge the great role which Traditional Medicine has played in Cameroon in treating people. Traditional medicine is the oldest most tried and tested form of medicine.

Geocities.com revealed an article where it states that “Traditional medicine has been used by all cultures for centuries and is still the main form of medical treatment among 80% of the world's population. It is sad to hear some doctors describing traditional medicine as quackery since many of today's drugs (e.g. quinine, reserpine, ephedrine, ipecac) come directly from plants while most synthetic drugs are based on chemicals extracted from herbs." the article continues.

"It was Chinese traditional medicine that educated the western world on the art of inoculation, from which the practice of vaccination was born. We owe the eradication of smallpox directly to Chinese traditional medicine practices. Without its practice of inoculating the young, the world would have been a very different place today.” the post concluded (link)

To conclude, it will be fair to say that Traditional doctors have come a long way in harnessing their role they played in societies. These roles were erstwhile primary due to the limitations of sophistication both in mental and material values. During this time and before the coming of the mainstream western form of medicine, deaths , preventable as well as relief were plenty in different proportions of course. Beyond the introduction of western medicine which proved legitimate and mainstream, traditional medicine has been forced to assume the role of alternate medicine, thus limiting its currency especially in cities and towns though it remained competitive in rural communities. But its shortcomings basically due to the inadequacy in competence both formally and conventionally for most traditional doctors to comprehend the ever changing complexities of diseases, their strands et al, have been alarming, although made oblivious by the patronizers of this service. Amid this, modern marketers who have indulged in scamming, proceed to advertise these drugs to people with added embellishment which are faulty in nature.

Government regulation is crucial in authorizing only those who shall meet some of the standards to be set up as blueprints for the business and a strict clause to include the incumbency of these Tradi-practitioners to work in close collaboration with Medical Doctors as subsidiaries only and not as peers of course.

In South Africa, the government is organizing South African traditional healers to mount sexually explicit AIDS prevention initiatives because recent local studies confirm 80+% of South Africa's black population see traditional healers. It is essential to recruit them into AIDS prevention in their practices, as well as into the training of other healers. Each healer now carries a dildo for condom demonstration, along with traditional instruments and herbal remedies. They are incorporating HIV/AIDS prevention into their practices and will account for 27,000 healers trained by December.

Fai Fominyen Ngu Edward and George Esunge Fominyen wrote on GEF’s Outlook (link) that to improve Collaboration Between MDs and THs:
• Traditional medicine should be officially legalized and made part of the official health care system in Cameroon
• Intellectual property rights protection should be extended to traditional medicine
• Government should openly and effectively support scientific research into traditional medicine therapies

Karlz JBilz

PREVENTION OF HIV-AIDS: Everything u wanted to know

Warning: Although the following article is strictly not immoral it contains one or two stretches relating to sex and may be unsuitable for users who regard the subject as a taboo or to minors. I advise such persons to skip this article. However, allusions made thereto are merely enhancements, properly so called to expound on a point or two.

HIV-AIDS prevention is an hackneyed subject and may appear to individuals as commonplace and easy but yet, at the expiry of your reading the following, you should be asking yourself which else isn’t said.

It is common knowledge that the vast majority of all HIV infections occur through sexual intercourse and that HIV can also be transmitted by infected blood or blood products, by the sharing of contaminated needles, and from an infected woman to her baby before birth, during delivery or through breast feeding. And also that it is not spread through ordinary social contacts.

Also that sexual transmission of HIV can be prevented by abstinence, fidelity between uninfected partners, and safer sex which includes non-penetrative sex, and sex with condoms as well as that Children need education about AIDS prevention before they become sexually active and everyone needs easy access to condoms in case of need.

