Topics

1

Research Publications / Renownded Scopus Indexed Publication

« on: August 25, 2019, 03:35:52 PM »

Prevailing familial, social and cultural obstacles in keeping tobacco-free homes in urban areas of Bangladesh: A mixed-method study
Md. Imdadul Haque1, ABM Alauddin Chowdhury1, Muhammad Shaikh Hassan2, Hafiz T. A. Khan3, Md. Golam Dostogir Harun1,

1 Department of Public Health, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Daffodil International University,
Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2 Center of Excellence for Health Systems and Universal Health Coverage,
BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 3 The Graduate
School, University of West London, London, United Kingdom

Abstract

Background
Millions of children and others across the world are being dangerously exposed to tobacco smoke and toxins in their own homes. Whilst there is limited interest in laws and interventions controlling tobacco use in public places in Bangladesh, no attention has been given to
preventing tobacco-use inside homes. This study explores the familial and socio-cultural factors that provide obstacles for ensuring tobacco-free homes in Bangladesh.

Materials and methods
A mixed-method design was adopted and from among the 1,436 tobacco users identified in a population of 11,853, 400 (tobacco users) were selected for cross-sectional survey. This survey involved a probability proportional sampling procedure, and 24 In-Depth Interviews. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to explore the association of familial and socio-cultural factors with tobacco use at home adjusted by other demographic characteristics. Thematic content analysis was done on the qualitative data, and then inferences were drawn out collectively.

Results
This study revealed that the prevalence of tobacco-use in the home was 25.7% in urban residential areas in Bangladesh. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified that familial and socio-cultural factors were significantly associated with tobacco-use at home: marital status (OR 3.23, 95% CI: 1.37–6.61), education (OR 2.14, 95% CI: 1.15–3.99), smoking habits of older family members (OR 1.81 95% CI: 0.91–2.89), tobacco being offered as hospitality and for entertainment (OR 1.85, 95% CI: .94–2.95) and lack of religiosity practice (OR 2.39, 95% CI: 1.27–4.54). Qualitative findings indicated that social customs, lack of religious practice, tobacco-use of older family members, and lack of family guidance were key obstacles for enabling tobacco-free homes in urban areas.

Conclusion
Use of tobacco at home is continuing as part of established familial and socio-cultural traditions.
If tobacco-use at home is not addressed seriously by the authorities then the emerging
threat of second-hand smoke exposure and harmful consequences of tobacco- use will be
exacerbated.

If interested, you can read and download it following the URLs shared.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0220777
Or,
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Md_Haque124/research
Also find the attached file of the article.

2

Anxiety / Are Smartphones Destroying a Generation?

« on: July 25, 2019, 07:14:15 PM »

Phones are getting Smart everyday making us Stupid!!!
This is the high time to be aware of letting your kids in use of Smartphone.

Story at-a-glance

•  Kids spend an inordinate amount of time on their smartphones, communicating with friends (and possibly strangers) via text, Twitter and Facebook, and work to keep up their Snapstreaks on Snapchat
•  Abrupt changes in teen behavior and psychological health emerged around 2012. Post-millennials spend more time alone, engaged in online socialization rather than face-to-face; they drive less, date less, have less sex and have poorer social and work skills than previous generations
•  Rates of teen depression and suicide have dramatically risen since 2011, and data suggest spending three hours or more each day on electronic devices raises a teen’s suicide risk by 35 percent
•  Between 2007 and 2015, the suicide rate for 12- to 14-year-old girls rose threefold; the suicide rate among boys doubled in that same time frame
•  Data reveal the more time teens spend online, the unhappier they are. Those who spend more time than average on activities that do not involve their smartphone are far more likely to report being “happy”
As a lover of technology, it pains me to see what technological advancements are doing to our youth. In a previous article for The Atlantic,1 Jean Twenge takes a deep dive into how smartphones, with 24/7 access to internet and social media, are affecting post-millennials’ mental health.

