Daily Heritage July 24

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Quake Edition 114.qxp_Layout 1 7/21/17 9:05 PM Page 5 06 DAILY View HERITAGE MONDAY, JULY <strong>24</strong>, 2017 WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH Herbal drug to cure memory loss? Has it been tested? BY NANA BRAM OKAE II FOOD AND Drugs Authority (FDA), why are you sitting aloof on this issue and other related ones? Why is the Standards Authority also not saying anything about the proliferation of aphrodisiac herbal drugs and drinks now on the market? Why is the Centre for Scientific Research into Plant medicine at Mampong-Akwapim not complaining about people using their name to sell herbal drugs? What is going on currently in the herbal drugs sector is scary and we need to do something about that before a catastrophe engulfs us all. You may have noticed a sharp rise in the adverts of herbal drugs lately on both radio and television and this is extremely worrying especially those on aphrodisiacs. Claim There is one claim or the other of herbal medicines that are supposed to be efficacious without the manufacturers telling us how they came by their findings that their drugs are indeed, efficacious, and this must give us cause for concern. But what should give us great cause for concern is the advert about a herbal product that is touted to work on the brain of school children who are academically dull at school. The same drug is supposed to be useful for stroke patients who have memory loss problems. Advert The advert goes like this: A child brings a terminal report home, the contents of which are not flattering at all. As a result, there is a blame game between the father and the mother. The mother blames the father’s family for the dull genes the boy has inherited from them. The father will not accept this and puts the blame for the boy’s poor performance at school on the wife’s family. Then comes in the third character, an advisor of a sort, who tells them not to worry because there is a herbal drug now on the market which can help the boy mentally to do better at school. Brain However, the brain is not something that we can toy with at all. It is a very important organ of the body which controls our thoughts, feelings and physical activities for which reason if a herbal product has been invented by someone to work on it we must make sure that clinical tests have been done over a period of time to know the efficacy of the drug before bringing it onto the general market for patients. If this is not done we may have problems on our hands one day. Every drug, We need to ask the manufacturer of this memory loss drug a few questions though. What is the date of the ‘invention’ of his drug? What are the contents of the drug? In other words, the public wants to know the ingredients that go into making the drug. including herbal drugs, must be tested first over a period of time; this should be the normal practice everywhere. Questions We need to ask the manufacturer of this memory loss drug a few questions though. What is the date of the ‘invention’ of his drug? What are the contents of the drug? In other words, the public wants to know the ingredients that go into making the drug. The public also wants to know how he came by the conclusion that indeed, his product does what he says it does on the brain. Has he done any clinical tests and what is the sample size of his patients? Did he involve both men and women and what was the duration of the clinical tests? Were there any collaborators or supervisors or it was a solo effort? In particular, he mentions children as the target of his product. Did he try the product on children in different parts of the country or he just assumes that it’s a product for all children in Ghana, wherever they are found? Authorities And finally, has he submitted his product to any of the mandated authorities that give approval or certify that invented products both from Ghana and abroad have met all required specifications? I’m afraid if these questions are not answered in the positive, then this particular herbal practitioner has no business advertizing his product. He should be made to go through the right procedures before bringing his drug onto the open market. Media owners Media owners should also demand to know from herbal practitioners if their products have been given the clearance by the mandated authorities before they air their adverts. They shouldn’t, for the sake of money, just put any product on air which may turn out to be injurious to health. There have been claims by several herbal practitioners that they have come up with drugs that can make impotent men now ‘survive’ in bed with their wives and these are on air, free. Others also say they have permanent cure for diabetes and high blood pressure although these are doubtful. Still, others claim they have herbal products to improve the libido of women whose interest in sex has now dwindled completely. However, none of these herbal practitioners have had the courage to tell the world whether their herbal drugs have gone through clinical tests or not. FDA The FDA or any other mandated body must not allow things to hang this way without doing the work for which they were established. Ghanaians are very gullible people believing without questioning anything they hear on radio and television. Many, therefore, will believe what they hear about ‘kookoo this’ or ‘kookoo that’ that are said to be useful for men who have erectile problems but which may prove to be their waterloo in the final analysis. Proclamation There was a proclamation or something of that nature, sometime ago, if you will remember, by the FDA that any radio or television station that airs an advert of a herbal drug not authorized by the FDA commits an offence and is liable to a fine or imprisonment or both. But from the look of things, that proclamation has gone to bed and officials also in charge of the enforcement of that proclamation have gone to bed as well. But let me stress that when it comes to issues of drug safety in Ghana we look up to the FDA and other related bodies for direction. We expect therefore that they will do what is expected of them. The herbal drug that is touted to be good on the brain of dull children must be analyzed to know exactly what it can do. We cannot afford to toy with the brains of children and adults who suffer from memory loss. There have been claims by several herbal practitioners that they have come up with drugs that can make impotent men now ‘survive’ in bed with their wives and these are on air, free. Others also say they have permanent cure for diabetes and high blood pressure although these are doubtful. Still, others claim they have herbal products to improve the libido of women whose interest in sex has now dwindled completely.
