A CASE OF BAD BUSINESS GONE WORSE, BEGGING THE QUESTION "IS NIGERIA THEIR GRAVEYARDS"?

Many people are aware that HIV/AIDS is still a deadly disease even with the availability of medications for suppressing and keeping it at bay in patients when detected early even though a few other people still play games or gamble with their lives when it comes to playing safe. Apart from those who by virtue of mistakes, not on their part but got infested from visiting places such as saloons where needles for hair are most times shared or by using unsterilised items during pampering such as pedicures and manicures as well as wrongfully transfusing untested blood to patients by some doctors and nurses in hospitals thereby creating more problems for the patient in the times ahead, there are still some others who have thrown caution to the winds while indulging in certain practices including illicit sex, drugs and the ilk’s.

I saw a report recently on BBC where Vanessa Roberts was having a chat with one Victoria Derbyshire who was said to have being diagnosed with HIV in 2014 after living with the virus unknowingly for more than 30 years which was after I had read on the same report that in the UK, people with HIV are being diagnosed late because hospitals and GP practices in England and Scotland are ignoring guidelines and failing to carry out HIV checks. I thought it was just an African practice!

I was still in total shock and amazement over the news of Victoria living with HIV unknowingly for 30 years when I stumbled on a report by the Nigerian Vanguard a while ago.

According to the report, James Turner, a 67-year-old Irish national based in Nigeria knowing he was HIV positive confessed to have slept with no fewer than six other ladies having being accused by his 31-year-old Nigerian girlfriend, a Benue state-born lady who stumbled on Turners’ anti-retroviral drugs which he had been taking secretly for a couple of months, of deliberately infecting her with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV having dated him for about eight years.

One of the shocking twists to the story was that Turner also confessed that when his status was confirmed, in other not to infect his wife with the virus, sent his wife back to the Republic of Ireland. Talk about love for the innocent woman!

Shamefully, though not shocking, as it happens even with some supposedly responsible persons, it was gathered, during interrogation that among the girls the suspect had slept with was his girlfriend’s friend. The concerned ladies, it was gathered, were all commercial sex workers. Talk about a bad business, gone worse!

However, unconfirmed reports say he had slept with more than six ladies. His girlfriend, identified simply as Helen, reported Turner to the police last Friday, after the latter reneged on his promise to settle the former with N2.5 million. In these times? No wonder the guy reneged, because we all know that with the way the economy is at the moment, even the greatest form of acrobatics of sex in bed would not earn a hawker, one million naira, just like that.

According to the aggrieved prostitute and lover, she narrated that “When we got to Liester Hospital, Ikeja, they ran some tests on him because he was sweating and also running temperature. The doctor gave him drugs for malaria. “At that hospital, if one is sick and has such high temperature, they will run a HIV test on the person without his knowledge. After running the test on him, the doctor invited us to his office and asked if he could talk to him in my presence, he said no, that I should wait outside. The doctor thereafter, broke the news to him.

“When we got home, he was quiet. He did not tell me anything. I realised that he was taking a particular medication, which he hid from me. “There was a time I even drove to the hospital to pick a brown envelop, which was sealed, for him. It was his medication, but I did not open it. “When I discovered that he kept hiding his medication from me, I asked him what kind of medicine he was taking and he told me that it was for malaria and typhoid. I did not say anything because I thought that the prescription was for a long period of time”.

“He continued taking it for about three to four months. So, one day I opened the medication and wrote out the name of the drug. Thereafter, I googled the name on my phone to know what type of medication it was, to my shock I discovered it was an anti-retroviral for HIV.  I went to meet Jim in the living room and asked why he was taking medication meant for people living with HIV and also asked if he was HIV positive, but he said no. “He told me that the doctor gave him the medication for his legs, which has caused him sleepless nights.”

