Imo: A State In Need Of Functional Health Facility

Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu.

BY STEVE UZOECHI

The immediate past administration boasted about building one General Hospital in each of the 27 Local Government Areas of Imo State. The projects could not be completed for the eight years duration of the Rochas Okorocha’s administration. Today, save for the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri, Imo is in the dark, healthcare wise. STEVE UZOECHI reports from Owerri

The night was thick with trepidation and the feeling of helplessness, asphyxiating. From anxiety, it was utter gloom as loved ones waited with bated breath. Eventually, the long wait had come to an end with the shattering pronouncement by the doctors that Ndubuisi Emenike was dead.

Then, the wailing began; tears flowed freely as even men cried.

Men consoled men as women let down their hairs and wept inconsolably. It was a sight no one would wish to re-live in a long time.

It was a Sunday, January 26, 2020 and would for a long time be remembered by the political class in Okigwe senatorial zone and indeed the people of Imo State.

Between 6pm and 7.30pm of that night, the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri was literally ‘flooded’ by politicians of all shades, businessmen, high-equity individuals from different walks of life, stakeholders from Imo North and of course, the ‘everyday’ Nigerians resident in Owerri, the Imo State capital; all of who had dashed to the FMC, Owerri, in the hope that there may be some help they could render to save the life of Chief Ndubuisi Emenike, the renowned philanthropist and a senatorial candidate of the Action Alliance political party for the Imo North(Okigwe Zone) senatorial election.

In an alleged case of ‘accidental discharge’ or perhaps celebratory gunshots (friendly fire), Emenike had been shot by an officer of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and was rushed to the hospital, but did not make it out alive.

It was such a heart-rending way to die, for a man who had saved many lives, paid hospital bills for many, built houses, awarded scholarships and had in more ways than can be remembered, given value to humanity.

As sad as it is, not a few persons believe it was an avoidable death given the fact that it was not a head-shot or heart-shot that killed Emenike but a shot fired around the abdominal region.

They averred that what eventually may have killed the chieftain after all, may be the absence of a functional health facility around the area where the shooting took place, which is Isiala Mbano council area.

A senior medical practitioner, Dr. Hyacinth Emele, maintained that distance to the nearest medical facility may have been the undoing of the late Chieftain.

He said: “Most times, when people are shot, bleeding is what kills them. If a major vessel is hit by the bullet and it triggers torrential haemorrhage, the victim needs to be rushed to a hospital as soon as possible, not farther than five or 10 minutes from the place of incident. What needs to be done is to stop the bleeding fast. Usually when they are brought in as emergency, you see the medical personnel going straight to where the person was shot to put something there to stop the bleeding and that is how most of them are saved.

“But for a longer journey, perhaps with a major vessels affected, bleeding does a lot of damage. Usually, when they are brought in, most vital signs like the heart rate and pulse rate may not be obvious anymore and that may be indicative of internal bleeding. Such patients are wheeled straight into the theatre and opened up so that the bleeding can be stopped immediately depending on how much can be salvaged owing to the distance travelled.

“It is apparent that the distance travelled by the late Chieftain did not do him any good; the distance could actually be a major cause of his death because by the time they would have travelled to Owerri from Isiala Mbano council area, he would have bled into shock.”

As for abdominal shots, Emele said that victims of abdominal shots are often saved if intervention is timely.

“It is possible to survive abdominal shots. If it affects a major organ or vessel, then speed and timely intervention become expedient. For shots that affect the Femural vessel for instance; without swift and expert intervention, the patient will bleed to death”, Emele said.

When Ndubuisi Emenike was shot at Isiala Mbano, there was evidently no hospital within the vicinity or neighbouring community competent to offer basic medical intervention and stabilize him before onward journey to FMC Owerri for comprehensive treatment.

After the incident, Emenike was first rushed to the St. Mary’s Hospital Umunachi in Isiala Mbano but there was literally nothing the hospital could do for him and accordingly, they referred him to FMC, Owerri.

He was then ferried to the state capital, traversing at least two Local Government Areas before arriving the FMC, Owerri.

The question on the lips of every resident of Imo State is what became of the 27 new general hospitals for which budgetary provisions were made for several years.

The 27 new general hospitals were supposedly spread out across the 27 council areas of Imo State. What happened to the new general hospital supposedly built in Isiala Mbano and Ehime Mbano?

Ironically, for the eight years Senator Rochas Okorocha was in office as governor of Imo State, he did not complete the said general hospitals while perpetually listing them as one of his achievements in office.

The general hospitals became issues of political campaign described as an ambitious futuristic project by Okorocha’s loyalists while many other residents of Imo State, who were aware of the real status of the new general hospitals have dismissed same as a white elephant projects.

Okorocha inherited 11 general hospitals; the Imo State University Teaching Hospital and hundreds of health centres, yet for eight years, none of these were enhanced or improved upon to render the deserved healthcare services to the people.

From the records, Imo has a total of 1338 health facilities across the 27 LGAs; 805 of these are primary health facilities with 416 of the primary health facilities being publicly owned while 389 are privately owned.

The state also has about 531 Secondary health facilities with 19 being publicly owned while 512 are privately owned.

There was no evident effort from the Okorocha administration to improve on what he met on ground so that Imo people could access qualitative healthcare. Instead, he embarked on a fresh project of building 27 new general hospitals without, at least, standardizing one existing hospital to serve the Imo populace while his dream hospitals were underway.

Not even the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, Orlu, got the deserved attention. Instead, according to Governor Hope Uzodinma, the MRI machines procured by previous administrations for the Teaching Hospital were removed and taken to the Ochiedike Diagnostic Centre, Owerri, which at the time, was allegedly being run by Okorocha like a private enterprise.

Without completing and delivering any of the said new general hospitals, Okorocha still claimed he had spent a whopping N27billion in all the 27 uncompleted hospital projects.

While on the 27 new general hospital adventure, Okorocha had leased the 11 general hospitals he met to a private firm, Messrs Lantech Solutions Ltd and shortly after, the general hospitals were virtually grounded and abandoned with workers owed as much as eight months salaries.

The former governor apparently saw more of profits in health care service delivery than the humane and compassionate service it is.

To further deepen the woes of the health sector in Imo State, Okorocha aborted a $32million ultra-modern hospital project, revoked the land for the project and reallocated same to a petroleum dealer for a Petroleum Filling Station.

A Neurosurgeon, Prof. Philip Njemanze said: “Many Nigerian medical doctors overseas, at home and other investors had come together to establish a state-of-the-art hospital in Imo which would be the first of eight hospitals proposed by the group, but former Governor Okorocha stood against the project while many states would have been willing to offer us land for free.

“By now, the hospital, a $32million investment would have been functional. It was designed a paperless hospital with capacities for complex surgeries including heart and brain surgeries. The hospital was also designed to have a helipad for an emergency response helicopter. We had procured the land, done all the survey and feasibility studies. In fact, we had spent money in the neighbourhood of $18million before Okorocha illegally revoked the land, and destroyed the structures already put in place. He went ahead to reallocate the land for a petrol filling station. Nevertheless, we have won the case in court and hopefully there will be the enforcement of the judgment.”

Commenting on the death of Ndubuisi Emenike, Njemanze said it was the lack of emergency response system in the state that led to the death of the Chieftain.

He said: “How could you drive an emergency case of that nature through our dilapidated road networks for that long and not end up doing more damage than good. What the young man needed at the time was swift response and timely medical intervention, and not a long journey. A helicopter would have brought him to safety in no time as his treatment would have started right inside the chopper. You cannot run a country or state without an emergency response system. It is not the fault of the FMC, Owerri that he died but the leaders that failed to do what is right and needful for its citizens.”

He added: “I drafted a bill on emergency response for the state and I remember I took the proposal to former Governor Okorocha who told me to meet with him in his country home, Ogboko and he just trashed the proposal. He simply told me it was not what he wanted to do, that he had bought 15 ambulances for emergency and that was all. I couldn’t believe my ears.”

Without further gilding the lilies, Imo still bleeds from a total lack of functional health system.

The sad reality is that the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, which is a tertiary health institution is the only competitively functional health facility in Imo State.

Consequently, the FMC is overtly burdened as it solely dispenses healthcare services for primary, secondary and tertiary health needs which was not the original intendment of its founders.

The reality is that the primary and secondary health care systems in Imo State have totally collapsed and rather than hasten to its intervention, the former governor spent eight years executing building contracts only to leave behind 27 uncompleted buildings as 27 general hospitals.

Since, after Okorocha’s eight years in office, Imo is yet to have a governor who has settled-in to design a new health masterplan for the state. This is largely due to the political controversy that has dogged the seat of power in Imo State. And this was the situation when Ndubuisi Emenike died.

The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines a hospital as “An institution that is built, staffed, and equipped for diagnosis of disease; for the treatment, both medical and surgical, of the sick and the injured; and for their housing during this process. The modern hospital also often serves as a centre for investigation and for teaching.”

Suffice it to say that if there were 27 new general hospitals built and functional in Imo State, Emenike would not have died.

The newly 27 general hospitals could not save Ndubuisi Emenike because they were non-existent.

SOURCE: NEW TELEGRAPH

Memfys Hospital Unveils Ultra-Modern MRI Machines

Image via UNMC

ENUGU (SUN NEWS ONLINE) -- The Federal Government has again been called upon to make the national health insurance scheme accessible to all Nigerians without hindrances.