But however, in spite of the foregoing, we have failed either by omission or commission to adequately understand the implications of ignoring these awareness. To better understand the modes of prevention, it should be appropriate to explain the modes of transmission in tandem. Below, I have detailed these issues to suit our understanding

MODES AND GROUNDS FOR TRANSMISSION

The first is that do not be fooled into thinking you are safe from the disease as a teenager because so few young people have AIDS. AIDS was first discovered in 1981 and since then, transmission of the disease amongst many other modes has been through mother to child. A substantial number of people with AIDS are in their teens and twenties now who became infected in their infancy or teens. Because of the long incubation period, AIDS does not appear until years after exposure to HIV. Thus, if a person is exposed to HIV in his infancy or teens, AIDS may not appear until the person is in his or her twenties. Therefore, teenagers as well should forebear from sexual activities and drug use for these definitely contribute to the HIV infection rate. Still, do not skip the use of wearing a condom because you are having intercourse with a teenager or virgin.

Also, HIV is primarily a sexually transmitted Infection (STI), thus the modes of transmission are much the same as with other STIs such as syphilis and gonorrhea. Certain sexual practices are very likely to transmit HIV. Receptive anal-rectal intercourse (i.e. allowing the penis to enter one’s rectum) appears to be the most dangerous sexual practice. This is true for both men and women. Because the lining of the rectum is a thin, single-cell layer, HIV-infected lymphocytes in semen can migrate into the body through breaks in the tissue. This area of the body is highly supplied with blood vessels and insertion of the penis or other objects may result in tearing and bleeding. In addition, lymphocytes can migrate through the inner tissue under their own power.

Fellatio (i.e. kissing and insertion of the penis into the partner’s mouth) and Cunnilingus (i.e. kissing and insertion of the tongue in to the vagina) may also be a means of HIV transmission. Saliva varies greatly in number of migrant lymphocytes and may not play much of a part in the transmission of HIV. Most authorities suggest that dry kissing is perfectly safe but that oral forms of sex may be unsafe. People with teeth or gum infections are particularly at risk. Especially if ejaculation into the mouth takes place. The possibility that teeth may accidentally break the skin of the penis is another possible risk. Since the semen of infected males has a high concentration of HIV, it is probably not a good idea to swallow semen, although it is thought that acids and enzymes in the digestive system destroy HIV.

Vaginal intercourse can transmit HIV/AIDS to either men or women. The lining of the vagina is thick and difficult for the HIV-infected lymphocytes to penetrate. In addition, the normally acidic environment of the vagina is not hospitable to lymphocytes, sperms or HIV. However, the cervix and uterus have a single layer of cells that can be easily penetrated. Semen is most likely to reach the uterus with prolonged or repeated acts of intercourse.

Uncircumcised men are more likely to become infected than those circumcised. This is because the inside covering a redundant foreskin tends to remain damp, infected with a variety of bacteria and thin, especially in the region of the frenulum which is relatively fragile. Thus, migratory lymphocytes in endo-cervical mucus secretions, although less numerous than lymphocytes in semen are provided with relatively easy access to penile lymphatics.

Other STIs such as herpes, Chlamydia and syphilis, all increase the risk of AIDS. For example, women who suffer from genital ulcers (caused by syphilis, chancroid and herpes) or clamydia are two or ten times more likely to become infected with HIV. STDs cause lesions and breaks in the skin, thus allowing easier access to HIV-infected lymphocytes. Genital herpes appears to be a major factor in the sexual spread of HIV. People infected with HIV give off large amounts of the virus through herpes sores when they have flare-ups. About two-thirds of HIV+ persons also carry herpes virus type 2, the genital herpes virus which is also carried by lymphocytes.

Birth control pills make women more susceptible to HIV and other cell-borne sexually transmitted infections because progesterones in the pills cause the uterine cervical opening to efface and therefore expose more single layered epithelial cells through which lymphocytes can migrate easily

HIV appears to be transmitted relatively inefficiently from mother to offspring. The mechanism of transmission to the fetus or newborn appears to happen via provirus infected lymphocytes that migrate from her through the placenta at the time of labor and birth to infect her offspring. Interestingly, it has been found that women who give birth more than four hours after their “water breaks” (rupture of the fetal membranes, the protective sac that surrounds the fetus in the womb) are nearly twice as likely to transmit HIV to their infants as compared to women who deliver within four hours of water breaks. The rate of transmission appear less for infants born via Caesarian section than born vaginally.