Helen’s worst fear was confirmed during a visit to the doctor, who disclosed that her lover was HIV positive. To ascertain her status, the doctor also ran a test on her, where she was discovered to have been infected with HIV. According to her, “since the visit to the doctor with Jim (her pet name for Turner) his love-making with me increased as if he was madly in love with me.”

Turner, who refused to speak with journalists, however, insisted that Helen infected him with the virus. But during interrogation by policemen at the Ikeja Division, he stated that he had to send his wife back to Ireland on discovering that he was HIV positive, in order not to infect her with the virus. He also said that he slept with other ladies after his status was confirmed, right in his apartment. He also insisted that Helen infected him with the virus, pointing out that she might have contacted the virus from Kaduna State, where she spent some months to sell a property in 2013, same year he was confirmed to be HIV positive.

But when asked why he hid the anti-retroviral drugs from Helen, he kept mum. He was released on bail over the weekend, to enable him get treatment for an injury he sustained on one of his elbows, from which he was bleeding. Police, however, assured that measures had been put in place to prevent further infection of other ladies by the suspect.

Finally, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, who confirmed the arrest, said: “We are waiting for expert’s opinion to conclude the charge against the suspect.”

Hmmm! After reading the entire story, I was reminded again that this is just another ‘Patrick Sawyer’ who knew he was already infected by Ebola but decided to still come to Nigeria, thereby infecting others.

The begging question now is, “Is Nigeria their grave yards?

SOME ANSWERS TO 'THREE-PERSON BABY' ADVANCED IVF CONCERNS/QUESTIONS

A health and science reporter James Gallagher writes on the concerns about engaging in a three-person baby form of  having children, an advanced form of IVF pioneered by the UK given the basis that it was the first country to introduce laws allowing the creation of babies from three people even though the first of such babies was born in Mexico.

It was gathered that despite the technique being designed to eliminate disease, it has however been used as an unproven fertility booster in Ukraine as it was stated that the idea of a three person-baby IVF was devised to prevent the repeated heartache of losing children to illnesses caused by defective mitochondria.

However, as much as a couple of people are embracing this idea of  making  babies from three person, it is also fast becoming a major worry because apart from many couples being duped, scientists as well as ethicists warn that it is a dangerous experiment on mums and babies.

The tiny structures in our bodies convert food into useable energy and are passed on only through the mother's egg. Three-person IVF takes the DNA from mum and dad and puts it in an egg from a donor woman. The resulting child has 0.1% of its DNA from the donor.

The advanced form of IVF was developed at Newcastle University in the UK and the final safety checks were completed in June. So the Mexico birth and the procedure being offered as a fertility treatment has caused concern.

"We appear to be in a race to the bottom," warned Dr Marcy Darnovsky from the US Centre for Genetics and Society.

Criticising doctors offering the technique, she added: "They are ignoring ongoing policy debates and conducting dangerous and socially fraught experiments on mothers and children. And they appear to be actively seeking a media splash on the way down."

"Use of these biologically extreme procedures for infertility is based purely on speculation."

It is argued that some cases of infertility are caused by a "poor" environment inside the egg such as insufficient or old mitochondria or an imbalance in the chemicals necessary to trigger embryo development. And that the three-person technique could overcome those deficiencies.

Dr Dusko Ilic, from King's College London, said there was no way to stop IVF clinics offering the procedure.

While the UK was the first country to create laws to legalise three person IVF, it is legal by default in many countries with little-to-no regulation.

Dr Ilic told the BBC News website: "IVF clinics are jumping on the bandwagon and rushing ahead, whereas the Newcastle team did all the hard due diligence work.

"The major worry is how technically skillful these clinics are, what quality control measures are in place and what information they provide to desperate patients seeking help.

"Are those patients aware of all risks involved?" For example in the Mexico birth - the details of the family and an photograph of the baby were made public without any consent.

James Lawford Davies, a partner at the law firm Hempsons, said: "One example of the way UK regulation protects patients is through the confidentiality which attaches to their identity, the details of their treatment, and their children.

"Any such disclosure would be a criminal offence in the UK."

