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2012-05-19T20:45:00.001-07:00

TB Joshua’s Predictions Cause Ripples In Southern African Nations

Published on May 18, 2012 by pmnews · 42 CommentsThe accurate predictions by Prophet Temitope Balogun Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, SCOAN, are causing ripples in many southern African countries since Malawian President, Bingu wa Mutharika died of cardiac arrest on 5 April.

Prophet T.B. Joshua

T.B. Joshua had on 5 February during a live Sunday service in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, predicted that within 60 days an African head of state would die suddenly due to sickness.
The prediction, P.M.NEWS learnt, was not taken seriously in many African countries until 5 April when the Malawian President collapsed during a meeting and was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.
The sudden death of Mutharika and the latest prediction by T.B. Joshua that another old African head of state would soon fall critically ill and be hospitalised, have thrown many African countries into panic, especially Zimbabwe, where octogenarian President, Robert Mugabe, is battling with lingering poor health.
Last year, leaked US diplomatic cables quoted the Zimbabwean Central Bank Governor, Gideon Gono, as disclosing to the American Ambassador that doctors had told Mugabe he had prostate cancer and could die in 2013.
Since Mutharika’s death, stories on T.B. Joshua, his healing, predictions and miracles have been front page news in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia and a horde of other southern African countries where the 49-year old preacher and healer from Ondo State, southwest Nigeria, is extremely popular.
In Zimbabwe, it was learnt that the ruling ZANU PF is attempting to block T.B Joshua’s visit into the country scheduled for 25 May against the wishes of millions of people in Zimbabwe where T.B. Joshua has sometimes been portrayed in media reports as a power broker since Zimbabwean Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, visited his church in 2010.
T.B. Joshua’s Christian television station called Emmanuel TV which is available on satellite and on the Internet via the Streaming Faith broadcast portal is watched by millions of people in western, eastern and southern Africa.
In Cameroon, for instance, where a statement credited to the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Henri Eyebe Ayissi, once said that T.B. Joshua had been blacklisted there, Pentecostal churches have since cleared T.B. Joshua and extended an invitation to him. he is also immensely popular there.
“With regards to what our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is doing through you in your country and several other countries where you have been invited, we are delighted to say that the proof of your apostleship is not anymore a disputable matter. We also want to affirm our belief in your ministry and to present our firm conviction to the fact that you are a source of inspiration and great blessing to the church of God all over the world,” said Dr. Tsala Essomba, Founder and President, the Pentecostal Christian Churches of Cameroon, who had issued the invitation to The Man of God as T.B Joshua is referred to.
TB Joshua is renowned for prophesyingng the death of king of pop music,Michael Jackson, the resignation of Pakistan’s ex- president ,Pervez Musharraf, and the rise of the current president of Ghana, John Atta Mills, a few weeks before the events took place, as well as a recent plane crash.
—Simon Ateba

2012-05-11T19:11:00.001-07:00

Getty Images

Dimitar Berbatov’s agent says his client is not interested in playing for another Premier League club when he leaves Manchester United this summer.

Sir Alex Ferguson has made Berbatov available for transfer as the Bulgarian striker looks for regular playing time having made just 12 league appearances this season.

United took up an option in March to extend the 31-year-old’s contract until next summer to prevent him leaving for nothing at the end of the season.

A return to Germany looks the most likely outcome for the former Bayer Leverkusen man, who would cost 6-8 million pounds (7.5-10m euros) and has been linked with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

United has considered offering Berbatov to his former club Tottenham as part of a bid for Luka Modric, but the forward’s agent insists he wants to play in a different country after six years in England.

“Dimitar does not want to play for another club in England,” Emil Dantchev told Goal.com.

“He would like to try a new challenge in another league. It has been a frustrating season and now he just wants to play football.”

Berbatov, who joined United from Spurs in a 30.75 million pound (38.4m euro) deal in 2008, was joint top scorer in the Premier League last season and Ferguson has warned he will not be allowed to leave Old Trafford on the cheap.

“Berba is a top, top player who has years left at the highest level,” said the United boss last month. “We won’t be letting him go for nothing.”

2012-05-10T05:26:00.001-07:00

alaria: Science still in search of cost-effective vaccine

Photo:

Sun News Publishing

By:

By AZOMA CHIKWE

Date:

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 16:40

Malaria vaccines are an area of intensive research, however, no affective vaccines has yet been introduced into clinical practice.
Malaria, a sickness caused by a parasite, plasmodium, that has infected the saliva glands of a female is has been a major health issue in many African and developing nations including Nigeria.

The sickness is characterized by cyctes of chills, fever, pain and sweating. Lately, the Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) anti-malarials were developed to give a double bared attack on malaria, however, popular opinion maintain that malaria vaccine will easily eradicate the disease.

The task of developing a vaccine that is of potentially preventive benefit for malaria is a complex process. There are a number of consideration to be made concerning what strategy a potential vaccine should adopt. This is because the diversity of the parasite continuous to be a stumbling black in the drive to develop a vaccine.
Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria has demonstrated the capability, through the development of multiple drug-resistance parasites, of evolutionary change. “The plasmodium species has a very high rate of replication, much higher than that actually needed to ensure transmission in the parasite’s life cycte,” experts say.

“This enables pharmaceutical treatments that are effective in reducing the reproduction rate but not halting it to exert a high selection pressure, thus favouring the development of resistance.”
According to scientists, there are many antigens present throughout the parasite life cycle that potentially could act as targets for the vaccine. More than 30 of these are currently being researched by teams all over the world in the hope of identifying a combination that can elicit immunity in the inoculated individual.

