Ponmo Consumption Is Dangerous – Dr warns

This is not the first time we are reporting that the consumption of Ponmo(cow skin) may be dangeous to your health. In a new report, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Leather Science & Technology (NILEST), Zaria, Dr Isuwa Adamu, has said that consumption of animal hides and skin, popularly known as Ponmo is dangerous to human health. Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, today in Abuja, Adamu said scientific research has shown that ponmo doesn't have any nutritional value to human health and that some of the animals where ponmo is gotten from are usually sick & harbor dangerous chemicals.

"In fact, it is not advisable for you to consume ponmo in the sense that some of the animals killed and used for ponmo actually have skin diseases. Some of these skin diseases are such that boiling them ordinarily, may not kill the bacteria. Some of the animals because of the ailments that they have gone through, are sometimes treated by way of injection with chemicals.
People don’t allow these chemicals to complete its cycle and be removed from the body; they sometimes go ahead to kill these animals. So, if you consume the ponmo, the tendency is that you are consuming the chemicals directly because the skin part of the animal retains most of the harmful substances. Remember your skin is the major protective organ of your body and your skin harbours so many of the harmful things that are supposed to penetrate into your body,”

he explained.

He advised the Federal government to put in place policies that would reduce the consumption of Ponmo in Nigeria

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Extraordinay: Woman Delivered Of A Baby Boy After Performing Caesarean Section On Herself

A 40-year-old woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy after performing a Caesarean on herself using a kitchen knife, the International Journal of Gynaecology and Obstetrics reported.

 

The woman’s operation was believed to be the first known case of a self-inflicted Caesarean in which both the mother and baby survived.The unidentified woman who lived in a rural area of Mexico without electricity or running water stays eight hours from the nearest hospital.

The woman performed the operation when she could not deliver the baby on her own, having lost a previous baby due to labour complications.

Dr R Valle, of the Dr Manuel Velasco Suarez Hospital in San Pablo, Mexico, said: “She took three small glasses of hard liquor and, using a kitchen knife, sliced her abdomen in three attempts and delivered a male infant that breathed immediately and cried.”

Before she lost consciousness, the woman told one of her children to call a local nurse for help.

The local nurse stitched the wound with a sewing needle and cotton thread, before transferring the mother and baby to be treated by Dr. Valle and his colleagues at the nearest hospital.

“This case represents an unusual and extraordinary decision by a woman in labour who, unable to deliver herself spontaneously, and with no medical help or resources, decided to perform a caesarean section upon herself,” he said.

He added that a mother’s instinct to save her child can move a woman to perform extraordinary acts but said it would not have been necessary if adequate medical care had been available.

According to Professor James Walker, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, he had heard of cases in the past where farmers had performed Caesareans on their wives after having previously carried out the operation on animals.

But he said it would not happen now. “In this country, there is virtually never a situation when an individual is totally isolated from medical care even in the most outlying areas.”

Dr. Valle believes the event would convince authorities of the importance of accessible healthcare.

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10,000 doctors strike for better pay in India

At Zenana hospital in the western Indian city of Jaipur, Nasroon Bano died after giving birth. Her family blamed it on the absence of doctors.

Zenana like Rajasthan's other public hospitals was in crisis Saturday as 10,000 doctors remained on strike for a fourth day.

The doctors, who work at government-run hospitals that cater to the poor, are demanding higher salaries and better promotion opportunities that are on par with their counterparts in federal medical services.

But so far, the state government has not budged.

Instead, it made interim arrangements by bringing in 373 military doctors Saturday, said Dr. Lokendra Sharma of SMS Medical College in Jaipur. Another 1,000 doctors will be brought in Monday, he said.

The government has also tapped doctors from railway services, brought others out of retirement and has asked some private hospitals to provide care at government rates.

Attempts to reach state health officials were not immediately successful Saturday.

As of Saturday evening, police had arrested 394 striking doctors, most of them for violating the Essential Services Management Act, said Navdeep Singh, Rajasthan's director general for law and order. The act was created to ensure the delivery of critical services.

Among those arrested was Durga Shankar Saini, head of the All Medical Doctors Society who posted a photograph of himself protesting in front of SMS Hospital dressed like Mahatma Gandhi in a white shawl and dhoti, a traditional Indian dress worn by men.

"Everyone is distraught," said Sanjeev Jain, Saini's personal secretary. "It's a very difficult situation."

Sharma said the strike has crippled Rajasthan's health services and described conditions in the public hospitals as dire.

Patients needing emergency services found themselves waiting. Sharma said 26 patients had died since the strike began, though it was not clear whether they might have died anyway even after receiving treatment.

Lakhan Singh waited with his 55-year-old mother for doctors to see treat her for kidney problems at SMS Hospital. He had traveled from Bharatpur, about 100 miles away, because there were no doctors at the government hospital there, he told CNN's sister network CNN-IBN.

Desperate, Singh took his mother to a private hospitals, where he spent all the $530 he had in his pocket. His money gone, he had no options left but to wait at SMS, CNN-IBN reported. And hope for a doctor.

"Patients, they are dying," said Dr. Ganpat Chandra Gupta, an anesthesiologist.

He said the government needs to negotiate with the state's government doctors.

"They are working in poor conditions," he said. "The government is deaf and dumb and blind."

Some questioned whether doctors ought to go on strike, risking death and injury for the sick.

But doctors in other Indian states sent letters of support for the peers in Rajasthan condemning the "insensitive and callous attitude" of the state government.

"The profession of doctors is very noble but when their voice is not heard they are forced to go on the path of agitation," said a letter signed by the heads of thee medical associations in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

Source:CNN

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