An HIV mother can also infect her newborn infant by breast-feeding, although the exact risk is unknown. Most likely, the transmission of HIV occurs in the early stages after birth when there is a high colostrums content in the breast milk.

High risk group’s sexual behaviours and drug-related activities remain another major means by which HIV is transmitted especially in the advanced worlds. This information tells us that engaging in sexual activities or drug activities with multiple partners and without discrimination is dangerous. Primarily, HIV is spread through sharing of virus infected lymphocytes in semen (the thick whitish fluid secreted by the male during ejaculation) and in blood.

HIV also spreads through HIV-infected lymphocytes transfusion of blood, blood products, and tissues such as in an organ transplant. It can also be transmitted via artificial insemination.

You must understand that even if you personally do not engaged in risky sexual behaviour or use IV drugs, HIV can still be transmitted to you.

PREVENTION OF HIV/AIDS

In pursuant of the foregoing, reversing the mode of transmission is basically the best way to prevent HIV-AIDS. However, below is a summary of some precautions that will help you from contracting or spreading HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

Disclose to your partner or spouse your HIV status. This reminds me of an incident a friend had with his lady in 2000. During a prolonged courting experience, he decided one day to force his way through in order to turn the table of postponement around. It was past mid night and they were lying astride each other, petting as they had been doing erstwhile without the appropriate results. Mindful of the two bottles of beer he’d imbibed that evening, he got so anxious as to violate her. During the process, she grabbed hold of his manhood restrictively as it neared her woman orifice, but in spite of this, he almost succeeded to aim it into her before he heard the stretches of a sentence that totally changed his life for ever. She screamed above her ranting that she was HIV+ and she wanted to help him. Before she could finished her last word, the gentleman was standing at the foot of the bed. Stunned and anxious as would someone after knowing he’d just eaten an unclean flesh of a mammal. He’d asked her why she kept if from him hitherto. She told him, she was stricken with the dilemma of losing or infecting him. The latter was seeming plausible because she sought after him. But some good angel was asking her not to do it. She passed away last November 2009. In October 1991 in the USA, Alberto Gonzalez (Oregon) became the first person in the country to be convicted on assault charges for knowingly passing HIV to his girlfriend. So let us beware and be responsible citizens.

Sexual abstinence, especially when caring relationship is not involved

Sexual fidelity and practice chastity.

If you want to have sexual relations but are not in permanent monogamous relationship, use mechanical barriers to prevent the exchange of potentially infectious body fluids, especially blood, semen and uterine secretions

Avoid anal intercourse with or without a condom because it is the most dangerous way to share semen; and condoms are not well designed for this sexual expression.

Avoid sexual relations with persons at great riskfor being HIV+ or having AIDS or other transmissible viruses.

Do no use alcohol or drugs. They interfere with you caring for yourself as well as for others and especially avoid the use of drugs that are injected into the veins.

Do not share needles used for injecting drugs into the veins or handle sharp instruments contaminated with another person’s blood.

Do not share toothbrushes

Do not practice cunnilingus or Fellatio.

If you know well ahead of time that you might need blood during an operation, pre-donate yourself and let your caring friends of similar blood type know that their donations would be appreciated.

Use barriers proven to prevent pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted diseases such as: Latex condoms that can protect a woman and a man from sharing semen and vagina secretions during conventional vaginal intercourse; doctor-prescribed and fitted vaginal diaphragms or cervical caps that block semen from reaching the uterus.; in addition use spermicides such as nonoxynol-9, which paralyzes sperm and migrant lymphocytes that might have gotten past the barrier. A few people will have allergic reactions to specific spermicides.

Practice the responsibility of discussing sex and STIs with young and inexperience children.

HIV 'Prevention Pills'

Testing of an AIDS "prevention pill" on about 860 high-risk women in Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria suggest that the approach is safe and feasible, according to research presented at the conference. While the numbers were too small to prove effectiveness, the research is encouraging enough to "suggest it is good for HIV prevention.

Sources:

CDC USA,

Jack W. Shields.

Foxnews.com

BONUS

MOSQUITOES AND HIV

Why Can't Mosquitoes Carry the HIV virus?