The Chief Medical Director of Memfys Hospital, Enugu, Prof. Sam Ohaegbulam, who made the call at the inauguration of a world class Signa Explorer 1.5 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI, diagnostic machine, said his plea had become necessary as the poverty situation in the country had made it difficult for most Nigerians to pay for their medical treatment.

Ohaegbulam stated that the hospital, which also marked its 17th anniversary, invested on the 16 channels model, the highest grade in the country, which global experts had confirmed would be capable of performing the advanced protocols they needed for accurate diagnosis.

According to the renowned neurosurgeon, “this 1.5T MRI will now help us to introduce sequences and protocols that were hitherto impossible, resulting in improved image quality, faster scanning and yet more patient comfort, it will tremendously expand the scope of service with even the capability for whole body screening for cancer without exposing the patient to radiation”.

While re-affirming the commitment of the management to the growth of tertiary education in the country, the medical director noted that the new machine would also facilitate the training, research and advanced medical care, adding that without any external financial support, Memfys Hospital had contributed wholly or partially to the training of 25 of the 80 neurosurgeons in Nigeria, a feat only exceeded by the university college hospital, UCH, Ibadan.

Ohaegbulam expressed joy with the progress recorded by the hospital so far, stressing that as the only private institution in West Africa that has full accreditation for Neurosurgical training by both the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria, NPMCN and the West Africa College of Surgeons, WACS, “the sky would only be our starting point”. He also praised the GE Healthcare led by Mr Kelechi Ekeledo for persevering and delivering the machine on time despite several challenges.

In his remarks, the chairman on the occasion, Prof. Shekarau Abubakar Aku, said that the acquisition of the Signa Explorer MRI model by Memfys Hospital was a big boost to healthcare in the country and commended the founder, Prof Ohaegbulam, for the great feat despite the bad economic climate.

Prof. Aku who is the chairman, governing board, Nigeria National Merit Award, Abuja, described the 17th anniversary of Memfys hospital as a celebration of excellence.

Also speaking, the chairman, Nigeria Medical Association, Enugu State, Dr. Ike Okwesili, explained that the new 1.5T MRI machine would facilitate healthcare delivery in the country, stressing that with the facilities available, Memfys Hospital had now emerged as the leading centre for radiology and medical imaging in Nigeria.

SOURCE: DAILY SUN

Reminiscences With Dr Timothy Menakaya

DAILY TRUST INTERVIEW

BY STELLA IYAJI, FIDELIS MAC-LEVA

Dr Timothy Ndubisi Menakaya was born on May 27, 1936. He is among the first set of Nigerians to earn a degree in Medicine and Surgery. He started his career in the civil service and was later appointed minister of health under former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He had a short stint in partisan politics in the Second Republic on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). He also fought the civil war, where he commanded a battalion in the Biafran Army. He is a knight of St Christopher in the Anglican Communion. This professional golfer took Daily Trust on Sunday down memory lane. 

You were born some 83 years ago; what was it like growing up in Umunya, Anambra State?

I wasn’t born in the present Anambra State; I was born in Imo State, in the Anglican Church Mission House. My father was a missioner from Anambra State, but went to work in Imo. My parents had us – myself and my younger brother – quite late in life. They had other children much older than us. My eldest brother was about 20 years older than me and we are from the same mother and father. My father retired a few years after I was born and went back home, so I was brought up in Anambra State. I had my elementary and secondary education in Anambra.

How did growing up in a Mission House influence your life?

It really influenced my life. In fact, that was my start in life. We got up very early morning for prayers, prayed before we ate and before going to bed. I was taught to always thank people for gifts, say ‘thank you’ after eating and to always thank God for everything that happens to you. That is still my life; I cannot deviate from it. God has always been part of my life. He is my beginning, not yet my end, but it is my ambition to end with Him. 

What was life like in primary school? 

I started primary school in the village; from kindergarten. From there to Class 11, after that I moved to elementary school, that is what you now call primary school. Then, we stayed in primary school for six years before moving to secondary school. In our days, students worked hard, and if they did badly in examinations, they received some strokes of cane. But today, things are changing. Some countries are even saying you don’t need to traumatise the students with examinations. But we went through it and there was no psychological problem. In our time, we saw it as a privilege. We were privileged to go to school; to have parents who could send us to school and pay our fees because some parents could not do that. Those fees; I don’t know what they were; maybe not more than one shilling a term, but some parents could not pay. After the six years, I passed entrance examination to secondary school. 

Take us through your stay at Dennis Memorial Grammar School.

 At Dennis, it was the same type of discipline. We were required to wake up at 5.30 in the morning, say our prayers, exercise, have our bath, go for prep, then return and have breakfast, then go to school. After school, we had our meal, siesta, then went for games, had out bath, went to dinning, then prep. It was constant. That is why most of us in my generation don’t joke with time. If I tell you I will see you at 2pm, I make sure I am there at that time or I must have a good excuse. I do that every time. 

What influence did your parents have on your life at that stage?

 They did a lot; we saw them as God-sent. They were very well respected. In those days, the churches and their workers were highly respected. My father was not born a Christian. His parents were not Christians, but they were religious. They obeyed all sorts of things; had many taboos. They had a lot of laws, and that was understood. Nigerians, had religion before the white men came. My grandparents were very strong in their own religion. 

Was there any particular event that occurred that made an impact on your life?

 Lots of it; but basically, hard work. We did a lot of work. We even struggled to help out at home. Today, it is difficult to get children to wash plates or do any form of work. There was nothing we didn’t do – we cooked food, washed, etc. And when we got to higher classes; precisely in Standard 4, I had to trek a long distance to school every day – four miles to go and four miles to return for five days a week. Because there were no higher classes in my town, I had to go to another town. And if you went late, the cane was there waiting for you. Sometimes, we even had to carry water for the teachers, and we were small. I never regarded that as labour or punishment because from when I was a kid I was taught that “hope for reward sweetens labour.” Many of my classmates fell along the way because they could not cope.

 What informed your career choice? 

I told you about my father, who was a missioner and he was in Imo State most of the time. At that time, there was only one hospital in the whole of eastern Nigeria, which was at Ogidi, very close to Onitsha. Each time we were ill they carried us on the back on bicycle to the hospital, and that was the only hope for anyone. Sometimes, people were taken on bed made of sticks and raffia palms to the hospital. Sometimes people went there from Owerri, and the journey was 70 to 80 miles, and it was done in a few days. Some people died on the way and some got there, received treatment and recovered. I was at that hospital most of the time. Most Wednesday, I went to the hospital to do manual work. I did a lot of social work as a student. All those made me to develop interest in medicine. Slowly, I started feeling a need to heal the sick, and as I told you, I was brought up in the Christian way, and as Anglicans we are students of the Bible. I became very interested in the Bible and I know that there are two very important injunctions Christ gave to the disciples. He told them to “go into the world, preach the good news and heal the sick.” I first wanted to be a priest in the Anglican Church, then I changed my mind. I started arguing with myself – if there are two injunctions, why can’t I choose one? And I was good in the sciences. I won prizes in Biology and other courses, so I chose Medicine. Luckily for me, I worked hard, earned a scholarship and was admitted in medical school. 

You studied Medicine in Italy, how did that happen? 

Scholarship! I filled the form, went for an interview and I was successful. All this was pre-independence and Nigeria was in a hurry to do a lot of things. It wanted to have many educated people to man the affairs of the country. So after the interview, I forgot all about it. I was in Lagos with an elder brother, but I never cared about the mail box in the house. So one day, I decided to just check and I found my letter there, it had arrived four days earlier. 

What was the experience like studying Medicine in Italy? 

It was a wonderful experience. A different system from the British, but a system that was original because the university I went to is the oldest university in the world. The University of Bologna was founded in the 11th century. At that time the seat of knowledge in the world was Italy. So Italy was the first country that established a university and it was in Bologna. First, I was admitted to the University of Rome, it was the biggest university they had in Italy. But in my final year, I said if Bologna is the oldest university in the world, why shouldn’t my degree bear that name? So I transferred to Bologna and did my degree there. And then you don’t stop at first degree. I came out with an M.D degree.

 Did you lose any year? 

No, they have a system that accommodates you as long as you meet the requirement. 

Before coming back to Nigeria in 1966 you worked in Italy and the UK, tell us about that. 

When I finished my studies I did my housemanship in Italy. I worked in a general hospital, after which I said to myself, why are you going back to Nigeria, have you seen anybody that studied Medicine in Italy? Are you sure what you did was right? I had never worked with a doctor then. Two of my brothers had been to university, but they did not study Medicine. One did Pharmacy, one did Education, Geography and Classics and another one did Agriculture. And I said, let me go to Britain and know the acceptability of my degree because I had no reference. We were three from my class. Three of us won the scholarship and came out of the medical school at the same time. Upon completion, one of us returned to Nigeria, the other remained in Italy and I went to the United Kingdom. I was particularly lucky that my immediate younger brother was doing Medicine at the University of Manchester at that time, so I went to Manchester. And then I went for an interview. They asked me where I got my degree and when I mentioned it, silence enveloped the room. I was expecting questions, but they just asked me, ‘When do you want to start work?’ They said, ‘This thing you did must be real. That was my first baptism. They then gave me a licence. That’s how I started. 

Can you remember the two others that studied with you? 

