A new brand of low dose contraceptive pill that would reduce the incidence of women and children dying from pregnancy related complications and childbirth have been launched in Nigeria.
Branded as Locon-F, this low dose pill is expected to help Nigeria achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reduced child mortality and improved maternal health.
The pill was launched by the Deputy Mission Director, United States Agency for International Development in Nigeria (USAID/Nigeria), Ms. Mikaela Meredith and the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, at the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. The United States Mission to Nigeria, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in a statement said it played a key role in supporting the development and distribution of the contraceptive pill.
The U.S. Mission to Nigeria, through USAID, supports the Society for Family Health (SFH), a Nigerian-managed non-governmental organisation implementing this maternal and child health project. According to USAID, it would Leverage on SFH’s strong social marketing efforts, to position Locon-F as a mid-priced and self-sustaining product.
"The introduction of Locon-F into SFH’s contraceptive products portfolio is yet another milestone in its efforts to expand options associated with child spacing methods," the statement said.
Nigeria records approximately 52,000 maternal deaths annually, the second highest maternal death rate in the world. This figure represents one-tenth of the world’s total annual maternal deaths and is based on an estimated Nigerian mortality rate of 800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
Despite the high level of contraceptive awareness in Nigeria the national contraceptive prevalence rate remains as low as 10 percent. Meanwhile, experts have said that contraceptive use reduces maternal mortality and improves women’s health by preventing unintended and high-risk pregnancies and reducing the need for unsafe abortions.
The U.S. Mission in Nigeria says it is dedicated to partnering with the government at all levels, civil society organisations, and the business community to strengthen the health sector and invest in its people.
"Investing in people is one of the central pillars of our framework for partnership with Nigeria," the statement added.
Studies Show Immune System Can Be Re-pro
Studies by two teams of scientist have shown that the immune system may be far more flexible than we thought.
The study, which was reported in the Magazine issue, 2693, of the New Scientist, shows that cells that coordinate the activities of the immune system appear to change their identity in response to environmental cues. This discovery, the report says might one day make it possible to reprogram the immune system to prevent autoimmune diseases and stop the body rejecting a transplant.
For years immune cells called T-helper (Th) cells were assumed to come in just two types – Th1 cells, which help evict viruses and bacteria from their host cells, and Th2 cells, primed to fight parasites and bacteria in blood and other body fluids as well as taking on allergens.
Then things got complicated with the discovery of two new classes of Th cells: regulatory T-cells (T-regs), which dampen the immune system, and Th17 cells, involved in triggering inflammation and autoimmunity.
But when John O’Shea, Bill Paul and Keji Zhao of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues studied all four types of T-helper cells from mice, they found hints that these cells could switch roles or phenotypes in response to environmental cues. To test this, they exposed mouse T-regs to signalling molecules associated with a Th1 response and found that the T-regs did indeed behave like Th1 cells.
"They turned out to be more flexible than was envisioned," says O’Shea.
In another study, Casey Weaver and colleagues at the University of Alabama in Birmingham showed that TH17 cells can also morph into Th1-like cells if they are deprived of a signalling molecule called TGF-beta. Preliminary evidence from a study in mice suggests that T-regs might turn into Th17-like cells under certain conditions, which would actually exacerbate the illness by ramping up the autoimmune response. "It is at least reason for pause and consideration," says O’Shea.
The new discoveries make it imperative for doctors to keep a close eye on patients undergoing such immunotherapy, in case the immune cells swap identities and cause the immune system to work in unexpected, even harmful ways.