By: Harold Oster

Question :

Watching all the news coverage of West Nile disease makes me wonder how doctors can be so sure that AIDS can't be transferred by mosquitoes. Malaria is transferred by mosquitoes. Sleeping sickness is caused by the tsetse fly. If these insects can carry these diseases, why are you so sure they can't carry AIDS?

Answer :

Mosquitoes and other insects are responsible for a tremendous number of illnesses and deaths in the world. Malaria kills about two million people each year. Yellow fever, sleeping sickness, viral encephalitis, Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are also common illnesses transmitted by bugs. However, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) is not transmitted in this fashion.

Early in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a major concern was whether everyone would be at risk of infection through contact with mosquitoes or other insects. (In fact, a paper published some years ago alleged that this was occurring in an area in Florida.) Further analysis discredits the theory that bugs can spread the infection. If mosquitoes did indeed transmit HIV, there would be many outbreaks among people with no known risk factors for infection. Children and the elderly, people not likely to be exposed to HIV by sexual contact or intravenous drug use, would commonly be HIV-infected. This is what occurs with viral encephalitis, including infection with the West Nile virus. Everyone is at risk, not just those who have had unprotected sex, shared needles (for injecting drugs) or had another type of exposure known to transmit the virus.

Even in theory, it would be very unlikely that HIV could be spread in such a fashion. With malaria and other insect-borne infections, the organisms survive and actually multiply in the insect. HIV, in contrast, does not survive outside the body for very long, and it does not replicate in insects. In addition, mosquitoes transmit malaria and other infections when they inject saliva into the victim. HIV does not get into the insect's saliva much at all, and mosquitoes do not inject blood into the victim. Furthermore, blood that remains on the bug's mouth or other body parts after it bites an AIDS victim also does not pose much risk, because the amount of blood present is very small, and the insect usually does not go directly from one feeding to another.

NEXT POST:

Diseases of AIDS: Everything you didn’t know.

SYMPTOMS OF HIV+: Everything you didn't know

Sorry guys for taking quite a long while before now. I have received many emails asking this post not to protract any longer. However, I regret to say, I was rather indisposed whereof.

I noted earlier on the Facebook group (Blogs With Weird And Strange Articles) that I shall be introducing amazing facts concerning HIV-AIDS. Therefore, we shall go through amazing information you didn’t know in serial clips.

Today we shall first of all be introduced to a checklist of the signs and symptoms both clinical and ordinary of HIV+

I shall tell you that erstwhile, the sex life of my paddies was quite adventurous and that made them very susceptible to catching the dreadful epidemic. After they were kept abreast of these signs and symptoms, their attitudes henceforth towards new partners became one of prime vigilance and prudence. That did not make them prejudicial or stereotype in anyway when they came across someone possessing one or more of these symptoms. They just became abstinent and thankful and behaved as if there was a wicked emergency elsewhere compelling them to skip the date or something. It seems - though not quite relevant – akin to a common joke; the blind date which goes thus:

“After being with her all evening, the man couldn't take another minute with his blind date. Earlier, he had secretly arranged to have a friend call him to the phone so he would have an excuse to leave if something like this happened.

When he returned to the table, he lowered his eyes, put on a grim expression and said, "I have some bad news. My grandfather just died."

"Thank heavens," his date replied. "If yours hadn't, mine would have had to!"

LOL. Well, you know, that joke couldn’t be better. Nowadays I can always use this sort of excuses just to escape clear-cut situation without being stereotype or obvious in the course. They have really helped me, I admit. Indeed!

Another thing very interesting about the knowledge of these signs is that it increases your self consciousness towards any health deterioration on your part. One of my friends is a blood donor, which implies he takes the laboratory investigation more than three times a year and he is so cautious when it comes to sex sprees. But alas, whenever he experiences one of these signs on him even though it wouldn’t resemble the real thing actually, he gets very anxious and would visit his doctor to check if it couldn’t be related to HIV. This implies, greater awareness and the urge to precipitate in various frequencies, laboratory investigations to determining one’s HIV status. For it becomes better to know earlier than later, the saying goes.