Yes. The two others went into the academia. One was Professor Ofoegbu, who ended up as a cardiovascular surgeon. He is former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Benin. He retired as the Head of the Department of Surgery. He is still alive. The other one, unfortunately, is late. He was Professor Raymond. He died about 10 years ago. Three of us left Nigeria on the same flight. We did not understand a single word of Italian language and we were supposed to go and study in Italian. We were advised by the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to go to a language school and study language for one year, and that when we passed we would start our studies and if we failed we would return to Nigeria. That was the condition they gave us. We had a return ticket to use if we failed. So we went to the school and found the language fairly easy. It is not as complicated as French. It is as easy as Latin. You spell most of the things as you pronounce them. We had a meeting and said we would not waste one year. We enquired from the school and they said the beginning of studies depended on when we passed the language school. We devised a way of doing that language, and within one month, we became very good in grammar. In the morning we went to class for grammar lessons, and in the evening, the three of us went to cinemas or bars, where we practiced the language. Italians are the warmest people you can think of. They received us very well, so mixing up was not a problem. We did that for three months, after which we went for the exams. Three of us passed and began our programme. We didn’t lose one year. Then, we had another problem – the system was a little bit different from the British system. In the British system, you do all the A Level subjects, which we had already done before entering into the programme fully. But this one, the day you enter, you start studying part of the subjects you do in medical school. So Anatomy is taught from the first year. We insisted that we started from the second year because we had passed the other subjects; but what of the Anatomy? We presented ourselves before the Senate and argued our case. They even started with the syllabus, which was in English. They said they did not understand it and they were not going to translate it. We volunteered to translate it. We sent for the syllabus for A Levels to be translated into Italian. After translating it with our own money, we passed it on and they considered us and they made us do Anatomy of the first year in the second year. By the fourth year, we cut off everything. After five years, we graduated. I won’t mention names, but there was someone who had done second MP when we joined, but we graduated a year before him because we put in a lot of effort. At the end of the first year, the ministry called us to see our reports; everybody on that scholarship. We had students from Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana and Liberia. We were called in for them to know how we did, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed us. He told us that they got reports that some people had already passed their language course to enter into the university and he mentioned the names of those who were going back to their countries because they didn’t make it. At that time, our group was like a five-man students union because we were the first. At that time, if you saw a black man in Italy he was either training as a Roman Catholic priest or one of the five of us. So I raised my hand and he said, ‘Is it about the language you passed? I said no. I told him we had completed second year and he said it was not possible. But we told him we finished learning the language three months after we arrived and that we were already students in the university. We showed him our identity cards and he decided to compensate us for what we had achieved. So, instead of 12 months allowance, they were giving us 13 months, Five of us from Nigeria remained friends. It didn’t matter where you came from. There was nothing like Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. We were all one. Among us, three were Igbo, one was Itshekiri and another one was Yoruba. The Yoruba chap was more mature than us. He had already married before he went to school. I am the godfather to his first child. Up till today, we relate very well. In fact, the chap from Itshekiri did Architecture, and when he returned to Nigeria, he became very famous. He even became the president of their association and the pro-chancellor of the University of Benin because what they studied was a little bit different from what other countries did. They did Engineering/Architecture so that they could do any part of structure without referencing. He ended up with a doctorate degree like all of us. 

What was working in Italy and the United Kingdom like?

 It was wonderful. I was lucky I got a very good hospital in the western part of Manchester. The hospital was very close to the stadium of Manchester United. Work in Italy was also a pleasure. There was no discrimination whatsoever in Italy at that time. We enjoyed a wonderful life. 

You said working abroad was wonderful, why did you return? 

My father was well over 80 years of age, my mother too. I told you we came later in their lives. I also asked myself what I really wanted as a doctor and what I was doing abroad: to heal those who had so many doctors or to heal those who did not have enough? I also wanted to take care of my parents, treat them and make sure they were happy. The day I finished my last job in England was the day I entered the ship. At that time, we didn’t travel by air. Your employment with the Nigerian government started the day you entered the ship, not when you arrived Nigeria. As soon as you entered into the ship you were already employed by the government. And when you entered into Nigeria, they received you at the wharf and lodged you in a hotel. These days when you see young graduates earning so little you weep for them. We never suffered. In fact, when I was doing my housemanship in Italy, my mates asked why I didn’t return home because my colleagues in Nigeria were earning more than what I was earning in Britain. That was how good Nigeria was. I can remember one incident that happened at my first point of duty, the General Hospital, Enugu, which is now a Teaching Hospital. In my examination in paediatrics, I had a patient with sickle cell anaemia. As a student, I never saw one. I never saw somebody suffering from sickle cell anaemia. I knew the theory and diagnosis, but I never saw a patient with it. The first letter I sent to my classmates was that I met a patient with sickle cell anaemia. I was working with two friends in the same consulting area, so I ran to tell them that I saw a patient with sickle cell anaemia and they started laughing at me, saying I must have missed so many. But I was so happy to confirm that it was real. I never knew they existed because they were not in Europe. So you see, all the illnesses you don’t see as a medical student, you see them here. Therefore, there is an advantage studying Medicine here. Unfortunately, things have been neglected, but we still produce some of the best medical doctors in the world because Nigerians are very resilient and hardworking. My younger brother finished a year after and joined me in the same hospital. 

Shortly after you came back, the country went into the civil war. Did you have any regret? 

I don’t think I do. I didn’t just return at that time. I left Liverpool on January 14 of 1966 and the coup was on the night of January 14/15. In those days, it was a marvel to see a young man qualifying as a doctor or lawyer, so some of us who were young graduates were invited to have dinner at the Captain’s table. One of the best things that could happen to you then was voyaging back to Nigeria on a ship. For 13 days, it was enjoyment galore. About six of us, Nigerians were on the table and we started arguing and somebody (I won’t mention his name) said military coup was the only solution to the problem we had in the Western Region. Another person said it was not possible since there were only a handful of soldiers. We kept on arguing. Later in the night, I heard on a French radio station that a coup had taken place in Nigeria. I started waking others others to tell them what I heard and they said I was joking, that maybe I dreamt about what we talked about during dinner. It was in the morning that we confirmed that indeed a coup had taken place. That time, things were so good that while you were on the ship in the middle of the ocean you could still receive telegrams and send out same. Following the development, we stopped in Gambia to test whether we could continue with the journey because we had said we would not get out of the ship if things were not okay. Nigerians there were all happy. We again stopped in Sierra Leone, saw Nigerian newspapers and read that people were celebrating the coup and we continued on our journey. We stopped in Ghana. In fact, we spent a full day there, and we had the same reaction to the coup. The war things changed and things became hotter. All of us became zoombies. We were no longer thinking straight, but I lived in Biafra. I was an officer in the Biafran Army. I ended up as a commanding officer of 117 Medical Battalion in the Biafran Army. 

What was your rank in the Biafran Army?

 I was first a Captain, then, I became Tracker Major, which is equivalent to a Lieutenant Colonel and we worked hard. We learnt about a lot of medicine. 

What was the period like?

 It’s an experience you can never have anywhere. First, I had a challenge when I came back. I was at the General Hospital, Enugu, and they had a place they had no doctor – the whole of Ogoja Province, which comprised of Ogoja, Ikom and Obudu. I became the only doctor in the whole province, so it was a big challenge. I was there alongside one Rev Sister, who was a doctor in a hospital managed by the Roman Catholic Church. I had the privilege of volunteering to help them from time to time. My 82-bed hospital was reasonably big and I had 23 health centers and maternity homes, which I was expected to visit from time to time. Going to bed at 12 midnight was a luxury. During the war I saw hopelessness, I saw and treated kwashiorkor. I saw hunger. I saw the vulnerability of women; that women could be raped in broad daylight. I pray I never see such a thing again in my life. We must find a way of having peace in this country. 

How did you cope? 

At that time, I was a bachelor; and I didn’t belong to any club. The only thing I knew was Medicine. And being a very young doctor, the energy and enthusiasm were unbelievable. Most of the time it was very challenging. The nearest hospital to mine was in Abakaliki and you couldn’t refer someone there because he/she would die on the road. The acceptance was also very encouraging.

I still dream of that wonderful country, Nigeria, which had a national anthem that was very attractive to everybody; ‘‘Though tongue and tribe may differ, in brotherhood we stand.’’ I don’t know why it was changed because it was the reality. It told our story of love that had no end. There was no fear. My parents were living in Anambra, and because of work, I visited them on Fridays. Sometimes I would take off at 12 midnight and I had nothing to fear. But now, we have all sorts of name for evil. Today, somebody who was a servant yesterday will join politics and become your boss, yet you are expected to work happily. Somebody will be in the civil service, become the best, but tomorrow, they will bring somebody to be above him. How do you expect that kind of person to work well? One of the things that bother me in this country is the plight of pensioners. I had a friend who retired as a Court of Appeal judge. He came to Abuja to fill forms for his pension and he was beaten by rain. He caught pneumonia, and a week later, he died. I don’t understand why a human being who will one day earn his pension would behave that way. 

What went wrong with the country? 

There is no need pretending that we don’t know how things got bad in this country. We allowed the military to come into government. They had no training to govern anybody. They are wonderful people, they are gentlemen, but we say, ‘give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.’ When they got there they found something they never saw before – money, power and privilege. Impunity started and they became demi-gods. Today, you attend a meeting and you see somebody who didn’t pass School Certificate examination presiding over it. The Bible tells us that one of the things that annoy God is when a knowledgeable, educated man is serving somebody who is inferior. That thing irritates God. When you see somebody in Nigeria today and ask what he does and he says he is a politician, does any university produce politicians? They produce political scientists. These are the things we are seeing today. 