The article, which is well worth reading in its entirety, is adapted from Twenge’s book “iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy — and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood — and What That Means for the Rest of Us.”

Children today cannot even fathom a life pre-internet — a life where school work involved visits to libraries and phone calls required you to stay in one spot, since the telephone was attached to the wall. Kids spend an inordinate amount of time on their smartphones, communicating with friends (and possibly strangers) via text, Twitter and Facebook, and work to keep up their Snapstreaks on Snapchat.

Even toddlers are proficient in navigating their way around a wireless tablet these days. Twenge discusses the online habits of Athena, a 13-year-old Texan, saying:

“She told me she’d spent most of the summer hanging out alone in her room with her phone. That’s just the way her generation is, she said. ‘We didn’t have a choice to know any life without iPads or iPhones. I think we like our phones more than we like actual people.’”

Sources: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2018/11/20/smartphones-effect-on-mental-health.aspx

3

Life Science / 13 crazy statistics about how people use smartphones

« on: February 12, 2019, 02:52:10 PM »

If it seems like almost everyone has a smartphone these days, you’re not far from the truth. More and more people are carrying around tiny computers more powerful than the lunar module that landed on the moon in their pockets, and they’re doing more with them than ever before.
As healthcare goes mobile, it’s important to know as much as possible about your target audience if you want your marketing to be effective. These stats showing how people use their smartphones could have a big impact on how you shape your marketing message for 2016.
1. Nearly two thirds of Americans own smartphones (Pew)
The crazy part of this stat isn’t that 64 percent of U.S. adults own smartphones—it’s that almost twice as many own smartphones as did just four years ago (35 percent in 2011). The industry is changing and it’s changing fast—who can say where it’ll be in another four years?
2. 46 percent of smartphone owners “couldn’t live without” their smartphone (Pew)
3. 36 percent of smartphone owners would choose their phone over their TV (Google)
With a world of knowledge just a tap away, smartphones are quite literally life changing—and nearly half of smartphone users say that they couldn’t live without all that information at their fingertips. A majority of those people would even choose their smartphones over other sources of entertainment.
4. 87 percent of millennials say their smartphone never leaves their side (Zogby)
5. 80 percent of millennials say their smartphone is the first thing they reach for when they wake up (Zogby)
6. 78 percent of millennials use their smartphones more than two hours every day (Zogby)
Millennials and their smartphones are practically joined at the hip. I am the 80 percent; l reach for my smartphone every morning to shut off the alarm and more often than not find myself scrolling through my Twitter timeline. This demographic is only going to get more mobile—if you want to reach millennials, your mobile marketing has to be top notch.
7. 51 percent of cell phone users 55 and older own smartphones (Nielsen)
It’s not just millennials, though; as of 2014, more than half of cell phone owners over 55 years old use smartphones as well. (There’s even a Jitterbug smartphone.) That means you’re not limiting your marketing to a younger audience when you adopt a mobile-friend mindset.
8. 7 percent of Americans are entirely smartphone-dependent (Pew)
10 percent of smartphone owners don’t have high speed Internet access at home, while 15 percent have limited options for Internet access. The overlap between those two groups—approximately 22 million Americans—represents another group who go online only with their smartphones. That figure grows to 15 percent among young adults, 13 percent among Latinos, and 12 percent among African Americans. Depending on the demographics of the region your hospital serves, neglecting mobile marketing could mean neglecting a significant percentage of your audience.
9. 60 percent of millennials believe everything will be done on mobile devices in five years (Zogby)
Millennials make up the largest smartphone-dependent population, and that number will only grow as younger users favor mobile devices over desktop and laptop computers. By adopting a mobile-first mindset now, your hospital can avoid playing catch-up in a few years.
10. 64 percent of smartphone owners use their phone to look up health information (Pew)
11. 94 percent of smartphone owners look for local information (Google)
People are looking online for answers to their health questions, and hospitals are uniquely equipped to provide them. You need to anticipate your community’s needs and share relevant information online where they’ll find it. That means posting to social media and optimizing for search. Optimizing for local search is vital, too—your name, address, and phone number need to be correct and consistent so prospective patients can contact your hospital or find directions to it.
12. More smartphone owners use their phone for watching videos than playing music (Pew)
13. Vertical video viewing is on the rise (KPCB)
Smartphones may be descendants of the iPod, but they do so much more than make phone calls and play music. People love watching videos on mobile—75 percent of users aged 18–29 said they watched a video on the phone compared to 64 percent who listened to music—and there’s now a growing trend of vertical video viewing. Popularized by Snapchat, portrait video ads see completion rates as many as 9 times higher than landscape ads and could be a good fit for a mobile ad campaign regardless of platform.