Before we go directly to the first sign, please allow me to warn you that although these signs and symptoms are basically relevant, they however must not be treated as an overt indication of the disease or to supplant in any degree the laboratory diagnosis. Laboratory diagnosis remains the only determinant to adequately confirm your HIV status. Any of these symptoms may be caused by diseases other than HIV-AIDS and this makes self-diagnosis difficult. However, if such symptoms persist or several appear at the same time, you must suspect exposure to HIV and should immediately see a physician familiar with the disease.

GENERAL SYMPTOMS OF HIV

Within about three to six weeks after first exposure, some HIV+ persons develop a 7- to 12-day illness with enlargement of the lymph gland (A Lymph gland or node is an organ consisting of many types of cells, and is a part of the lymphatic system found throughout the body. They act as filters or traps for foreign particles and contain white blood cells. Thus they are important in the proper functioning of the immune system), sore throat, fever, muscle aches, headache, and a skin rash that in some cases, looks like measles. HIV can be detected in circulating blood lymphocytes at this time, but tests for antibodies to HIV seldom become positive until six weeks to six months later. This early form of illness usually disappears or often is so mild that it is not even remembered. However, the infected person is now contagious for the remainder of his or her lifetime and can transmit HIV to other persons. There is also evidence that HIV becomes more infectious to other as time passes since a person does not know if he or she is HIV+ without a test.

A few people develop brain infections severe enough to require hospitalization during the early stages of HIV infection. The usual signs are severe headache, drowsiness, pain in the eyes when looking at a bright light, fever, stiff neck, painful muscles and a general state of collapse. This painful form of virus encephalitis or meningitis is usually transient and goes away without special treatment.

Subsequent months or years may pass without any overt symptoms in an infected person. However, during this time HIV is being actively produced thereby weakening the immune system. Although this period is called the incubation or latency period, it is clinically not latency at all. Rather, it is a period during which replication of the virus in the lymphatic system continues but there are no overt symptoms of the disease. Hence, it is an apparent latency period rather than a true latency period. It is most realistic to think of this process as HIV sickness, a progressive sickness that ultimately culminates in AIDS, when multiple opportunistic diseases eventually cause death. The precise period of HIV sickness before the development of AIDS for any individual is presently unknown. Some researchers are predicting that this period may be as long as twenty years. Be that as it may, once AIDS appears, death will usually follow within the next few years, even though improved forms of treatment are prolonging survival.

At least, 80 percent of those infected with HIV will eventually die from AIDS or any AIDS-related condition. (many researchers suggest that over time, 100 percent of such persons will die from the sickness).

As HIV sickness develops, the following symptoms are likely to appear, singly or together.

One: Loss of appetite with weight loss in two months or less

Two: Swollen glands (lymph glands) in the neck, armpits or groin that persist for three months or more.

Three: Severe fatigue not related to exercise or drug use.

Four: Unexplained persistent or recurrent fevers often with night sweats.

Five: Persistent unexplained cough (not from smoking, cold or flu) often associated with a shortness of breath.

Six: Unexplained persistent diarrhea

Seven: Persistent white coating or spots inside the month or throat that may be accompanied by soreness and difficulty in swallowing.

Eight: Newly appearing persistent purple or brown lumps or spots on the skin. On white people, they look like small bruises; on African people, the spots appear darker than the surrounding skin.

Nine: Nervous system impairment including general dementia, loss of memory, inability to think clearly, loss of judgment and / or depression. Other problems such as headaches, stiff neck and numbness or muscle weakness may occur.

I repeat any of these symptoms may be caused by diseases other than HIV-AIDS and this makes self-diagnosis difficult. The law warns against breech of confidentiality in the case of one knowing another’s HIV status. Stereotype and discrimination must never be the rule of thumb but however, let’s all use his information to protect ourselves and create a quick response whenever we experience one or more of these symptoms.

This information has been brought to you thanks to Jack W. Shields and other materials published by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) USA.

My next post shall discuss the symptoms of AIDS: Everything you didn’t know.