Tell us about your private hospital, MENAX 

After the war, my immediate younger brother and I had a discussion on whether to go back and I said I would remain, but since he was younger, he could go back. I went back to the government and I was posted back to Onitsha as a medical officer. Then one day, the Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Onitsha came to us and pleaded with us to volunteer to work in their clinic. I volunteered, so I went to their hospital around 6:30 am, saw patients, did ward round and went to the government hospital. I held the two hospitals. After some time, they came to me and asked if I could work for them permanently. I asked them to tell government to post me to their hospital on secondment. That was how I joined the Catholic hospital in Onitsha. I enjoyed medical practice. I enjoyed seeing patients recover. After some time, I decided to establish my hospital. I didn’t pay for the land I used for it. The head of one family had a medical problem and they begged me to come and see the person in the house. I gave them advice and they followed it. At the end they were very grateful. One day they called me, saying they heard that I wanted to open a hospital and I said yes. They asked if I had a land and I said, no. The head of the family then showed me the land. At that time a piece of land in that part of Onitsha was selling at N4,000 and I got six times the normal plot and they collected N500 from me. That was how I started. Many of my old patients brought cement, blocks, etc. The foundation was laid in May, 1973 and on February 24, 1974, the hospital was commissioned. It was fully equipped by Kingsway Stores. I didn’t have money, so I approached a bank and all the equipment were supplied and I paid on an installment plan.

 Is it still in operation?

 Yes, but I am not in charge anymore. My younger brother is now in charge. 

You later became the Minister of Health under former President Obasanjo. How did that happen? 

I wouldn’t really say I know how it happened. I met Obasanjo in Enugu, shortly after he was released from prison and our chemistry was very good. I didn’t complete the four years with him, but I know what happened. I am not somebody that can be pushed around. I have my own opinions and I express them. We never quarrelled; but he was under pressure and I had no problem with that. What surprised me was that before he declared for the party, he called me on phone, myself and one other person, Jacob Nwokolo, saying that if we were not there he would not declare. I went from Onitsha to Enugu to fly to Lagos, then went by road to Otta. When we got there in the evening, all the flights had been cancelled for three days, and Obasanjo said we must be there. So for the first time, I travelled by road to Lagos by night bus. I went there, he declared, and we returned home by bus again. From that moment, he was following us and we were following him and we worked hard. Anytime he needed my advice I obliged him. I campaigned hard for his election. One of the greatest things I admire about him is that there is hardly any person who can work as hard as him. He is very hardworking and knowledgeable. I don’t think any file passed through him without him reading every line of it. Up till now, I have respect for him. I saw my appointment as minister as a privilege and my aim was to make a difference. I thank God I was able to do so. In the short time I stayed there, Roll Back Malaria was done under me, HIV/AIDS was brought out of the closet. A lot of work had been done, but it was locked up. I brought it out and help came from many places. The National Health Insurance Scheme was a civil service thing, but when I came in, I brought in Labour because they control the engine of government anywhere in the world. Our teaching hospitals woke up from slumber. We were doing only polio vaccination and others were neglected. During that period we were doing vaccination, but we were not doing the real thing. We started house to house and changed a lot of things. Nigeria has boundaries with a lot of countries, so we said if you vaccinated somebody in Idi-Iroko and didn’t vaccinate somebody in Benin Republic, if they inter-crossed infections would continue. So we started what we called synchronised vaccination. The one I did not complete that annoyed me was intramural practice which would have stopped strikes in the health sector. It would mean that consultants have their beds in the hospital, have time of seeing patients there. It will no more be an illegal thing to have clinic, but you must work for the government. You will know how many times you must see a patient and all those things. 

Why is health care delivery still a huge problem in Nigeria? 

We have very qualified doctors, but they leave the country for greener pastures because they are not valued here. Like I said, reward sweetens labour. In our own time, doctors were not doing private practice as they are doing today. You must be well equipped to do it. But today, even a doctor who has not done housemanship wants to own a clinic; that is part of the problem 

You were a member of the NPN, how would you compare politics as it was played then and now? 

There is no comparison. Politics now is a market to buy and sell. 

What are they buying and selling? 

Is there any political party with ideology now? Do they have any idea of what they are talking about? Why should a legislator collect N15million and they are debating whether to pay N30,000 as minimum wage? During my time we went from house to house to ask people to contest elections. Some said they didn’t have money. Politics in Nigeria now is not service. It is the fault of all of us who say we are good and politics is dirty. What does a good person do with a dirty thing? Is it a thief that will make things better? The good people should come back to politics and clean it up. However, there is a challenge because the good people will not even have the money to challenge the charlatans who are there. 

Why didn’t you seek political position?

 I rendered my service in various capacities to make things better. I have done things that looked like politics, but I regarded them as social work. I was the secretary of new Anambra State Movement. I wrote all the memos for the creation of new Anambra State. I also took part in interviewing those who held positions. Till date I give advice when needed. 

Tell us about Tempo Mills.

 One day, I read in the paper that the military governor of Cross River State stopped every vehicle carrying flour from Calabar Flour Mill from coming to the East. In fact, he stopped every Igbo man from getting flour from Calabar. They were beaten, their monies collected and they were sent away. I read it more than four times and asked if there was anything impossible to do. Some Germans were building a brewery in Onitsha at that time, so I went to them and asked how I could go about building a flour mill. Many people cooperated with me to make it a reality. Within two years, we commissioned a flour mill and it was doing 450 tons a day, which was more than enough for Anambra State. The mill made a lot of difference in my town. Petty stealing disappeared because people were employed. But six month after the commissioning, the then head of state, Ibrahim Babangida went to Delta State to commission a flour mill and he banned the importation of wheat in the same breath. The good thing about industries is that they hardly die; the worst is that it could change hands. I also established a steel mill, but by Act of government they were all closed. We are praying that we either get back the flour mill or it will be sold to somebody. 

At 83, you still look fit, what is the secret? 

God. I strongly believe that whatever you are is from God. But there are a few things you have to do; for example, exercise in every shape or form, then eat properly. Most of us eat poison. Most of the drugs we take are poison and we swallow so many a day. We don’t take care of ourselves and we don’t have time for recreation. There are some rich Nigerians who have never gone on vacation. People should learn to laugh more, live life and don’t quarrel with anybody. For instance, today, I was on the field for five hours playing Golf. 

You are a professional golfer; how did you get into it? 

By association. 

Was it your first choice of sports? 

No, it is the last. I was a very good athlete in school. I was a sprinter. I played hockey too. I played for the city of Rome when I was a student. I played cricket, tennis and chess as well. Towards the end, I was told that there’s a game meant for the lazy, so I started to ask questions. Until I was in my 60s I knew nothing about golf, but through association I started playing. I advise people to go into it. It is not as expensive as people think. And you can make more friends in golf than any other sport. It also touches every part of the body. You can play golf alone and make scores, but the brain must be very active to do the calculations. Golf is sweet; you travel a lot. It has helped me a lot. There was a time I was working very hard in the hospital and was closing at 12 midnight, but I made sure I had one hour game before going to bed. That is the life I enjoy now. I don’t go to club and I don’t drink. 

Do you still see patients? 

Mostly, I give medical advice now. Sometimes I go into the hospital and do some minor surgeries. Once you are into it, you can’t fully leave it. 

How did you meet your wife?

 At that time, it was mostly by introduction that people met their spouses in Nigeria, so you could say I met my wife by introduction. 

How many children do you have? 

I have nine of them 

What meal do you enjoy most?

 I used to enjoy ukwa, but it has a problem. It is one of the most proteinous foods, but it is easily converted to carbohydrate. Now, I enjoy salad. Almost every night I eat salad and go to bed and it sustains me.

Parting words 

Always believe in God and know that he is always there for you. Look up to him always.

Abia Owes Health Workers 13-Month Salaries – NMA

ABUJA (THE TIDE) -- The Nigerian Medical Association yesterday said Abia State Government owed doctors and other health workers at the Abia State Teaching Hospital up to 13-month salaries, while members of the state Hospital Management Board had not been paid for 10 months.

The president of the association, Dr. Francis Faduyile, said this in Abuja while reading the communique issued at the end of the 59th Annual General Conference and delegates’ meeting of the association, which was held in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.

Faduyile noted that the salary of Nigerian doctors was abysmally lower than what their counterparts get in other countries, stating that the NMA would appear at the next meeting of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum to discuss the issue with governors.

He said, “The AGC/DM expressed great displeasure and frowned at the failure of the Abia State Government to pay the salaries of doctors and other health workers working at Abia State University Teaching Hospital for up to 13 months and Abia State Hospital Management Board for 10 months.
“The AGC/DM also expressed great displeasure and frowned at the payment of 70 per cent salaries to doctors and other health workers working with the Imo State Government since September 2015.
“The AGC/DM considered the action of both the Abia State Government and Imo State Government as unacceptable, while also expressing great displeasure at the non-payment of skipping by some tertiary health institutions in the country.”

The NMA also called on the police and other security agencies to secure the release of two doctors kidnapped in Taraba State.

He added that the two doctors were still being held even after the ransom demanded was paid.
“The AGC/DM called on government at all levels and the security agencies to urgently do the needful in addressing the various security challenges in Nigeria.

“The AGC/DM specifically called on the Acting Inspector General of Police, Commissioner of Police, Director of State Security Service and other security agencies in Taraba State to ensure the safe release of Dr Sunday Oduniya and DrAuduSule.