Source: http://wainscotmedia.com/blog/13-crazy-statistics-about-how-people-use-smartphones

4

Style of Living & Mindfulness / How to Restrain Yourself from an Outburst

« on: August 26, 2018, 10:40:10 AM »

Every body gets angry at times. But one in five Americans has an anger management problem. A person’s anger may make them melt down in front of others and yell, scream, hit out or abuse others. This type of outburst is destructive anger at its most potent. It hurts you and it hurts others, in physical, emotional and social ways. If you have trouble restraining yourself from angry outbursts, you need to retrain yourself on how to handle challenging situations. This is the best way forward to a calmer life. Following the yo will get a concrete guideline how to control anger in right moment https://www.wikihow.com/Restrain-Yourself-from-an-Outburst

5

Health education / Health education strategies

« on: August 26, 2018, 10:29:43 AM »

 Health Education

Health education is one strategy for implementing health promotion and disease prevention programs. Health education provides learning experiences on health topics. Health education strategies are tailored for their target population. Health education presents information to target populations on particular health topics, including the health benefits/threats they face, and provides tools to build capacity and support behavior change in an appropriate setting.

Examples of health education activities include:

    Lectures
    Courses
    Seminars
    Webinars
    Workshops
    Classes

Characteristics of health education strategies include:

  1.  Participation of the target population.
  2. Completion of a community needs assessment to identify community capacity, resources, priorities, and needs.
  3.  Planned learning activities that increase participants' knowledge and skills.
  4. Implementation of programs with integrated, well-planned curricula and materials that take place in a setting convenient for  participants.
  5. Presentation of information with audiovisual and computer based supports such as slides and projectors, videos, books, CDs, posters, pictures, websites, or software programs.
  6. Ensuring proficiency of program staff, through training, to maintain fidelity to the program model.

Source: https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits/health-promotion/2/strategies/health-education

6

Behavior Change Communication / 6 Cool Tools for Driving Behaviour Change and Innovation

« on: August 26, 2018, 10:21:51 AM »

When wrestling with the attitude-behaviour gap and grappling with the emotional and often-irrational nature of the human animal (aka any of your business's stakeholders), you’ll need all the help you can get. Whether you’re crafting a communications strategy to encourage positive behaviour change or facilitating a process to unleash new ideas and breakthrough innovation on a project, thankfully, digital media is facilitating the rapid sharing and diffusion of smart, practical ways to create change.

Over time, I’ve come across a range of online tools, usually free, that provide useful frameworks or helpful stimulus for shaping change and driving innovation. Here I’ll share some of the tools I’ve found most useful, and I invite you to use the comment functionality below to share your favorites with other readers.
Communication tools that also influence behaviour

I’ve found insights from the worlds of behavioural psychology and user experience (UX) design particularly useful. Here are some of the best:

Design with Intent Toolkit

Find 101 approaches to influencing behaviour through design, organised into eight lenses such as the ‘interaction lens’ or the ‘ludic lens.’ Even better, they’re completely free to download.