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QUOTATIONS GALORE

Hereunder is a compilation of some of my quotations and rhetoric involving topics that relate to the human interface and anthropology and they have been drawn from personal and social experiences. Each piece is authentic and plagiarism-free.(sic). If a piece resembles your work, be assured that it might be a good coincidence or an instance of an irony of situation. The dates you see affixed there-with each piece imply the year of conception. Please read on...


More extent than less of any other thought shows that learning and acquisition of all imaginable skills are by imitation; one modest complement being by innate capacities. Jerry Williams (2004)


Relationships between individuals are determined by the factors regarding status. The greater the circumstances of one over the other, the greater the submission of the slighter. The opposite is true. But if a par exists, antagonism and two-facedness is the rule of thumb. Bravery impels the slighter to embrace the criteria of the parity. Jerry Williams (July 2008)


Performance is the customized artifact of simulated competence. Jerry Williams (July 2008)


A virtuous relationship warrants wearing the other’s shoes. Jerry Williams (July 2008)


Wisdom is a variable and an end product of accrued knowledge which have been applied and lived through successfully or not during the highbrow maturity of an adult. But ageing is not necessarily a cinch to acquit oneself brilliantly of the subject matter, rather the allowance to acquire knowledge. Circumscription from elaborate access to information is the main constraint. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)


The prevention of memory loss is the perpetual acquisition of knowledge and employing them in social interface. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)


Being inebriated or seized with temporary unconsciousness doesn’t always preempt one from the ability of withdrawing a measure of the information on the event that happened during the course of the incapability. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)


In pursuance of the view that the Earth is a globe, why aren’t the edges tangible? Why is the only orifice upward? Jerry Williams (1980)


Mindful of the need for first hand witnessing and caught on camera phenomenon, mindful of the contingency to loose experiences and events caught on camera amidst events imbibed with jeopardy to the promoter and or eventual loss of both the producer and product of potential immemorial, shouldn't there be the allowance for science and technology to conceive a scheme to fill this niche by the application of embedded transmitters on a visual recordable gadget to a world wide satellite to capture signals of these gadgets either automated by the proprietor or by obligation? Whereof an instance of the event of a plane crashing, immortalized by a camcorder and its owner but who unfortunately is minutes away from demise would be captured and archived by such an incumbency. Jerry Williams (July 2008 )


The liquid from the flesh of a crab could take over one month under normal house temperature to evaporate completely. Jerry Williams (2008)


In every presentation that is delivered by whosoever, only 40% is absolute truth. Another 40% is embellishment and hypocrisy on one side of the coin and exaggeration and camaraderie on the other; the former pertaining to one’s ingratiation and the latter, one’s maliciousness. A 20% for the sake of the convenience to connect. Jerry Williams (July 2008)


If the cost of Salvation were a cross, then it should take a big cross to bridge the path to eternity. Christians should endure their hurdle as Jesus Christ Himself lived through on Earth. Be oblivious of all predicaments, shortcomings, failures, tribulations etc just as Job did. Whereof our crucible on steadfastness in the faith of God. Jerry Williams (Dec. 2008)

The task to forget and forgive is a crucible the human mechanism finds impossible to pass. Propriety norms if at all applied are temporary impediments. Before long some misgivings set rolling the viral wheels of vicious reminiscing and our thoughts are taken over anew by the mishap of odium towards a former adversary. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)

Many marriages have been terminated because of popular models vis-à-vis individual affidavits on their downs to potential parties who are in the course of securing one. Fear-mongering becomes the primary activity of the anguished causing their contagion to populate interfaces and disillusions their ultimate upshot. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)

First-time careers jobs as opposed to their professional equivalents are always ugly to beginners albeit practically the most significant seeing that they are the threshold experience providers. The irony is, they are the stepping stones for human resources and never the career profile everyone wants to end up with. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)

Love implies forfeiting a big thing to a slighter and vice versa. Whichever side of the coin would label love. Everything being equal. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)

Whenever I prayed to request something, then would I become fervently religious than erstwhile. But you know, God is not a vend machine which doesn’t know if the credit card is yours or not. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)

Kindness is a virtue that causes oblivion to its benefactor amid the spiteful history in its various degrees of the promoter. No grey spot exists between the subject matter and its contrast. Jerry Williams (Dec 2008)


Each New Year brings in contingencies of which the happy ones are rarely occasioned in spite of the threshold wish. This dictum, that perspective, this Happy New Year.