“We have been working round the clock to ensure the release of the doctors. Unfortunately, after meeting the demands of the kidnappers, they are not released. We believe that with improved security arrangement, our doctors would have been released.”

The NMA president said the association decried what he described as ‘criminalization of Nigerian doctors,’ noting that all grievances relating to the medical and dental practice should be directed to the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.

Scientists Validate More Herbs For Hair Growth

BY CHUKWUMA MUANYA, STANLEY AKPUNONU & ADAKU ONYENUCHEYA

THE GUARDIAN

Scientists have validated the use of local herbs including sandal wood, onions, garlic, guava, shea butter, Aloe vera, neem oil, olive oil, black seed, rice water, tomato, pawpaw and coconut oil for hair loss, dandruff, baldness and premature graying of hair.

The use of shea butter, pawpaw (Carica papaya) and polysaccharide mixture to enhance hair growth and hair restoration for damaged hair has received a United States (US) patent: US 20050053564 A1.

The abstract noted: “The present invention includes methods for the treatment and/or prevention of hair loss and methods for the regeneration or restoration of hair growth comprising a step of identifying an individual suffering from or susceptible to hair loss or hair thinning or in need of hair regeneration, and a step of administering of a plant extract identified as Shea butter in combination with papaya and polysaccharides. Preferably, the extract is an aqueous extract and is administered topically.

“The present invention also provides a composition, preferably in the from of a lotion, gel, cream, or other suspension, and a distinct chemical compound or class of chemical compounds therein, effective in restoring hair growth, preventing hair loss, and/or reversing the effects of hair thinning. The composition may include an effective amount of a hair loss preventative or hair growth promoting composition comprising a plant extract identified as Shea Butter in combination with papaya and polysaccharides.”

Commonly called Shea butter in Nigeria, okwuma in Igbo and ori in Yoruba, Butyrospermum parkii/Vitellaria paradoxa, is a tree of Sapotaceae family, indigenous to Africa. The Shea fruit consists of a thin, tart, nutritious pulp, surrounding a relatively large, oil-rich seed, from which Shea butter is extracted. Shea butter is a fat obtained from the fruit of the tree. It is commonly used in hair and skin care products due to its properties as an excellent skin conditioner. It is believed to promote hair growth and is considered especially beneficial to processed, damaged and heat-treated hair.

The benefits of Shea butter can be attributed to the concentration of vitamins A, E and F, along with cinnamic esters, sterols, minerals and other nutrients. Vitamin F is made up of linoleic acid and alpha-linoleic acid. These fatty acids are believed to soothe, hydrate, balance and revitalize both the hair and the scalp.

Papaya is the fruit from the plant pawpaw (Carica papaya). It is mostly found in tropical countries like Nigeria, India, Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Indonesia, Brazil and Vietnam. Along with other benefits papaya is said to be great for hair. It helps hair by: maintaining the natural shine of the hair; keeping the hair soft; stimulating hair growth; restricting the dandruff; relaxing the hair; and making the hair fuller and stronger by firming it.

Papaya is rich in proteins, vitamin B6, vitamin C, iron, magnesium, beta-carotene among others.

Another study published in International Journal of Pharmacy Research and Development (IJPRD) has found that onions have proven additional hair-restoring capabilities. The study concluded: “Onions contain a number of important minerals and vitamins, such as vitamins C and B6, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and germanium. Onion also has high sulphur content. Sulphur is a mineral present in every cell in our body, with its greatest concentration in hair, skin and nails. It has often been called the “beauty mineral” and the “healing mineral” because of its ability to promote circulation and decrease inflammation. These qualities also lend to the theory that adequate amounts of sulphur can jump-start hair growth in people with deficiencies.High amounts of sulphur in onions make them particularly effective in regenerating hair follicles and stimulating hair regrowth. In addition, naturally-concentrated sulphur compounds have been proven to show additional hair-restoring.”

Scientists have also successfully treated hair loss with Allium sativum (garlic). The researchers in a study published in Kufa Medical Journal concluded: “Garlic is an efficient and rapid topical treatment for alopecia areata. It is cheep, available and with negligible side effects.”

Alopecia areata is a non-scarring localized hair fall, probably of autoimmune ateology, that responds to treatment with many topically applied irritant substances.
Aloe vera has long been known as one of nature’s miracle plants, being used to cure everything from minor skin irritations to burns. But today, it is being touted as nature’s hair growth aid, able to help those suffering with thinning hair, alopecia, and even dandruff achieves impressive results. Aloe vera gel is good for promoting hair growth, moisturizing the hair, and eliminating bacteria that can be caused by excessive oil build up and dandruff on the scalp. Aloe vera gel contains an enzyme that helps to increase blood circulation in the scalp, which helps prevent hair loss and helps rejuvenate hair follicles for increased hair growth in both men and women.

If used at the onset of thinning hair and alopecia, the regular use of Aloe vera gel has been known to reduce or even cure some cases of baldness.

Another study published in Journal of Pharmacy Research has demonstrated the therapeutic potential of Psidium guajava (guava) and its polyherbal formulation on chemotherapy induced baldness (alopecia).

Specifically, the young leaves of the guava are rich in a myriad of vitamins, minerals and flavonoids. It has been studied and documented for its many health benefits, exemplifying its bioactive properties as, but not limited to, an antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-cough, and anti-inflammatory. It has been used to alleviate illness and ailments including but not limited to those related to cardiovascular, intestinal, allergies, diabetes and pain mediator.

Olive oil can actually slow down the body’s natural production of DHT when it is applied to the scalp, so it provides a minor decrease in the hair loss caused by male pattern baldness.

One of the main benefits of olive oil for hair growth is that it strengthens hair follicles and shafts, preventing hairs from breaking off quickly. The fatty acids of olive oil make an ideal conditioner for hair, and when hair is properly conditioned, in bends under pressure instead of breaking and snapping off.

Neem can also be used for hair related problems. Azadirachta Indica (neem) and other parts of the neem are useful to prevent dandruff, hair loss and to prevent grey hair. The neem-based cream can be applied on the scalp before going for bathing to treat dandruff. Various shampoo and other products made of neem are also available in the market to prevent dandruff, hair loss and to keep hair healthy. It can also be used to prevent scalp related problems which keeps scalp healthy. Neem oil is mixed with almond oil and coconut oil to keep the hair healthy.

A study published in the Journal of Medicinal Plants Studies evaluated hair oil formulations used for hair loss disorder. The researchers noted: “Hair plays a vital role in the personality of human and for their cure we use lots of cosmetic products. The fading (pigmentation problem), dandruff, alopecia (loss of hair) is the major problem associated with hairs. Ayurvedic system is the traditional system of medicine having major treatment across globe. The aim of study is to develop a hair oil formulation using Azadirachta indica/neem tree (leaves), Semecarpus anacardium (fruits), Trigonella foenum graecum (seeds), Cocos nucifera/coconut (oil) for better growth of hair and diminution in loss of hair (alopecia).”

Meanwhile, millions of men who are going bald may benefit from rubbing sandalwood oil onto their scalps. Laboratory tests of scalp tissue by German researchers found it stimulates hair growth after just six days. Bizarrely, hair follicles are thought to contain ‘smell receptors’ that respond to the aromatic odour and trigger the main protein in hair to multiply.

Although humans and animals are only able to smell through their noses, receptors in hair, sperm and even our guts are able to recognise chemicals in certain aromas. The findings could lead to a sandalwood-based balding treatment that may benefit the quarter of men who start to lose their hair by the time they turn 25.

Studies have already shown that exposing human skin cells to sandalwood in the lab causes the protein keratin to multiply, which speeds up wound healing.

Intrigued whether the aromatic wood may also boost hair growth, the researchers from the Monasterium Laboratory, Münster, exposed human scalp tissue to the artificial sandalwood-like odour Sandalore.

Sandalore is often added to fragrances and moisturisers to give a sandalwood aroma, and has previously been used in previous experiments investigating its effect on keratin. The scalp tissue came from donors, who were aged between 38 and 69 years old, who had recently undergone face-lift surgery. Six days after the tissue was exposed to Sandalore, its keratin levels began to increase.

This is thought to be due to the oil blocking the genes that cause keratin cells to ‘commit suicide’ in a process known as apoptosis. Results, published in the journal Nature Communications, also suggests the aromatic oil stimulates the release of ‘growth factors’.

These can include vitamins or hormones that are necessary for cells to multiply and thrive. Sandalore is thought to promote hair growth by acting on the smell receptor OR2AT4, which is present in hair follicles. When the scalp tissue was exposed to both Sandalore and the rose-like odour Phenirat, hair growth stopped. Phenirat is a known OR2AT4 blocker.

The researchers believe this demonstrates Sandalore stimulates hair growth by acting on OR2AT4. They add this could help them develop a balding treatment for humans. Although it may seem odd that scent receptors are present in hair follicles, such receptors are actually ancient chemical signalling systems that evolved before humans developed a sense of smell.

Also, cannabidiol or CBD is a very popular natural remedy used for different purposes. Hair loss is currently one of the major problems for some people all across the world. The CBD hair oil is also an exceptional natural hair growth product, which is prepared from the marijuana or hemp plant.

Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC is the major cannabinoid founded in the mixture of products of the Cannabidiol. Products of Cannabidiol can be used to fix pain related issues and symptoms without affecting the other parts of the body.

One of the main ingredients in traditional beard oil and a major component of beard balm is Cannabis Sativa Seed Oil (also known as Hemp Oil).

Hemp Seed oil penetrates and is absorbed easily into the skin, helping to replenish oils missing due to sun exposure and poor nutrition. It is full of vitamins containing vitamins A, C, E, proteins, Beta-carotenes, as well as being rich in essential omega-3, 6 and 9 fatty acids, along with nutrients that make it perfect for all hair types as well as giving benefits for skin. Although loved by many, its familiar nutty scent can take a little getting used to for some people.
hemp oil for hair

Hemp oil has high moisturizing properties which nourishes not just the beard and facial hair, but also the skin and scalp. Being high in Vitamin E makes it a great natural hair conditioner.

Hemp oil penetrates into the skin and hair easily and is an excellent source of Omega 6 which is also known as GLA (Gamma linolenic acid), a vital ingredient for hair growth, it both stimulates growth and nourishes hair, assisting in keratin production which gives thicker, stronger, and healthier hair.

This Nigerian Doctor Might Just Prevent The Next Deadly Pandemic

As leader of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu works to protect the nation — and the world — from devastating outbreaks.

BY AMY MAXMEN

Chikwe Ihekweazu aims to build a public-health agency that will stand the test of time.Credit: Andrew Esiebo via Nature


Chikwe Ihekweazu tried to steel himself as he surveyed people writhing in pain beneath ramshackle tents in the deserts of northern Nigeria. A deadly epidemic of meningitis had swept through the region in 2017, debilitating so many people that clinics had run out of space.

The tragic scene laid bare the challenges ahead for Ihekweazu, who had just been appointed director of the nation’s first agency tasked with tracking and responding to outbreaks, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). Local health workers either didn’t know to report cases, or reporting lagged behind because they lacked electricity to charge mobile phones and laptops. Samples of spinal fluid spoilt before they reached the NCDC’s microbiology laboratory in Abuja, which made it impossible to confirm diagnoses — a requirement for unlocking access to international stockpiles of vaccines. As the agency struggled to count cases, the outbreak wore on, eventually infecting more than 14,000 people and killing almost 1,200. “That’s when it became clear how quickly things can fail,” says Ihekweazu.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest economy, but it is also the world’s poorest, as measured by the number of people living in extreme poverty. It is routinely battered by infectious diseases: meningitis, measles, cholera and newly emerging threats that plague communities and raise alarms around the world.

Ever since the Ebola crisis of 2014–16 — from which Nigeria was largely spared — global-health leaders have been fretting about the possibility of an epidemic exploding in Lagos and spreading to London, New York, Mumbai or Beijing. Many argue that the best hope of mitigating such a catastrophe will come from the capacity of African nations to catch outbreaks early and stem their spread. Ihekweazu had written about this necessity long before it was in vogue — but he never imagined leading the effort himself.

Yet just two years after his appointment, he has more than doubled the size of the NCDC staff, set up a network of molecular-biology labs across the country and become the steward of multimillion-dollar grants intended to diffuse the threat that an epidemic in Nigeria poses for the rest of the world. On his watch, the nascent agency has battled about a dozen outbreaks, which have infected more than 70,000 people (see ‘Keeping tabs’). “We are building the ship while we are sailing,” Ihekweazu says. Now he has another two years to transform the NCDC into an organization that will operate successfully long after he’s gone.

Many have faith that he can do so, because he’s proved to be an agile leader in a fragile part of the world. Furthermore, they hope that his strategies in Nigeria might be repeated elsewhere on the African continent, such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Chikwe is showing that Africa can do what is needed, when it’s needed,” says David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “He is leading the way in how things can be done.”
Shared vision

Ihekweazu was born in Igboland in southeastern Nigeria in 1971, a year after the region had lost the Biafran War for independence from the rest of the country. The war left the Igbo people malnourished, traumatized and persecuted. But inhabitants of the communal university town of Nsukka hoped for a better future. Ihekweazu’s father was a Nigerian doctor there, and his mother, a German, was a professor at the university. “They had moved there to rebuild the community,” Ihekweazu says. “Our home was a melting pot for all sorts — her students, his patients — we had a sense that whatever we have, we share.”

After completing medical school at the University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Ihekweazu moved to Germany, where he received a master’s degree in public health and then worked in the national health system. In 2002, he became an epidemiologist at what is now Public Health England in Bristol, UK. One of his mentors, James Stuart, a Bristol-based consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), remembers Ihekweazu as highly skilled but utterly unassuming. When Ihekweazu was assigned to investigate an outbreak of Escherichia coli in Cornwall, UK, for example, the local authorities resisted handing over the case. “Chikwe managed to listen to everyone, respected their contributions and made them feel as if they were leading it,” Stuart recalls. Together, the team found that cattle faeces had contaminated a stream, and that children playing near the water were getting infected (C. Ihekweazu et al. Euro Surveill. 11, 613; 2006).

Others have noticed his knack for gliding between cultures and pushing people to cooperate for the common good. Ihekweazu attributes these skills to his upbringing and the frequent experience of being mistrusted initially for being Nigerian. “I have grown up with these tensions,” he says. “With more or less time, most people eventually get over it.”

Ihekweazu had always imagined that he’d return to Nigeria one day, but the idea caught fire when he attended a TED conference in Tanzania in 2007, where African speakers talked about how fulfilled they felt to be improving their home countries. One speaker, Kenyan lawyer Ory Okolloh, lamented the way in which the West frames Africa as a place to be pitied, rather than as one that is rich with people who succeed despite the odds. After the presentations, Ihekweazu said to his closest friend, Ike Anya, a fellow Nigerian public-health specialist in the United Kingdom, “It is time to go home.”

Their first move was to launch a blog commenting on health issues in Nigeria. During the 2009–10 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ihekweazu criticized the country for being unprepared. “Nigeria needs a central, well-resourced centre for infectious disease prevention and control,” he wrote in 2010, “or one day we will pay the price the hard way.” Out of the blue, he says, Nigeria’s health minister wrote to him to say that he was in London and wanted to meet. They talked at a coffee shop about fighting flu.

In 2011, Ihekweazu and his family moved to South Africa, where he became co-director of the national tuberculosis centre. He and Anya also launched EpiAfric, a health-care company that consults for organizations across Africa. When it came to their home country, however, working within a government that had long disappointed them was furthest from their minds. Anya says, “We had seen how the Nigerian bureaucracy would eat up and spit out the best intentions.”

But one July evening in 2016, Ihekweazu got a call from an official in Nigeria, telling him that in the morning, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari would appoint him head of the fledgling NCDC. He hadn’t applied for the job, nor did he particularly want it. By the next day, his inbox was overflowing with congratulatory messages. He switched off his phone and walked through the cool, damp streets of Durban, South Africa, pondering the long list of problems troubling Nigeria: poverty, conflict, corruption, dirty water, population growth. He realized that it would be hypocritical to have complained about the government’s approach and then reject an opportunity to fix it. He was going home.

Step change

Ihekweazu would be moving from nations with established public institutions to a country where government agencies were comparatively young. After Nigeria won independence from Britain in 1960, it was left with vanishingly few doctors, scientists or leaders to serve the massive population. Academics who might have built up national health agencies in the decades following independence left Nigeria in waves as the nation was shaken by civil war, nine military coups and erupting tensions among some 200 different ethnic groups. And, unlike more-authoritarian nations that have advanced unified health systems, such as Rwanda and Ethiopia, Nigeria’s 36 states operate rather autonomously. “We have had to build a country within boundaries drawn by Europe, among people who didn’t live together,” Ihekweazu says. “So it’s always a struggle.”

Without strong national institutions, decades of outside aid and research projects have failed to increase the average life expectancy of Nigerians beyond age 53. Piecemeal programmes that deliver HIV drugs or that analyse patterns of viral transmission can be helpful. But these projects do not build a nationwide system capable of figuring out why a community falls ill, helping people recover and preventing future crises. When Ebola ripped through Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia from 2014 to 2016, it showed that systemic failures pose a risk not only to those directly affected, but also to other countries. Mitigating that risk is costly: donors spent around US$3.3 billion to end the outbreak in West Africa. World health officials pointed out that it would have been much better if hard-hit countries had been able to stop it themselves early on.

Richard Garfield, an epidemiologist at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, says that revelation fuelled a drive to shore up global health-security, in part by creating national public-health institutes. This agenda has become “the next big thing after HIV”, says Garfield. By 2016, the US government was contributing both finances and expertise to the effort, as were the United Kingdom, the World Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, among others. But the task is monumental. So-called ‘vertical’ approaches that target specific diseases, such as polio, can ignore problems that are outside the scope of the project. To address multiple underlying causes of illnesses, nations need a ‘horizontal’ system of labs, clinics and staff that stretch across a country. “Vertical programmes are simple,” says Garfield. “This is much broader,” he explains. It now falls to leaders such as Ihekweazu to turn donor dollars into institutions that last.

Free rein

On 13 November last year, President Buhari made the NCDC an independent agency, granting Ihekweazu authority over how he reports data, how he spends the budget and whom he hires. The move infused his team with energy, and a week later, people were still buzzing at the NCDC’s modest, concrete compound in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. In a single-room structure called the Incident Coordination Centre, wall-mounted monitors displayed updates on epidemics, sent in from satellite centres across the country. Next door, a young NCDC employee monitored a hotline and social media for outbreak indicators. They call the system Tatafo, using the Yoruba word for gossip.