Quake Edition 114.qxp_Layout 1 7/21/17 9:05 PM Page 6 Tips on dementia DEMENTIA IS a broad category of brain diseases that cause a long term and often gradual decrease in the ability to think and remember that is great enough to affect a person's daily functioning. Other common symptoms include emotional problems, problems with language, and a decrease in motivation • Dementia is mainly a disease of old age. • About 47m people around the world are living with dementia. • It is expected to rise to 115m by 2050. • One in three dementia cases can be prevented • People with dementia may have problems with short-term memory, keeping track of a purse or wallet, paying bills, planning and preparing meals, remembering appointments or traveling out of the neighborhood. WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH DAILY HERITAGE MONDAY, JULY <strong>24</strong>, 2017 &Env. Cow antibodies for AIDS cure soon IN A significant find, a team of researchers has reported for the first time elicitation of powerful, HIV-blocking antibodies in cows in a matter of weeks -- a process that usually takes years in humans -- paving the way for developing a broadly effective AIDS vaccine in the near future. According to the study, published in the prestigious journal Nature, the unexpected discovery in cows is providing clues for important questions at a moment when new energy has infused HIV vaccine research. "One approach to a preventive HIV vaccine involves trying to elicit broadly neutralising antibodies in healthy people, but so far the experiments have been unsuccessful, in both human and animal studies," said lead author Devin Sok, Director, Antibody Discovery and Development at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI). "This experiment demonstrates that not only is it possible to produce these antibodies in animals, but we can do so reliably, quickly, and using a relatively simple immunisation strategy when given in the right setting," Sok added. Scientists have known that some people living with chronic HIV infection produce broadly neutralising antibodies (bnAbs), which can overcome the high levels of diversity of HIV. One type of bnAb uses long, arm-like loops that are capable of reaching concealed areas on the virus's surface to block infection. The scientists had a question: what would happen if they immunise cows with an HIV immunogen? "The answer began with a single protein on HIV's surface that serves as a bnAb target -- develop an antibody that recognises variants of this protein on different HIV viruses and you'll likely be protected from all of them," the study said. One of the many tricks that HIV uses to prevent humans from developing the right antibodies is to display irrelevant forms of this protein to distract the immune system. Scientists thought they had overcome this challenge by developing an immunogen called "BG505 SOSIP", which closely mimics the protein target. In the new study, four cows immunised with "BG505 SOSIP" elicited "bnAbs" to HIV within 35- 52 days. In comparison, it takes HIVpositive humans multiple years to develop comparable responses, and only 5-15% even develops them at all. "Cows cannot be infected with HIV, of course. But these findings illuminate a new goal for HIV vaccine researchers: by increasing the number of human antibodies with long loops, we might have an easier chance of eliciting protective bnAbs by vaccination," the researchers noted. There is no doubt that cows' ability to produce bNAbs against a complicated pathogen like HIV in a matter of weeks, highlights even broader significance, particularly for emerging pathogens. Sok is an affiliate of IAVI's Neutralising Antibody Center a part of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) where multiple groups of scientists work collectively on an antibody-based HIV vaccine. Sources: IANS Red Cross Society trains 2,000 teachers in First Aid A THREE-DAY First Aid training workshop for basic school teachers in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis has been held in Sekondi. The training is to equip them as active volunteers of the Ghana Red Cross Society to acquire knowledge in relief services and attend to emergency health situations in their schools and the communities. It was organised by the GRCS, in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and attended by 72 teachers. The Western Regional Manager of the GRCS, Mr Matthew Boateng told the media on the sidelines of the training that 2,000 teachers from 14 districts in the region had so far benefited from the training programme. Mr Boateng said as part of the training, the GRCS had supplied the teachers with First Aid Manuals to boost their capacity on how to deal with emergency health issues. He said every school and day care centre must have access to First Aid Kits to attend to school children in case of any casualties. Mr Boateng said most of the trained teachers had formed Disaster Management Teams through the Red Cross Society to prevent and mitigate disasters in their schools and communities. He said it was incumbent on first aiders "to adopt a life-saving technique to monitor the Airway, Breathing and Circulation (ABC) of an injured or sick person before a professional medical assistance.” He reminded the teachers that; "A good first aider to attend to ill people, disaster and accident victims, must be observant, resourceful, gentle, tactful, sympathetic, cheerful and courageous in a bid to bring relief to the situation". He said it was incumbent on first aiders "to adopt a lifesaving technique to monitor the Airway, Breathing and Circulation (ABC) of an injured or sick person before a professional medical assistance.” Mr Philip Bruce Arhin, the Regional First Aid Instructor, who took the teachers through First Aid steps, reminded them that as first aiders, they ought to make it their prime motive to “preserve lives, prevent a condition from getting worse, and promote recovery and human dignity". He appealed to the volunteers not to "frighten victims in emergency situations but encourage them that their condition will be better”. The trainees were taken through some basic steps such as cardio pulmonary resuscitation, external bleeding, wounds and cuts, bleeding with embedded object, shock, choking, drowning, burns, scalds and poisoning. GNA
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Daily Heritage July 24

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