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HEALTH INTERACTIVE WITH DR. AMINU MAGASHI Nigerian Youth and Staphylococcus Aureus My reader
may find this topic rather boring and not too interesting at all to
warrant a discourse but however when ever I check my record on health
questions being asked weekly, I always stumbled on issues related to
Staphylococcus Aurous (S A). There is a lot of misinformation in our
streets all over the nation on this matter. Some section of our
brothers, traditional doctors and herbalists and drug traders and
vendors are doing a lot of disservice to humanity by always linking and
attributing any problem related to reproductive organs to Staphylococcus
Aurous as being the major culprit. When someone
check some romantic weekly and/or monthly magazines, one is bound to
come across a lot of adverts on cure for S. A, these days in radio and
television programmes, these people are becoming more bold to attribute
all evils to that organism. The irony of it all is that, they fail to
differentiate whether the problem is a disease or a microorganism
causing a disease. The more I answer questions on S.A, the more
questions on same pour in and mostly emanating from Nigerian youth who
are always adventurous which lead to contracting Sexually Transmitted
Diseases (S T D s). They will tell you that from what have been
repeatedly advertised, mentioned and propagated; the disease has no
orthodox cure only traditional concoction. I must
confess that , these people canvassing and propagating this rumour are
getting away with it and have succeeded in casting doubt on the mind of
our youth not to treat S T Ds in a conventional way but rather through
them only. And when ever they contracted S T Ds and after trying many
medication but no remedy, then certainly it is S .A. I am sure if the
organism will have the means, it would have sue for libel against those
people long ago or if there is an NGO on the rights of micro organism,
that NGO would have engage those people in either enlightenment or legal
tussle and chicanery. If a woman
suffers infertility, blocked tubes, pelvic inflammatory diseases (P.I.D),
painful intercourse (dispareunia) and at times spontaneous abortion,
then of course, it is S A. On the part of a man, if he suffers
intractable S. T. D, low sperm count, painful micturition and above all
sterility, the culprit must be S A. On and off, I always try to respond
to reader’s questions that S A is a micro organism (bacteria) not a
disease but how ever, it causes diverse range of problems in the body.
It is a normal flora (harmlessly found) of the skin particularly of the
perineum (area between the genitals and private parts) and also found on
the skin and mucous membrane of the nose. The bone of contention is
whether it is being contracted through sexual intercourse, the answer is
still NO, but it can fall under genital infections or urinary tract
infection, so how does it reach there? Genital infections can be
contracted during pregnancy as a result of manual vaginal examination,
use of un-sterilised instruments like speculum or unclean pad as well as
unsafe abortion. These
processes can transmit microorganisms from outside to inside. The
organisms can ascend up wards to the uterus and fallopian tubes and
cause inflammatory process, blocked tubes and pelvic pain, which may
lead to P.I.D and infertility. In this circumstances, S. A can be one of
the organism to be transmitted as I mentioned earlier, it is a normal
flora on the perennial skin. But how
ever, there are many organisms that can equally be implicated through
this process, such as Streptococcus and Clamydia to mention but few. On
the part of men, the organism can be contracted through introducing
foreign objects in to the urethra; such items like urinary catheter and
that can lead to Urinary Tact Infection (UTI). Also S. A can be
contacted through contaminated food (food poisoning with S .A toxins),
through burns, nose if there is breakage of lining. Once the organism
enters the blood system, it causes septicemia (invasion of blood
circulation with septic agents) and it can spread to any system
including genital organs, urinary system and other systems like, Lungs
(Pneumonia), Bone (Osteomylitis) Joints (Septic Arthritis), Meninges
(Meningitis), Ear (Otitis Media) Heart (Infective Endocarditis). Also
can cause Breast Abscess, Burn Wounds And Conjunctivitis) Please let us
not be deceive that the organism is being transmitted through sexual
intercourse On the part of as to why in most cases as being insinuated
by those people that S. A problems do not have orthodox cure, that is
because of over abuse of antibiotics the way and manner we take kola and
smoke cigarettes with out prescription. Also there are a lot of fake,
expired and adulterated drugs in the market that we routinely use
innocently, hence the organism developing resistant against many common
antibiotics. On the part
of the traditional doctors and herbalists, my discourse is not in any
way de- campaigning their services or to ensure reduction in
patronage by the populace, but still not with standing, we have to be
sure of information and facts about diseases and treatment and the way
they present and manifest, we must imbibe and inculcate ethics and
decorum in our work and we should try as much as we can not to mislead
no matter the temptation to get more client. Finally, I
call on NGOs related to health to from time to time be organizing
sensitization and awareness creation to our brothers on various
diseases, hygiene and safety of drugs and let there be a governmental
agency that will be tasked periodically to be regulating, licensing and
monitoring the activities of drug vendors and traditional doctors just
as we have Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria with respect to
orthodox doctors, that way we shall separate the bad from good eggs
among them. |