Wheel of Persuasion

This tool offers a wide range of scientific insights into the psychology of conversion grouped into five dimensions. While it’s focused on online UX design, the thinking can equally be applied to encouraging more sustainable behaviour; for example, the principle of ‘equivalence framing’ is presented in terms of persuading online purchases but can equally be applied to persuading people to make more sustainable purchases. 46 insights are openly available on the website, but you need an access code to view the full tool.

The Hooked Model

A four-stage approach to creating products and services that form habits. More detail of the thinking behind this trigger-action-reward-investment approach can be found in this Slideshare deck or by reading the book.

Mental Notes Cards

50 cards, each featuring an insight into human behaviour and how to translate this into better web design. The principles can easily be adapted to tackling the challenges of promoting sustainable consumption – for example an approach such as ‘chunking’ (grouping information into familiar manageable units) works as well for explaining a complex sustainability concept as for helping someone navigate a website. Out of print currently, but worth getting when available again – in the meantime, check out the bookshelf that inspired them.

Source: https://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/behavior_change/james_payne/6_cool_tools_driving_behaviour_change_innovation

7

Intervening to reduce risk to vulnerable populations / GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING HEALTH EDUCATION AND RISK REDUCTION ACTIVITIES

« on: August 26, 2018, 10:16:32 AM »

Please find the whole report of CDC,USA for the guideline to the reducing the risk of vulnerable community population
https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/prevguid/p0000389/p0000389.asp

8

Traditional Healing System / Traditional healing practices in rural Bangladesh: a qualitative investigation

« on: August 26, 2018, 07:08:19 AM »

Authors:  Md. Imdadul HaqueEmail author, A. B. M. Alauddin Chowdhury, Md. Shahjahan and Md. Golam Dostogir Harun

Published in BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Abstract

Background

Traditional healing practice is an important and integral part of healthcare systems in almost all countries of the world. Very few studies have addressed the holistic scenario of traditional healing practices in Bangladesh, although these serve around 80% of the ailing people. This study explored distinctive forms of traditional healing practices in rural Bangladesh.
Methods

During July to October 2007, the study team conducted 64 unstructured interviews, and 18 key informant interviews with traditional healers and patients from Bhabanipur and Jobra, two adjacent villages in Chittagong district, Bangladesh. The study also used participatory observations of traditional healing activities in the treatment centers.
Results

Majority of the community members, especially people of low socioeconomic status, first approached the traditional healers with their medical problems. Only after failure of such treatment did they move to qualified physicians for modern treatment. Interestingly, if this failed, they returned to the traditional healers. This study identified both religious and non-religious healing practices. The key religious healing practices reportedly included Kalami, Bhandai, and Spiritual Healing, whereas the non-religious healing practices included Sorcery, Kabiraji, and Home Medicine. Both patients and healers practiced self-medication at home with their indigenous knowledge. Kabiraji was widely practiced based on informal use of local medicinal plants in rural areas. Healers in both Kalami and Bhandari practices resorted to religious rituals, and usually used verses of holy books in healing, which required a firm belief of patients for the treatment to be effective. Sorcerers deliberately used their so-called supernatural power not only to treat a patient but also to cause harm to others upon secret request. The spiritual healing reportedly diagnosed and cured the health problems through communication with sacred spirits. Although the fee for diagnosis was small, spiritual healing required different types of treatment instruments, which made the treatment implicitly expensive.
Conclusions

Traditional healing was widely practiced as the means of primary healthcare in rural areas of Bangladesh, especially among the people with low socioeconomic status. The extent of services showed no decline with the advancement of modern medical sciences; rather it has increased with the passage of time.

The whole paper can be available at : https://bmccomplementalternmed.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12906-018-2129-5

9

Tobacco consumption and its Prevention / Stop tobacco farming first!! to prevent tobacco consumption

« on: August 25, 2018, 04:49:17 PM »

Yes, if we want to prevent tobacco consummations, burden of diseases, disability or death for tobacco consumption, first of all we have to completely ban the tobacco farming. How no individual, institution, laws, policies or government is working or talking vigorously to stop farming tobacco farming??? Governments around the world always propagated against the tobacco using, but taking huge taxes from the tobacco companies and maintain good relationship with them?