Ihekweazu and his team were preparing for a spike in Lassa fever, a viral haemorrhagic disease that, like Ebola, can swiftly cause death through internal bleeding. Cases of Lassa fever typically surge in Nigeria between December and March, and it caused a record 184 deaths last year. During the peak of that outbreak in early 2018, Ihekweazu had travelled to a hard-hit hospital in Abakaliki in the southeastern state of Ebonyi. The hospital’s virology centre was almost barren, with hardly any electricity or treated water. The team there had run out of antiviral drugs and protective gear for health workers. And people were dying as they waited for the results of diagnostic tests that had to be conducted outside the state. Although the lab had a PCR machine that could be used to identify the disease, it sat broken on a shelf. A group of researchers from Japan had brought it as part of a research project, but when they left, no one knew how to use or maintain it.

To curb the number of deaths, Ihekweazu has spent the past year supplying hospitals in Ebonyi and other states, and organizing training sessions for staff so that they can detect and report Lassa fever rapidly. When he returned last November, a chief doctor and the head of the virology lab greeted him outside. Freshly installed solar panels glinted in the morning sun, and dust from construction hung in the air — workers were building a new ward for patients with Lassa fever and an incinerator for infectious material. Inside the lab was a new biohazard hood, where technicians could deactivate live viruses in blood samples. The broken PCR machine remained in another room, but it had been joined by two new ones given by the NCDC. Ihekweazu told the team that he had sent one of his staff to Japan to learn to repair and maintain such technology. “Across Nigeria, you’ll find millions of dollars’ worth of equipment not running for some small reason,” he said.

Walking around the grounds, the group discussed how to grapple with Lassa fever beyond the hospital gates. Ihekweazu asked them to help brainstorm studies that would reveal how people were catching the virus from its host, the African rodent Mastomys natalensis, so that this mode of transfer could be prevented. The chief doctor expressed his concern that infected people were arriving at the hospital too late to be saved by treatments. The NCDC had been running radio advertisements urging people to seek medical care rapidly. But the Ebonyi state epidemiologist said it wasn’t enough. They needed feet on the ground: community members who could spread the word and call him when they spotted someone who might be infected. Such volunteers needed petrol to get to remote towns, and credit on their mobile phones to make calls. “Amazing how something like airtime can stop a response,” Ihekweazu said, adding that the NCDC lacked funds for this but that he’d think of a solution.

Later that evening, Ihekweazu confessed that he remained anxious. “Lassa starts with a little trickle,” he said, “and then sometimes it goes boom.”
Cash flow

Money is always short. In 2018, the NCDC hobbled along on a government budget that was less than $4 million (for comparison, the US CDC’s budget last year was $11 billion). That comes to less than 0.02 cents per Nigerian per year (compared with the CDC’s $33 per American). Nigeria’s health system, as a whole, is one of the most poorly funded in the world. The government allotted just 0.6% of gross domestic product to health in 2015, compared with 4.4% in South Africa and around 8% in the United States and the United Kingdom.

“One of my biggest responsibilities is to fight for more money within the government budget,” Ihekweazu says. But it’s a difficult ask, because health investments rarely result in things that people see, such as airports or roads, he explains. “Politicians can’t say ‘look at the meningitis outbreak that didn’t happen’ and have it win them votes.”

So Ihekweazu is also appealing to Nigeria’s thriving private sector, explaining how a fast-moving outbreak of Ebola could bankrupt their companies. He says that businessman Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, has expressed an interest in supporting the agency. “We are discussing something around laboratory networks, since his companies’ biggest strengths are in logistics and manufacturing,” Ihekweazu says.

More than anything, Ihekweazu struggles to afford the staff he requires. He’s managed to grow the agency from 90 people to 213. Nearly half of NCDC employees are under 30 years of age. That’s partly due to the low salaries he has to offer, but Ihekweazu loves their willingness to learn and their energy. Nanpring Dawn Williams, a microbiology graduate working one night in the Incident Coordination Centre, described how Ihekweazu recognized her skill at managing data. “Now he’s always asking what new papers I’ve read,” she says. “He expects me to publish a manuscript.” With a smirk, her colleague Anwar Abubakar says, “He knows we are single and no one expects us to come home at the end of the day.” But he adds that his boss pushes himself even harder, and drives his team by conveying the importance of their mission. “He tells us we are the future of the organization.”

Still, the agency has too few experienced epidemiologists and molecular biologists. To hire them, Ihekweazu must convince outstanding Nigerian scientists to work for much less than they would earn in the private sector or at aid organizations. Anthony Ahumibe, the laboratory adviser at the NCDC, explained how Ihekweazu poached him from a well-paid job at AFENET, a non-profit public-health organization funded by the US CDC. After they met in 2017, Ihekweazu called him at 10 p.m. every few weeks. “He said, ‘I cannot pay you as well, but depending on how hard you work, and how focused you are, there will be so many opportunities’,” Ahumibe recalls.

Ihekweazu’s dedication also attracts Nigerians who live abroad. “This is an experiment in brain gain,” explains Emmanuel Agogo, who had been a UK physician before joining the NCDC. “We are trying to create a system where none exists.” For this reason, Ihekweazu convinced the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help fund salaries for management-training consultants, a feature typical of wealthy corporations. It might sound like a luxury in a country where clinics lack gloves, but Ihekweazu explains that it stems from decades of watching well-intentioned projects evaporate because donors invest in things, but not people.

Careful choices

When Ihekweazu is not travelling, he can be found in his office in Abuja, with his large frame hunched over a laptop or intercom, rubbing his forehead between his thumb and his forefinger. From there, he corresponds with donors and researchers in rich countries who wish to conduct projects and experiments in Nigeria. Each grant comes with requests that Ihekweazu navigates carefully. “We need the expertise and collaborations,” he says, “but we want a real partnership, not a master–servant relationship.”

His largest programme to oversee is a 5-year, $90-million global health-security project from the World Bank to strengthen Nigeria’s national surveillance system. And in January, two international consortia announced that they will collaborate with the NCDC to develop diagnostic tests and vaccines for Lassa fever. Dhamari Naidoo, a WHO technical officer based in Nigeria, says: “Researchers wanting to do clinical trials are now lining up to work with [Ihekweazu] because he pushes his people to deliver like you cannot believe.”

But Ihekweazu knows that the international focus on pandemic preparedness will eventually wane — as all fads do. So he is trying to ensure that the supply chains and lab networks he’s building to monitor pathogens will last. John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Addis Ababa, hopes that the NCDC will soon have the power to help outbreak responses across West Africa. “We can’t ensure the safety and security of our continent while relying on someone else’s goodwill,” Nkengasong says.

Ihekweazu takes heart in seeing Africans such as WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus step onto the global stage. Sipping on a cheap beer during a quiet moment one night, Ihekweazu says he could imagine working at a multinational health agency when his appointment at the NCDC ends in 2020. “As Africans, we need to be stronger participants in the organizations leading the responses to challenges concentrated in our part of the world,” he says.

But the following evening, the bags under his eyes seem deeper as his phone blinks with texts about problems ranging from the major to the mundane. He pictures a future tucked away in a university lab. “Some days I feel we are at the beginning of something huge and exciting, and sometimes I feel like this is too hard a job. It’s 24 hours a day. The generators don’t work. A vehicle is stuck.” His lab adviser Ahumibe excuses himself from the table as if he cannot breathe without the oxygen of Ihekweazu’s optimism.

“‘Look after your health’ is the last thing I always say to him before I hang up,” says Anya, Ihekweazu’s close friend. And Sola Aruna, one of his public-health colleagues in Nigeria, says she worries that political events might prompt Ihekweazu’s premature replacement. “I am fearful since a very good thing has happened with him here,” she says. “Now the negative side is that people are sitting up, they see the NCDC in the news, and some people may think that what he’s doing is easy.”

Those who understand public health have been impressed by Ihekweazu’s progress in building the foundation of the agency, but demonstrating its power to Nigerians could take time. A perverse twist to bolstering surveillance is that problems look worse before they can get better. During Ihekweazu’s tenure, the NCDC has announced the worst outbreaks of Lassa fever, yellow fever and cholera in a decade, and detected the first cases of monkeypox in 40 years. But Ihekweazu knows that the only way to fight these diseases is to bring them to the surface. “I can give up and say this problem is bigger than me,” Ihekweazu says. “Or I can buckle down and push.”

Scientists Advance Natural Cures For Cancers

BY CHUKWUMA MUANYA

Scientists have advanced in the search for natural cures for cancers.

Latest findings showed onions, leeks, and garlic slash the chance of getting deadly bowel tumour; diet rich in whole grains, bran, and cereal fibre reduces risk of liver cancer by 40 per cent; and how chronic stress boosts malignant cell growth.

A study published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology found that Allium vegetables – which also include garlic, leeks, chives and shallots – dramatically cut the risk of bowel cancer.

The study of more than 1,600 men and women found those with the biggest intake were 79 per cent less likely to develop bowel cancer than those with the least.

Bioactive compounds in allium vegetables have previously been shown to protect against breast and prostate cancer.

Senior author of the latest study, Dr. Zhi Li, of the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang, said: “The greater the amount of allium vegetables, the better the protection.”

The researchers found eating at least 35lb a year could reduce bowel cancer risk. This would be around one-and-a-half ounces a day – equivalent to an onion.

The study, published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, compared 833 bowel cancer patients with the same number of healthy controls, using a food frequency questionnaire.

Li pointed out that cooking method had an effect. For example, boiling onions reduced useful chemicals, while slicing and crushing fresh garlic was beneficial.

