The former Chairman of the Lagos Island chapter of Nigerian Environmental Society, Mr John Ekoko on Monday called for increased research on biodegradable materials to replace plastic packaging materials. He made the call when he spoke on the 2018 World Environment Day in an interview in Lagos. The United Nations (UN) has fixed June 5 as the World Environment Day to draw global attention to the need to protect the environment and the theme for the 2018 celebration is “Beat the Plastic Pollution’’. Ekoko stressed that plastic materials were not biodegradable and they were, therefore, not environmental friendly. “The 2018…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
An outbreak of swine flu at a hospital in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City has left 16 patients infected and another 80 quarantined, state media reported on Monday. The infections began on Friday at Tu Du, the largest obstetrics hospital in the southern city, when a patient due for surgery began showing signs of fever, the Vnexpress news site reported. Other people in the hospital, including patients and medical staff, began showing flu symptoms shortly afterward. By Saturday, 16 people had tested positive for swine flu. Swine flu is a respiratory disease caused by the virus H1N1, originally found in pigs,…
A new study showed that a drug approved for lymphoma and leukemia may also help treat the most common and lethal type of brain tumor. The findings, published in the latest journal Science Translational Science, offer hope that the drug called ibrutinib may one day be used in patients with glioblastoma and improve its poor survival rates. Bao Shigang, an investigator at Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute, said that ibrutinib slowed brain tumor growth in mice and extended survival more than 10 times the rate of the current standard-of-care chemotherapy drug Temozolomide. Shigang’s team found that ibrutinib could inhibit glioma…
The African Development Bank (AfDB), says there is the need to take action against plastic pollution in Africa. The bank made the call in a statement signed by its Communication Officer, Climate Change and Green Growth Department, Mrs Sonia Borrini on Sunday in Abuja. The call come on the heels of the 2018 World Environment Day slated for June 5, with the theme: “Beat Plastic Pollution’’. According to the bank, it aims to celebrate the World Environment Day (WED) 2018, and the World Ocean Day (WOD) by raising awareness of its own staff as well as engage key partners. “Every…
The Adamawa Commissioner for Health, Dr Fatima Atiku says the fatality rate of recent Cholera outbreak in Mubi North and Mubi South local government areas of the state, has dropped from 17 to 1.8 per cent. Disclosing this on Saturday in Yola while updating newsmen on the epidemic, she said that the success was recorded because of collaboration with partners like WHO, UNICEF, MSF and Solitaire. “As a result of this collaborative efforts, the case fatality ratio of the outbreak, which was 17 per cent as at 12th May, was drastically reduced to 1.8 per cent as at 1st June. The total…
Plant scientists have taken the crucial last steps in a 60-year quest to unravel the complex chemistry of Madagascar periwinkle in a breakthrough that opens up the potential for rapid synthesis of cancer-fighting compounds. The team in the laboratory of Professor Sarah O’Connor at the John Innes Centre have, after 15 years of research, located the last missing genes in the genome of the periwinkle that are devoted to building the chemical vinblastine. This valuable natural product has been used as an anti-cancer drug since it was discovered in the 1950s by a Canadian research team. A potent inhibitor of…
Dano Milk on Friday in Lagos entered into the Guinness book of World Records after successfully organising the longest drinks-pouring relay. The event which involved 700 Nigerian youths pouring milk drink was organised to celebrate the 2018 World Milk Day in Nigeria. Their successful effort broke the existing record for a similar feat carried out by 550 participants on Nov. 9, 2013 in Caracas, Venezuela, organised by the Coca-Cola Group. The Lagos State Deputy Governor, Mrs Idiat Adebule, said the World Milk Day had been celebrated on June 1 since 2001 to focus attention on milk. Adebule said it was…
The Vatican will host executives of the world’s top oil companies for a conference on June 8 and June 9 on climate change and the transition away from fossil fuels, a Vatican source said on Friday. Pope Francis, who wrote a major document on protection of the environment from global warming in 2015, is expected to address the group during the conference. The spurce said the conference, organised by Notre Dame University in the United States, is expected to be attended by the heads or senior executives of companies including ExxonMobil, Eni, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Pemex. The oil…
World Health Organisation (WHO) says it commenced campaign to eliminate Yellow fever in the country in February and has vaccinated two million people in Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Borno and surrounding communities since then. The organisation’s Communications Officer, Ms Charity Warigon, made this known in a statement in Abuja on Friday. She stated that the campaign, which would run through 2018, was aimed at vaccinating 25 million Nigerians in different parts of the country, while immunisation would continue in the coming years. She noted that the campaign was in response to yellow fever cases reported in the country since…
Environmental groups on Friday warned that Cameroon could face worsening urban flooding and droughts, due to the cutting of thousands of hectares of forest to build stadiums, hotels, roads and housing to host the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Environment experts, criticised the decision to build on forested areas, saying urban trees must be protected if the country is to avoid worsening impacts of climate change, including flooding and droughts. “Forests are very important in regulating city climate, thus their loss or degradation is a major source of emissions of carbon dioxide, which contributes to climate change and is a big threat…