So, how we can get over the situation???

10

Physical and Mental Health promotion / Promoting mental health as an essential aspect of health promotion

« on: August 25, 2018, 04:33:57 PM »

 It is of great concern that, in practice, mental health promotion is frequently overlooked in health promotion programmes although the WHO definitions of health and the Ottawa Charter describe mental health as an integral part of health. It is suggested that more attention be given to addressing the determinants of mental health in terms of protective and risk factors for both physical and mental conditions, particularly in developing countries. Examples of evidence-based mental health programmes operating in widely diverse settings are presented to demonstrate that well designed interventions can contribute to the well-being of populations. It is advocated that particular attention be given to the intersectorial cooperation needed for this work.

Source: Please go through the whole paper following the link-https://academic.oup.com/heapro/article/21/suppl_1/36/767343

11

chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. / Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and risk of diabetes

« on: August 25, 2018, 04:28:15 PM »

A slowly progressive airway disease that causes the gradual loss of lung function. COPD is an umbrella term that includes chronic bronchitis, chronic obstructive bronchitis, emphysema, and combinations of these diseases. The symptoms of COPD include chronic cough and sputum (a mixture of saliva and mucus) production and severe shortness of breath. As the disease progresses, people increasingly lose their ability to breathe. COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. The most common risk factor for COPD by far is cigarette smoking.

A number of studies have suggested that COPD is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. A study published in Diabetes Care in 2004 followed over 100,000 female nurses enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1988 to 1996. They were periodically surveyed about whether they had been diagnosed with emphysema, chronic bronchitis, asthma, or diabetes. Those with COPD were nearly twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as those without COPD. (Women with asthma, however, were no more likely to develop diabetes than those who didn’t have asthma). Although the study was carried out in women, the researchers saw no reason not to believe the same association would apply to men.
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The researchers suggested that inflammation and oxidative stress may explain this association: Increasingly, inflammation is thought to play a major role in causing Type 2 diabetes, and some of the same inflammatory markers that are increased in diabetes are increased in COPD. Both conditions have also been linked to a phenomenon called oxidative stress, in which highly energized compounds called reactive oxygen species, which react strongly with other molecules, damage tissue. In the case of COPD, oxidative stress injures the airway and promotes inflammation in the lungs, and oxidative stress has been implicated as an underlying cause of the insulin resistance seen in Type 2 diabetes.

COPD cannot be cured, so prevention is key. The most important step for preventing COPD—or stopping or slowing its progression—is avoiding smoking.

Source: https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/diabetes-resources/definitions/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-copd/

12

Ebola Virus / How Do You Get Ebola?

« on: August 25, 2018, 04:12:18 PM »

Ebola isn’t as contagious as more common viruses like colds, influenza, or measles. It spreads to people by contact with the skin or bodily fluids of an infected animal, like a monkey, chimp, or fruit bat. Then it moves from person to person the same way. Those who care for a sick person or bury someone who has died from the disease often get it.Other ways to get Ebola include touching contaminated needles or surfaces.

You can’t get Ebola from air, water, or food. A person who has Ebola but has no symptoms can’t spread the disease, either.

What Are the Symptoms of Ebola?


Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes fever, body aches, and diarrhea, and sometimes bleeding inside and outside the body.

As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding.

The disease was known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever but is now referred to as Ebola virus. It kills up to 90% of people who are infected.Ebola is a deadly disease caused by a virus. There are five strains, and four of them can make people sick. After entering the body, it kills cells, making some of them explode. It wrecks the immune system, causes heavy bleeding inside the body, and damages almost every organ.

The virus is scary, but it’s also rare. You can get it only from direct contact with an infected person’s body fluids.

What Are the Symptoms of Ebola?

