The World Health Organization announced that it had confirmed the transmission of monkeypox through “sexual contact” in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for the first time, as this country faces the largest outbreak of the disease ever.
In a statement issued late on Thursday, the UN health agency said that “a Belgian resident traveled to Congo in March and tested positive for monkeypox shortly thereafter.”
The organization said that the person "identified himself as a man who has sexual relations with other men, and that he went several times to secret clubs for gay and bisexual men." Explaining that "tests showed that five of those who had sexual contact with him were infected."
“This is the first conclusive evidence of sexual transmission of monkeypox in Africa,” said Oyewale Tomori, a Nigerian virologist and member of several WHO advisory groups.
"The idea is that this kind of transmission that could not have happened here has now been debunked," he added.
The World Health Organization described the recent outbreak of monkeypox as “exceptional” and said that it “highlights the danger that the disease may spread widely between sexual networks.”
She explained that monkeypox this year in the Congo infected more than 12,500 people and caused the death of 580. She stressed that these numbers are equivalent to almost double the number of smallpox cases in 2020, which makes it the largest spread of the disease in the Congo ever.
A huge study reveals how you can gain 10 extra years in your life!
A new study analyzing eating data and health outcomes for nearly half a million UK residents has found that following a healthy diet and sticking to it could add up to 10 years to your life.
The team, led by Lars Vadnes, a public health researcher at the University of Bergen in Norway, modeled the life expectancy of 467,354 people and documented their dietary habits as part of the long-term UK Biobank study, which began in 2006.
The researchers grouped the participants based on their eating patterns, and observed how they changed over time.
They identified people who ate regular, unhealthy food, as well as those who ate a diet the researchers called the “longevity diet.”
They found that men and women aged 40 and over who made a sustainable change from eating unhealthy food to following healthy diet recommendations gained nearly 9 years in life expectancy.
Those who ditched sugary drinks and processed meats in favor of a diet rich in whole grains, nuts, fruits and vegetables and moderate amounts of fish were able to gain an additional 10 years to their life expectancy.
“The healthier the changes in dietary patterns, the greater the expected gains in life expectancy,” the team explains in their published paper.
The researchers found that people aged 70 can still extend their life expectancy by about 4 to 5 years if they make a sustainable change in healthy eating.
The researchers admit that while their analysis looked at sustainable dietary changes, “maintaining lifestyle changes over time with dietary improvements can be difficult, and for many, dietary patterns fluctuate over time.”
The study was published in the journal Nature Food.
What are the signs of drug abuse in children?
Dr. Anton Denisenkov, a psychologist and drug specialist, revealed the signs that indicate that a child has begun to abuse drugs.
He said in an interview with the newspaper "Izvestia": "It is not always possible at first glance to determine whether a child has begun to abuse drugs. However, there are indirect signs that can help parents identify the problem in time and help him."
According to him, first of all, attention should be paid to changes in the child's behavior: constant mood swings - from euphoria to apathy, nervousness, aggressiveness, restlessness for no reason, absent-mindedness, difficulties in concentration and attention, deterioration of his performance at school, absenteeism from school, loss of Interests, lies and resourcefulness, constant requests for money, moving out of the house.
He says: "We must be careful if we notice that the child uses uncharacteristic colloquial language in his speech regarding this topic, and the appearance of new friends around him raises suspicions."
According to the doctor, signs such as sudden weight loss, insomnia, circadian rhythm disturbance, high blood pressure, yellowing of plaque on the teeth, abnormal breathing, gastrointestinal disorders (constipation and diarrhea), nasal congestion, and colds that do not go away with conventional medications can indicate drug abuse.
He points out that if there is suspicion that a child is using drugs, it is best to conduct tests in a specialized laboratory to confirm the presence of narcotic substances in the body.
He says: "If the fears are confirmed, you must talk to the child calmly and reveal the harmful effects of drugs, without using force or intimidation in order to gain his trust. The child must also not be left without follow-up and attention. If these attempts do not work, then a specialist must be sought."
A fly inside a man's intestines baffles doctors!
Doctors in Missouri discovered the presence of a fly in the intestinal wall of a 63-year-old patient who went to the hospital for a routine colon examination.
At first, the colonoscopy seemed to go as planned, until doctors reached the colon into the large intestine and found a completely healthy fly.
Matthew Bechtold, head of the department of gastroenterology at the University of Missouri, told The Independent that he and other doctors prodded the fly and confirmed it was dead.
The patient reported that he had no idea how the insect entered his body.
He told doctors that he only drank clear liquids before the operation, and two days earlier, he ate pizza and lettuce, but he did not remember a fly on any of the food he ate. He did not show any symptoms indicating that he had taken it.
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A mysterious disease that affects dogs and is spreading throughout the United States!
The findings, published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, represent "a very rare colonoscopy finding and a mystery about how a healthy fly reaches the transverse colon."
Bechtold suggested two ways this could happen: through food consumption or through entry into the rectum, although he and his fellow doctors were still unsure.
If the fly entered the patient's mouth, he said, "it would be thought that upper gastrointestinal enzymes and stomach acid would destroy the fly. However, the fly was intact, making this hypothesis less likely."
Other rare cases have been found in the past where insects remained intact throughout their passage into the digestive tract. In some cases, flies and larvae make their way into humans and infect the intestines, known as intestinal myiasis.
The insects can lay their eggs on food, which humans then consume, and in rare cases, they survive stomach acid and the digestive tract environment, according to the National Library of Medicine.
In some cases where larvae are found in the stool of some patients, they suffer from diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting.