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Showing posts with label Hope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hope. Show all posts

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Good rains bring hope to war-torn Syrians

The rain falls in the country of Syria offer some hope to the war-torn region says two United Nations agencies, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) gave this hope while assessing the situation in the country on the latest Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission (CFSAM) made available to NaijaAgroNet

According to the Acting FAO Representative in Syria, Adam Yao, and WFP Representative and Country Director in Syria, Jakob Kern, good rains have brought some hope for the war-torn country with better rainfall within the Euphrates River watershed which meant greater water flows and higher water levels in many of the country's reservoirs.

Wheat and barley production slightly improved in 2017 compared to last year due to the better rainfall and improved access to agricultural land in some areas. Main constraints continue to be the high cost or unavailability of inputs, such as seeds and fertilizer, and the destruction of infrastructure for irrigation and storage.

Pasture conditions have improved because of the better rainfall, which will partially ease pressure from high fodder prices. Herd sizes have stabilized albeit at a very low level. The main constraints continue to be high fodder prices, insufficient coverage of veterinary services and insecurity that limits access to grazing areas in some parts of the country.


Gradual improvements in security and the opening of some key supply routes have allowed trade to slowly recover and urban markets to function in several parts of the country. In parts of eastern Aleppo where the entire infrastructure and markets have been heavily destroyed, recovery has started at a very slow pace. Across the country, food prices continue to be close to the record high, with the exception of the governorates of Deir-ez-Zor, Al-Hasakeh and Rural Damascus.

Isaac Oyimah/GEE 
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Friday, March 10, 2017

Hope rises for asthma children: Bug-proof bedcovers reduce flare-ups

Scientists have discovered that bedcovers which form a barrier to house dust mites appear to reduce asthma flare-ups in children, according to new research conducted in Manchester, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The researchers led by Dr Clare Murray, clinical senior lecturer at The University of Manchester and consultant respiratory paediatrician at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said mite allergy is one of the most common asthma triggers, and in partnership with viral infection could greatly increase hospital admission risk.
Dr Murray said, children were enrolled aged 3-17 years who had tested positive for mite allergy, and suffered an asthma flare-up or exacerbation that required being treated in accident and emergency or as a hospital inpatient.
She explained that after encasing their mattresses, duvets and pillows with mite-proof covers or placebo covers, the children were followed for a year, stressing that “Neither the children, the investigators nor their health care professionals knew which set of covers the children received.”
The findings, NaijaAgroNet reports, demonstrated that children sleeping with the mite-proof covers compared to the placebo arm of the trial, just as they were less likely to have a severe asthma exacerbation that resulted in an accident and emergency visit or hospital admission (29.3 percent vs. 41.5 percent).
In addition, the study showed that incidence had a 45 per cent reduced risk of having an asthma exacerbation that resulted in an accident and emergency visit or hospitalisation and the requirement for systemic corticosteroids.
Equally, the result showed a significantly longer time to their first exacerbation that resulted in an accident and emergency visit or hospitalisation and the requirement for systemic corticosteroids.
“Asthma exacerbations are among the most common reasons for hospitalizing children living in the developed world,” said Dr Murray. “It’s a frightening experience for children and their parents, and a single exacerbation can increase the annual cost of treating asthma by three-fold.”
Dr. Murray added that viral infections, especially those causing the common cold, are a major risk factor for asthma exacerbations in children sensitised and exposed to allergens. “Other studies have shown that these two risk factors act synergistically to increase the likelihood of hospital admission by nearly 20-fold,” Dr Murray said. “We have no means of protecting people from cold viruses, but our study indicates that allergen avoidance may be a cost-effective intervention.”
The authors estimated the cost of the bedcovers would be about £130 for a single bed.  “This simple measure may reduce asthmatic exacerbations that lead to accident and emergency visits or hospitalisation, particularly in younger children who are allergic only to dust mites,” Dr Murray said.
The mite-proof covers did not significantly reduce the number of children whose exacerbation was treated outside the hospital with only an oral corticosteroid. The authors said it was not clear why this was the case. “It may be that the bedcovers did not prevent the exacerbation, but did reduce its severity,” Dr Murray explained.
Limitations of the study, which is believed to be the first to study the effect of mite-proof bedcovers and asthma exacerbations, include the fact that the exacerbations and oral corticosteroid use were reported by parents or guardians, not physicians, and the researchers had no information about viruses or other exacerbation triggers.
Although the study was not large enough to conclusively define the subgroups that benefitted the most from the intervention, the authors wrote that their results suggested that younger children testing positive for only house dust mite allergy and living in non-smoking households were more likely to benefit from the mite impermeable bed covers.
The study was funded by The JP Moulton Charitable Foundation. Infrastructure support was provided by the North West Lung Centre Charity.
Uboshe Uboshe/GEE 
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