Some of the approaches involve surface expression of the antigen, inhibitory effects of specific antibodies on the life cycle and the protective effects through immunization or passive transfer of antibodies between an immune and a non-immune host. The majority of research into malarial vaccines has focused on the Plasmodium falciparum strain due to the high mortality caused by the parasite and the ease of a carrying out in vitro/in vivo studies. The earliest vaccines attempted to use the parasitic circumsporozoite (CS) protein. This is the most dominant surface antigen of the initial pre-erythrocytic phase. However, problems were encountered due to low efficacy, reactogenicity and low immunogenicity.

The first vaccine developed that has undergone field trials, is the SPf66, developed by Manuel Elkin Patarroyo in 1987. It presents a combination of antigens from the sporozoite and merozoite parasites. During phase I trials a 75% efficacy rate was demonstrated and the vaccine appeared to be well tolerated by subjects and immunogenic. The phase IIb and III trials were less promising, with the efficacy falling to between 38.8% and 60.2%. A trial was carried out in Tanzania in 1993 demonstrating the efficacy to be 31% after a year of follow up, however the most recent (though controversial) study was carried out in Gambia.

It did not show any effect despite the relatively long trial periods and the number of studies carried out. It is still not known how the SPf66 vaccine confers immunity; it therefore remains an unlikely solution to malaria. The CSP was the next vaccine developed that initially appeared promising enough to undergo trials. It is also based on the circumsporoziote protein, but additionally has the recombinant protein covalently bound to a purified Pseudomonas aeruginosa toxin. However at an early stage, a complete lack of protective immunity was demonstrated in those inoculated. The study group used in Kenya had an 82% incidence of parasitaemia whilst the control group only had an 89% incidence.

The vaccine intended to cause an increased T-lymphocyte response in those exposed, this was also not observed. The NYVAC-Pf7 multistage vaccine attempted to use different technology, incorporating seven P.falciparum antigenic genes. These came from a variety of stages during the life cycle. CSP and sporozoite surface protein 2 (called PfSSP2) were derived from the sporozoite phase. The liver stage antigen 1 (LSA1), three from the erythrocytic stage (merozoite surface protein 1, serine repeat antigen and AMA-1) and one sexual stage antigen (the 25-kDa Pfs25) were included.

This was first investigated using Rhesus monkeys and produced encouraging results: 4 out of the 7 antigens produced specific antibody responses (CSP, PfSSP2, MSP1 and PFs25). Later trials in humans, despite demonstrating cellular immune responses in over 90% of the subjects had very poor antibody responses. Despite this, following administration of the vaccine some candidates had complete protection when challenged with P.falciparum. This result has warranted ongoing trials.

In 1995 a field trial involving [NANP]19-5.1 proved to be very successful. Out of 194 children vaccinated none developed symptomatic malaria in the 12 week follow up period and only 8 failed to have higher levels of antibody present. The vaccine consists of the schizont export protein (5.1) and 19 repeats of the sporozoite surface protein [NANP]. Limitations of the technology exist as it contains only 20% peptide and has low levels of immunogenicity. It also does not contain any immunodominant T-cell epitopes.

RTS,S is the most recently developed recombinant vaccine. It consists of the P. falciparum cirumsporozoite protein from the pre-erythrocytic stage. The CSP antigen causes the production of antibodies capable of preventing the invasion of hepatocytes and additionally elicits a cellular response enabling the destruction of infected hepatocytes. The CSP vaccine presented problems in trials due to its poor immunogenicity. The RTS,S attempted to avoid these by fusing the protein with a surface antigen from Hepatitis B, hence creating a more potent and immunogenic vaccine. When tested in trials an emulsion of oil in water and the added adjuvants of monophosphoryl A and QS21 (SBAS2), the vaccine gave 7 out of 8 volunteers challenged with P. falciparum protective immunity.

The global burden of P. falciparum malaria increased through the 1990s due to drug-resistant parasites and insecticide-resistant mosquitoes; this is illustrated by re-emergence of the disease in areas that had been previously malaria-free. The first decade of the 21st century has seen reductions in morbidity and mortality in many settings. Though the reasons are not entirely clear, improving socioeconomic indices, deployment of artemisinin-combination drugs and insecticide-treated bednets are all likely to have contributed. There has been a major scaling-up in distribution of malaria control measures particularly since the advent of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

It is unclear what the future will hold for disease burden trends. If political will and funding is maintained, the disease burden could drop further; if as in the past funding lapses or clinically significant resistance develops to the main antimalarial drugs and insecticides used, then the disease burden may rise again. Early evidence of resistance to artemisinins, the most important class of antimalarials, is now confirmed, having manifested as delayed parasite clearance times in the western region of Cambodia on the border with Thailand.

This is also the region where resistance to earlier antimalarial drugs emerged and then subsequently spread throughout much of the world in the case of chloroquine. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has launched a call for the aim of the malaria community to shift from sustained control to eradication. It is agreed that eradication is not possible with current tools and that research and development of new drugs, diagnostics, insecticides and a cost-effective deployable vaccine will be needed to facilitate eradication. There has been a great increase in funding for such research in the 21st century.

2012-05-09T02:42:00.001-07:00

Slain Oshiomhole’s aide for burial ThursdayFrom BAMIGBOLA GBOLAGUNTE, Osogbo
Tuesday, May 08 , 2012

Photo: Sun News Publishing

welcome to my world

2012-04-24T06:19:00.001-07:00