Early on, Ebola can feel like the flu or other illnesses. Symptoms show up 2 to 21 days after infection and usually include:

    High fever
    Headache
    Joint and muscle aches
    Sore throat
    Weakness
    Stomach pain
    Lack of appetite

As the disease gets worse, it causes bleeding inside the body, as well as from the eyes, ears, and nose. Some people will vomit or cough up blood, have bloody diarrhea, and get a rash.

How Is Ebola Diagnosed?

Sometimes it's hard to tell if a person has Ebola from the symptoms alone. Doctors may test to rule out other diseases like cholera or malaria.

Tests of blood and tissues also can diagnose Ebola.

If you have Ebola, you’ll be isolated from the public immediately to prevent the spread.
How Is Ebola Treated?

There’s no cure for Ebola, though researchers are working on it. Treatment includes an experimental serum that destroys infected cells.

Doctors manage the symptoms of Ebola with:

    Fluids and electrolytes
    Oxygen
    Blood pressure medication
    Blood transfusions
    Treatment for other infections

Source: https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ebola-fever-virus-infection

13

Avian influenza / Avian infl uenza goes global, but don’t blame the birds

« on: August 25, 2018, 04:07:58 PM »

Since   early   2006,   highly   pathogenic   avian   influenza H5N1 has been clocking up air miles at an alarming rate. It  has  spread  quickly  to  Europe,  the  middle  east,  India,  and Africa following no apparent pattern, and underlining how  little  scientists  know  about  the  virus  ecology  and  where  it  will  strike  next.  There  is  now  growing  concern  that  the  whirlwind  spread  of  avian  flu  in  some  parts  of  the world is not entirely governed by nature, but by the human activities of commerce and trade. Since mid-2005, the Food and Agriculture Organisation  (FAO) and WHO have given wide prominence to the theory that  migratory  birds  are  carrying  the  H5N1  virus  and  infecting   poultry   flocks   in   areas   that   lie   along   their migratory  route.  Indeed,  this  is  probably  how  the  virus  reached  Europe.  Unusually  cold  weather  in  the  wetlands  near  the  Black  Sea,  where  the  disease  is  now  entrenched,  drove  migrating  birds,  notably  swans,  much  further  west  than usual. But despite extensive testing of wild birds for the disease, scientists have only rarely identified  live  birds  carrying  bird  flu  in  a  highly  pathogenic  form,  suggesting 
these    birds    are    not    efficient    vectors    of    the    virus. 

Furthermore,  the  geographic  spread  of  the  disease  does  not  correlate  with  migratory  routes  and  seasons.  The  pattern  of  outbreaks  follows  major  road  and  rail  routes,  not flyways.  Far more likely to be perpetuating the spread of the virus is the movement of poultry, poultry products, or infected material from poultry farms—eg, animal feed and manure. But  this  mode  of  transmission  has  been  down-played  by  international agencies, who admit that migratory birds are an easy target since nobody is to blame. However, GRAIN, an   international,   non-governmental   organisation   that   promotes   the   sustainable   management   and   use   of   agricultural biodiversity, recently launched a critical report titled Fowl  play:  the  poultry  industry’s  central  role  in  the  bird  flu  crisis.GRAIN points a finger  at  the  transnational  poultry  industry  as  fuelling  the  epidemic.  Over  the  years,  large 
concentrations    of    (presumably    stressed)    birds    have    facilitated an increased affinity of the virus to chickens and
other domestic poultry, with an increase in pathogenicity. Since the 1980s, the intensification of chicken production in  eastern  Asia  has  gained  momentum,  changing  the  whole dynamic of avian influenza  viruses  in  the  southern China epicentre, which has had far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world.

Source: https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S1473-3099%2806%2970417-0

14

chikungunya / Rural people in Bangladesh also at risk of chikungunya

« on: August 25, 2018, 05:45:09 AM »

Although chikungunya outbreak is limited in Dhaka city this year, people in rural areas are at risk of the disease as studies showed presence of aedes mosquitoes.

