REFLECTION SERIES

KEEP on kissing. At least that’s the advice for now, with the discovery of active Zika Virus in saliva and urine.The finding, by researchers at the Flavivirus Molecular Biology Laboratory in Fiocruz, Brazil, adds to concern following recent confirmation that the virus can spread through sex. “We are not yet sure if Zika can be transmitted to others through saliva or urine,” Myrna Bonaldo, whose team found the virus in the urine of one patient with Zika-like symptoms and in the saliva of another, said this. But Jonathan Ball of the University of Nottingham, UK, says the family of viruses that Zika belongs to are primarily insect-borne, spreading from bloodstream to bloodstream. “The risk of Zika infection from infected saliva while kissing is very low, but not impossible“ He suggests there may be a small chance that virus particles in saliva could infect someone with bleeding gums. “The risk from kissing is very low, but not impossible.”

Perfect Life Health Services and Ghana National Association of Adventist Students jointly organised a 5 days free Medical Outreach at the Nsawam Medium Security Prisons. The program started and ended on Monday 4th and Friday 8th January, 2016 respectively. The outreach started each day at 10:00am and ended at 4:00pm. On a daily basis, the medical outreach team visited the prison to provide services such as blood pressure checking, body mass index (BMI), malaria and blood sugar testing, medical consultation, counseling, eye screening and pharmacy. All the services we provided were free of charge (that is, no one paid money for the services we provided). All the outreach was held at the male prison except the morning of Thursday 7th January 2016 when the outreach was moved to the female prison for the female inmates and officers to be screened as well. All those who were screened were given free medicine when necessary. At th