When the UK allowed the procedure to prevent inherited mitochondrial disease, it did not allow three-person IVF to be used in fertility treatment.

"There was little evidence at the time the law was being changed that the methods were likely to help infertility," said Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, from the Francis Crick Institute.

Such an untried form of conception was thought to be too risky - except in the case of mitochondrial disease where the harms were even greater.

Prof Lovell-Badge said the UK had a reputation for looking "deeply into the issues of science and safety" and that such procedures may be permitted in the future if they were shown to be safe.

He told the BBC: "We can't control this in countries where there are few or no regulations and poor oversight.

"Unfortunately the clinics in such countries have become used to being unregulated, and it is the patients who are at risk of being duped into paying for methods that have little or no benefit or that are even harmful."

Sarah Norcross, the director of the Progress Educational Trust, said fertility clinics had a reputation for "rushing" new techniques to patients.

She advised: "For British women who wish to avoid passing mitochondrial disease to their children, the temptation to travel overseas to access these treatments must be enormous.

"We would caution against this. At present, there are too many unanswered questions about what has been achieved - and how - for us to be confident of patient safety.'

 

DESPITE BREXIT, UK WELCOMES TALLEST RESIDENTIAL TOWER

Sometimes in life, no matter how much hate, slander, backstabbing and gossip you get from people, you will be amazed to find even another large number of GENUINE people who are still willing to stand by you and love you even more, irrespective of how much mud have been smeared on your person/image by those haters especially when you must have done some kind of ‘good’ in the past.

I remember a few years back when some banks were blacklisted and news about them folding up or ‘going under’ all over the airwaves, a lot of marketers from the competing banks started ‘demarketing’ these blacklisted banks in a bid to get their clients into the supposed ‘still-standing’ banks at the time but some of these clients refused as they remained loyal to their banks that many of them said “helped to kick-start my business with small loans”. Now, that is what I call loyalty!

And so, even though it’s not exactly the same or vivid picture as painted above, Greenland Group, a Chinese firm, inspite of the Brexit which took place in UK a few months back, is set to build the tallest residential tower in western Europe in the UK. About a week ago, this China’s biggest private property company unveiled plans for the 771-foot tall, 67-story Spire London in the Docklands neighborhood in the east of the city, which will have 861 apartments, of which 765 are for private sale. They include suites, one, two and three-bedroom apartments, and three-bedroom duplex penthouses. What a huge project!

Talk about ‘belief’ in a good economy to invest. Just when you thought many would leave with their business investments, others are juggling for space to invest.

According to a report by Kathryn Hopkins in Mansion Global, “The recent wave of Chinese investment into London property showed no sign of slowing down despite the Brexit decision as Greenland Group announced plans to build the tallest residential tower in the U.K. and Western Europe”.

The report says the £800 million skyscraper will not only have views of the River Thames, Canary Wharf, the City of London and far beyond by residents but will in addition also provide a concierge, retailing, a residents’ gardens and other five-star lifestyle amenities, including a 35th floor Spa and Club Bar just like found in hotels.

The building construction which is already underway, as understood, is expected to be completed by the year 2020 with apartments priced from around £595,000 to £3 million and CBRE and JLL with two global real estate agents as sales agents.

“The move comes despite concerns that demand for upmarket London homes is slowing after the country voted to leave the European Union earlier this year. A double whammy of higher sales tax has also been weighing on demand”.   

“This tower will be Western Europe’s tallest residential building and underlines London’s enduring status as a world-class city and destination,” said Yuliang Zhang, chairman and president of Greenland Group. “This is Greenland Group’s most important project in Europe, and will deliver exceptional new homes for Londoners.”

However, there are speculations that this move with the skyscraper “could reignite controversies, too”. Nevertheless, the report says it is also expected that just like several other buildings in the capital, “there will be separate door for affordable housing tenants, dubbed ‘poor doors’, who will occupy 96 apartments”.

And so, UK still got investors in its terrains.