Senior Scientific Officer of Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Dr SM Alamgir told the news agency, "Two species of mosquito -- aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus -- cause chikungunya diseases. Presence of aedes albopictus mosquito in rural areas is very high compared to urban areas.

The virus is transmitted from human to human by the bites of aedes mosquitoes, he said, adding, "Suspected chikungunya patients should visit nearby health complexes and hospitals to prevent outbreak of the disease."

Dr Alamgir said, "People living in rural areas and Dhaka city should be aware of chikungunya disease... First case of chikungunya disease in the country was reported in Poba upazila of Rajshahi in 2008."

"We also found some chikungunya cases in rural areas after its first outbreak in Bangladesh. So, rural areas are also venerable for the disease," he added.

He said though IEDCR is getting three to five samples for chikungunya case every day against 25 to 30 cases, it does not indicate that outbreak of the disease is decreasing as a huge number of people left Dhaka during Eid-ul-Fitr.

"We are apparently thinking that outbreak of the disease has decreased a little bit but we have to wait for next few days to confirm the real scenario of the disease," he said.

"Alongside eliminating the breeding sources of mosquito, people should be educated on the diseases as there is no special treatment of the diseases."

Director of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora said, "We got 1,930 chikungunya suspected cases till June 21 this year."

She suggested destroying all potential mosquito breeding sources as the outbreak of chikungunya disease in the capital has increased sharply this year.

Dr Flora said a massive awareness campaign is needed to destroy the breeding sources of mosquito for stopping outbreak of chikungunya disease.

Health experts said chikungunya affected people should drink much water and take full rest. There is no need of any laboratory test as the diseases could be recognized easily by observing some common symptoms.

At a press conference held recently, Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Abul Kalam Azad said, "Chikungunya is not serious like other mosquito-borne diseases. After a particular time, patients get recovery without receiving any special medical treatment."

Chikungunya infected patients should not be admitted to hospitals and even they do not need to go to hospitals for any test to diagnose the disease, he added.

Chikungunya is a viral disease which is transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. Health experts said symptoms of the disease appear between four and seven days after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito.

Chikungunya is characterized by an abrupt onset of high fever frequently accompanied by joint pain. Other common signs and symptoms of the disease include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash, they said, adding, the joint pain is often very debilitating, but usually lasts for a few days or may be prolonged to weeks.
Stay updated on the go with The Daily Star Android & iOS News App. Click here to download it for your device.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/city/rural-people-also-risk-chikungunya-1427443

15

cancer / Breast cancer death rate high in Bangladesh: Says WHO study

« on: August 25, 2018, 05:38:18 AM »

Sixteen percent of the total cancer affected women in the country are victim to breast cancer, says a World Health Organisation (WHO) study.
WHO also ranked Bangladesh 2nd in terms of mortality rate of women in the country from breast cancer.
Dr Lutfar Rahman, project director of Dhaka Ahsania Mission, referred to the study while speaking at the inaugural session of the month-long International Breast Cancer Awareness Programme organised by Ahsania's cancer hospital in the city yesterday.
Cancer specialist Prof Mahbubul Alam said around three-fourth of women aged over 50 in the country are affected with breast cancer.
Unmarried women are at high risk of breast cancer, but it can be cured completely if detected at early stage, said National Prof Dr MR Khan.
Surgical oncologist Prof Haron-or-Rashid suggested women to marry after 20 and adopt first baby before 30 to avoid breast cancer.
Ahsania Mission Cancer Detection Centre and Hospital Director Brig Gen (retd) Syed Fazle Rahim presided over the function.
Jurist barrister Rafiq-ul-Haque, lawmaker MA Jabbar, artiste Parveen Mushtari, and the hospital adviser Mohammad Ali, among others, were present there.
As a part of the awareness programme, the hospital has set to provide free counselling on breast cancer from 9:00am to 2:00pm during the whole October beginning yesterday at the hospital.
People can also contact at 01718594682 and 01712103689 for any information relating to breast cancer.

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-156930