RECEIPT OF SERVICE (FICTION)

This work is a narrative based on a true event. It describes a case of corruption and how a civil servant went beyond the freemasonry of his employ to redeem a victim of circumstance. Names of persons and places hereinafter mentioned are fictitious as all dates and figures relating to legal tenders and suit numbers. The original stretches of the story line has been presented unabridged though duly condensed. However, any resemblance to persons of real statuses must necessarily be considered as sheer coincidence. Jerry Manga Williams, Limbe, 25 November 2005

RECEIPT OF SERVICE

I shall not pretend to consider it any matter for wonder that the ordinary case, so to speak, of Mr. Tilfri excited discussion at my employ. It would have been a normalcy had it not especially under the circumstance.
In spite of the desire of all the parties to keep the affair from the public, at least for the present, I was as erstwhile desirous to elect a breach of such an endeavour and render necessary the facts to everyone as far as I comprehend them myself.

My attention for the past several years as a president of the High Court of N_ _ _L had been repeatedly drawn to the subject of corruption; and just about a few months ago, it quite suddenly occurred to me following campaigns on the subject by the office of the Prime Ministry that in the series of experiences prevailing hitherto, there had been a remarkable omission. No person had as yet been so stringent in requesting receipts of unaccountable services contracted with officials in my jurisprudence, yet there availed of rumours galore on the matter. There were other points to ascertain this but this most excited my curiosity.

So when I received the hereunder-subjoined carbon copy of a correspondence addressed to my colleague, the Registrar in Chief, Mr. Samtu from Mr. Tilfri himself, I knew I had arrived at the subject by whose means I might test the immensely important character of its consequence. The letter reads:

“Mr. Tilfri N.
Avenue Saint Hall
P.O. Box 000
Province of XXX
Cameroon
4th February 2005
The Registrar in Chief
N _ _ _L High Court
Province of XXX
Cameroon

Sir,

RE: RECEIPT OF 280.000 FCFA

Mindful of my previous correspondences to you regarding the facts subsequent to the prayer to give notice of appeal for the unwarranted decision and order in suit No. HCN/2/05, I am vexed and disgruntled by your facetious character on this matter and I fail to understand why you are treating me in this discourteous manner.
Following the judgment of the above mention suit and under the directives of my counsel, Mr. Jomoh, I had expressed the desire to have it typed in order to proceed to move the court for an appeal.
You had fixed a charge of 50.000 FCFA to process the draft judgment which I’d paid before the deadline of 31st January 2005.
Reasons as various as they have been beyond the province of any fault of mine were forwarded by the assigned clerks justifying the belated document which consequently cost me dear of an exclusive penalty that stopped at 230.000 FCFA.
Upon the payment of the latter, I had asked you for the receipt of both customs (i.e. the fifty thousand francs -50.000 FCFA- as per 21st February 2005) and two Hundred and Thirty Thousand francs -230.000 FCFA- as per 2nd February 2005.
Rather you had obliged me to get the receipt from the taxation office to which I had acquiesced but rather received a receipt of Twenty seven (27.000) FCFA instead.
You had duly intercepted another correspondence from me wherein I immediately drew your attention to the unsatisfactory receipt I acknowledged. Yet another bout of oral responses has rather been acquitted by you, supplying more weird reactions of your person to me.
I am hereby conveying another letter for you to tell me who has got my balance of 203.00 FCFA. I urge you to do so in writing and not orally.

Sincerely,

Tilfri N

CC
- The President, N _ _ _L High Court
- The Magistrate, Court of First Instance, N_ _ _L
- Barrister Jomoh, Jomoh Law Firm, N _ _ L”

Within a couple of hours after this note was received, I convened an ad-hoc conference between the Registrar in Chief, Mr. Samtu and myself. I drew inference from the locus of discussion – the letter to which he immediately acceded to my desire that he should provide the 2 previous correspondences of Mr. Tilfi into which that what I had subjoined is for the most part either condensed or copied verbatim.

I urged him to state as distinctly as he could the reasons for the recriminations he and Mr. Tilfri had acquitted themselves brilliantly of. Whilst he spoke, I commenced the passes which I had already found most effectual in perceiving the moral values inherent in officials – I beg to draw the attention of your person that the relationship I have with that who spoke in his capacity as the Registrar in Chief is that of cooperation and not subordination – reason why his inclination to inhibit every bit of the truth regarding the expended charges by Mr. Tilfri were quite legitimate. Mr. Samtu barely had time to reckon the account of the event leading to the proceeding charges otherwise a generous oral expenditure on the misdemeanour and impropriety of Mr. Tilfri regarding the latter’s relation with his general staff and himself were delivered. According to him, Mr. Tilfri possessed no right to question his incumbency. He had the mandate to elect any rule that should discourage defaulters from exceeding the appropriate period to process their draft judgments. Mr. Tilfri, he said was archetypal to this offense including the lack of reverence to everyone else.

Although I exerted all my powers evident to subdue him to defer to my opinion against malfeasance as a result of indignation at litigants’ discourteousness, Mr. Samtu opposed the objections but beseeched me as it seemed to be oblivious.

At the expiration of an interval of a month, I was honoured with a visit from Mr. Tilfri at my office. He asked that it was ill advised to disturb me upon a busy morning but it behooved him to tell me of a preoccupation that was killing him inaudibly. He moved me along his correspondences to the Registrar in Chief Mr. Samtu and imbued me with the facts which I have herein above presented. Mr. Tilfri who elects residence principally in the neighbourhood of N _ _ L, is particularly noticeable for the extreme eminence of his person – his height much in violent contrast to that of everyone else present in the yard, stopping somewhere around 1.80m. His voice much resembling the characteristic of a higher social class baron to which I am sure he could have dreamt of belonging on several occasions. Perhaps it was the grandeur of his height that compelled his audacity and brevity. Having arraigned the neighbour to court for squatting in his own parcel of land endorsed with a title deed and conveyed by his deceased uncle, he believed the ruling was apparently erratic. That in failing to employ the most current rules in tenure, the presiding magistrate arrived at an erroneous conclusion; which inherently had been worked up between the defendant and the presiding judge. As a traditional ploy to discourage further indulgence to litigation, it was then the turn of the Registrar in Chief to injure his steadfastness. He grumbled that a conspiracy was developed to provoke a delay. But he was steadfast in seeing the consequence of this admitting that justice must reign in especial in a court which is subscribed to harbour it. I had asked him to execute patience while I besought the Chief Registrar to concede to his inquiry.

With a heavy heart, I joined the Registrar again for yet another meeting regarding the indignation of Mr. Tilfri. Still Mr. Samtu and myself failed to entertain a consensus on the matter.
On account of the facts I assembled from the foregoing and evidences tendered from Mr. Tilfri as well as the intercourses in especial with Mr. Samtu, I was seized with chagrin and pity for Mr. Samtu and Mr. Tilfri respectively.

The rule of thumb to every business in conflict renders preference to the party who got the unfair deal than they who acquitted themselves advantageously or duplicitously of the other. In pursuance of such a precept of morality, three days subsequent to my meeting with Mr. Tilfri, I remitted the matter to the Anti Corruption Observatory Service of the Prime Ministry for appropriate actions to be meted upon Mr. Samtu on ground of corruption and malfeasance. Investigations were immediately launched and interestingly enough, legions of surging accusations emerged from several other quarters, implicating Mr. Samtu.

Mr. Tilfri on his part will get a new hearing due subsequently at the High court. His brevity and steadfastness to the pursuit of equity and other rights notwithstanding will yield him remarkable dividends, conceding all and sundry whereof, a compelling contagion of a conscientization on the one hand and on the other, a necessary adherence to the pro-forma of ethics in every vocation. Under the circumstance, any one so inflicted with the mentioned opportunities stands eligible to restrain corruption.

The end.

Jerry Williams