Earlier studies showed extracts from onion, garlic, lime, olive oil, hog plum, chieftaincy leaf, and asthma herb provided novel cure for ear, nose and throat infections.

The researchers showed the efficacy of naturopathic herbal extract (consisting of Allium sativum (garlic), Verbascum thapsus (mullein flowers), Calendula flores (marigolds), and Hypericum peroforatum (St. John’s wort) in olive oil in the management of ear pain associated with acute otitis media (AOM).

The study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics and Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine is titled “Efficacy of Naturopathic Extracts in the Management of Ear Pain Associated With Acute Otitis Media.”

The researchers evaluated the efficacy and tolerance of Otikon Otic Solution (Healthy-On Ltd, Petach-Tikva, Israel), a naturopathic herbal extract (containing Allium sativum, Verbascum thapsus, Calendula flores, and Hypericum perforatum in olive oil), compared with Anaesthetic (Vitamed Pharmaceutical Limited, Benyamina, Israel) ear drops (containing ametocaine and phenazone in glycerin) in the management of ear pain associated with acute otitis media (AOM).

Also, researchers have identified and validated garlic as one of the local spices and food items that could be effectively used to control and manage hypertension. Others are: beetroot, Zobo and banana.

Yet another study validated garlic and onions for the treatment of drug resistant malaria and typhoid fever.

A herbal preparation made predominantly with garlic, ginger, onions, scent leaf, lemon grass, unripe pawpaw, lime/lemon, African pepper (Uda in Igbo), clove, Gongronema latifolium (Utazi in Ibo, arokeke in Yoruba) and West African Black pepper (Uziza in Igbo) has been effectively used to stop malaria and typhoid.

Also, naturopaths recommend eating onions, leeks and artichokes if you are stressed and struggling to sleep. For scientists have discovered that the popular vegetables could help humans to relax – allowing them a better night’s sleep.

Also, another new study found that a diet high in whole grain, bran and cereal fibre lowers the risk of liver cancer.

The study was published in JAMA Oncology.

But the United States (U.S.) scientists found that an increased intake of fruit or vegetable fiber did not have an effect.

Those who ate the most whole grains in their diet had a 37 percent lower risk than those whose diets were sparse of the healthy grains.

A high bran diet also reduced the risk by 30 percent while germ reduced it by 11 percent.

Added bran reduced the risk by 31 percent but added germ actually increased the risk by 22 percent.

They added whole grains; bran and cereal fiber reduces insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia, and inflammation – all known hallmarks of cancer.

Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Xuehong Zhang, said: “Increased intake of whole grains and possibly cereal fiber and bran could be associated with reduced risk of HCC among adults in the United States.

“Whole grains are a major source of dietary fiber and consist of bran, germ, and endosperm, compared with refined grains that contain only the endosperm.

“The whole grains are good sources of dietary fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, and other numerous nutrients, which are removed during the refining process.”

He added: “Consumption of whole grains and dietary fiber, especially cereal fiber, has been associated with lower risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which are known predisposing factors for HCC.

“In addition to improving insulin sensitivity and metabolic regulation and decreasing systemic inflammation, intake of whole grains and dietary fiber may improve gut integrity and alter gut microbiota composition, thereby leading to increased production of microbiota-related metabolites, including short-chain fatty acids, particularly butyrate.

“Gut integrity, the composition of gut microbiota, and metabolites may play an important role in the development of liver diseases, including HCC.”

So the study followed 77,241 women and 48,214 men with a mean age of 63.4 taking part in the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Their intake of whole grains, their subcomponents (bran and germ), and dietary fiber (cereal, fruit, and vegetable) were assessed every four years over an average follow-up of 24.2 years.

Those in the highest tertiles of whole grain and dietary fiber intake were slightly older, had lower Body Mass Index (BMI), exercised more, drank less, did not smoke, more likely to take aspirin and had higher intake of fruits, vegetables, total folate, multivitamin, and dietary vitamin D, but less fat compared with those in the lowest tertiles.

BMI is a measure of weight in kilogrammes/height in metres squared (Wkg/Hm2).

A total of 141 patients were diagnosed with HCC.

Zhang said: “Interestingly, compared with fruit or vegetable fiber, cereal fiber has been shown in our study and other cohort studies to be more consistently associated with lower risk of total mortality, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and colorectal cancer.

“However, our results on the association of cereal fiber with HCC risk could have been due to chance.

“Alternatively, a potential explanation is that fruits and vegetables, particularly fruit juice, contain sugar or added sugar such as fructose and sucrose, which may lead to hepatic damage and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, thereby masking the potential benefit of fruit- or vegetable-fiber intake.

“Overall, the exact reasons for such a difference remain unknown and require further investigation.”

He added while more research was needed he concluded: “If our findings are confirmed, increasing whole grain consumption may serve as a possible strategy for prevention of primary HCC.”

Meanwhile, having conducted a new study in mice, researchers now have a much better understanding of how chronic (long-term, sustained) stress can accelerate the growth of cancer stem cells. They may also have found a way to prevent stress from doing its damage.

Chronic stress, which a person has consistently over a long period of time, affects mental and emotional well being as well as physical health.

Studies have tied chronic stress to accelerated cognitive impairment, a higher risk of heart problems, and problems with gut health.

Previous research also suggests that exposure to stress could speed up the growth of cancer through its impact on gene activity.

Now, researchers from the Dalian Medical University in China — in collaboration with colleagues from across the world — have located a key mechanism, which chronic stress triggers that fuel the growth of cancer stem cells that tumors originate from.

More specifically, the researchers have studied this mechanism in mouse models of breast cancer.

Their findings — which they report in The Journal of Clinical Investigation — point the finger at the hormone epinephrine, but they also suggest a strategy to counteract the effects of stress mechanisms on cancer cells.

“You can kill all the cells you want in a tumor,” notes co-author Keith Kelley, from the University of Illinois at Chicago, “but if the stem cells, or mother cells, are not killed, then the tumor is going to grow and metastasize.”

He added: “This is one of the first studies to link chronic stress specifically with the growth of breast cancer stem cells.”

To see how stress would impact cancer cell growth in the rodents, the researchers put all the mice in small, restrictive enclosures for a week. Then, they split the mice into two groups.

They put one group into large, comfortable enclosures to discontinue the stress; these mice acted as the control group. The other group stayed in the small enclosures for another 30 days; these mice acted as the experimental group.

Cutting-edge research may bring us a better understanding about the spread of breast cancer.

Following their initial investigation, the scientists saw not only that the stressed mice exhibited changes in behavior that were indicative of depression and anxiety, but also that they had larger cancer tumors than their peers in the control group.

Also, these tumors were growing at a faster rate, and on the whole, the stressed mice also had a greater number of cancer stem cells than the other mice.

Still, at this point, it remained unclear exactly how stress contributed to the progression of cancer.

According to principal investigator Quentin Liu, from the Institute of Cancer Stem Cell at Dalian Medical University, “The direct signaling network between stress pathways and a cancer-propagating system remains almost completely unknown.”

He added: “A better understanding of the biochemistry that causes stress to increase the growth of cancer cells could lead us toward targeted drug interventions, one of which we discovered in this work.”

When they looked into how various physiological factors changed in the mice that had experienced chronic stress, the researchers closed in on a hormone called epinephrine.

The stressed mice had much higher levels of this hormone than the mice in the control group.

Also, in mice from the experimental group that had received a drug that blocked ADRB2 — which is an epinephrine receptor — cancer tumors were smaller and the numbers of cancer stem cells were also lower.

Kelley said: “When most people think of stress, they think it is cortisol that is suppressing the immune system. However, the amazing thing is cortisol was actually lower after a month of stress.”

How does epinephrine help cancer stem cells thrive? The authors explain that when this hormone binds to ADRB2, the interaction boosts levels of lactate dehydrogenase, an enzyme that normally gives muscles an “injection” of energy in a danger situation. This allows the person to either fight the threat or run away from it.

A byproduct of this energy boost is the production of an organic compound called lactate. In the case of people with cancer, the harmful cells actually feed on this compound; it allows them to acquire more energy.

This means that if a person has chronic stress, they will have too much lactate dehydrogenase in their system. This, in turn, will activate genes related to cancer growth and allow cancer cells to thrive.

“These data provide a novel pathway that explains how elevated epinephrine caused by chronic stress promotes breast cancer progression by acting directly on cancer stem cells.”

Is vitamin C the answer? Next, the researchers validated their results by studying blood epinephrine levels in 83 people with breast cancer.

Sure enough, they found that people with high blood levels of epinephrine also had excess lactate dehydrogenase in cancer tumors — which the researchers had, access to through breast cancer biopsy samples.

Also, people who had higher levels of the stress hormone were likelier to have poorer outcomes following treatment when compared with people with lower epinephrine levels.

Next, the scientists tried to see whether or not they could identify a strategy to block epinephrine’s ill effects on the system.

In laboratory tests on breast cancer cell lines, they analyzed the effects of a few Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs on lactate dehydrogenase production.

The most promising substance that the investigators settled on was actually vitamin C, which blocked actate dehydrogenase production in laboratory experiments.

When the investigators tested this approach in mouse models, they obtained the same results: Stressed mice they’d injected with vitamin C experienced tumor shrinkage.

Liu concluded: “Taken together, these findings show that vitamin C might be a novel and effective therapeutic agent for targeting cancer in patients undergoing chronic stress.”

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN