Posts in category: Uncategorized

African Caribbean people with type 1 diabetes are at 39% greater risk of developing sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy, which if untreated can lead to blindness.

For every feeling we experience, there is a lot of complex biology going on underneath our skin.

Investigators led by D. James Surmeier, Ph.D., the Nathan Smith Davis Professor and chair of Neuroscience, have uncovered previously unknown neuronal circuits that contribute to brain dysfunction in Huntington’s disease.

 A mental expert has told the Lusaka High Court that James Bwalya, one of the suspects accused of abducting 13 women last October, is unfit to stand trial. Patrick Msoni, a consultant psychiatrist at Chinaina Hills Hospital, told Judge Charles Kafunda that after assessing the accused, he found that Bwalya has anti-social personality disorder traced […]

By HELEN WITTI

CENTRAL Province Permanent Secretary Milner Mwanakampwe says the current mealie meal shortage that some parts of central province and the country at large is experiencing is artificial.

Speaking during a media briefing in Kabwe recently, Mr Mwanakampwe said traders are causing this fake shortage of mealie meal as they are buying in bulk and hiding the stock.

He disclosed that mealie meal is being offloaded by Kalonga milling plant at an affordable price of K120 for roller meal and K150  per 25  kilogramme bag of breakfast meal.

Mr Mwanakampwe noted with concern that some shop owners are taking advantage of the situation and unreasonably selling the commodity at an exorbitant price.

He said government is doing everything possible to ensure that its citizens are food secured.

A spot check revealed some Milling depots closed as they did not have the commodity, while others only had five-kilogram packs as well as a few 25 kg bags of roller meal. 

But a check from FVG milling plant, found the company milling and loading the commodity enroute to all its depots in central province and some parts of copper belt province.

FVG Milling Plant Manager Pramod Kumar, says the milling plant has the capacity to mill 200 metric tonnes per day and as such is fully stocked. 

Mr Kumar also his company is supplying most of the chain stores such as Choppies and they are ensuing that no individual gets more than one bag at a time.  

Meanwhile, Kabwe residents are calling for government to quickly control the mealie meal hiked prices by some traders and shortages.

In an interview, a resident of Kabwe Mable Mbambi has pleaded with government to look in the plight of ordinary citizens who can not afford to buy mealie meal at exorbitant prices currently pegged at  K220 per 25kg bag. 

Zambia aims to have a diversified, private sector-driven competitive economy providing equal opportunities for entrepreneurship and investment.

Zambia also has a vision to have a country free from hunger, poverty and other forms of deprivation.-NAIS

ABSENTEEISM has hit the mining companies on the Copperbelt as a result of the continued shortage of mealie meal as miners are staying away from work on the excuse that they have to look for the staple food currently in short supply in most parts of the country, the Mine Workers Union of Zambia  (MUZ) has complained.

George Mumba, the MUZ general secretary has disclosed that miners were being granted permission to go search for mealie meal, and that is currently in short supply in most parts of the country.

Mr Mumba said the shortage has become an excuse for the miners to be absent from work because most are being granted permission to go and look for the commodity which has continued to be in short supply.

And Mr Mumba has said the MUZ Milling plant had not been operational because it had run out of maize stocks and was hoping to resume operations after receiving the grain from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA)

Mr Mumba said the shortage of mealie meal was affecting production in the mining sector because the miners were using production hours to go search for the commodity and would be on queues for long hours before they could buy the commodity.

In an interview, Mr Mumba said MUZ was concerned that the mining sector has not been spared by the shortage of mealie meal and was hoping for a long-lasting solution to the problem

He said MUZ had come up with an initiative to invest in a milling plant to sell mealie meal to its members, but unfortunately the milling plant has run out of maize stock and has not been operational. 

“We have had some intermittent production, but that has not been enough and because of this, our members have been asking for permission at their work places to go and look for mealie meal. Mining companies have been complaining about these permissions and absenteeism,” Mr Mumba said.

“As a union, we are concerned that this shortage of mealie meal was affecting production in the mining sector because those miners who were getting permission to go and look for mealie meal would have been at their work place contributing to production at their respective work places,’’ Mr Mumba said

And Mr Mumba has said the MUZ Milling plant was currently not operational because it had run out of maize and was hoping to resume operations after receiving some maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA)

Mr Mumba said the milling plant has had no meaningful milling from 1st March because it had challenges of maize supply and production had reduced from 5,000 x 25 kilogrammes bags per day to 1,000 x 25 kilogrammes per day

He said for the past one month and some weeks, no meaningful milling has been taken place at the milling plant, but was hoping that the operations may resume on Wednesday after receiving some maize from FRA.

“We have been informed that some maize has been delivered at Chambishi FRA Depot which was brought by rail from Southern Province. We have lost a lot of business from this shortage of maize. The mealie meal we produce is for our members and the Copperbelt. At full capacity, we produce 5000 x 25kg, but now we have been reduced to 1000 x 25 kg bags of mealie meal,’’ Mr Mumba said 

The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to gemcitabine and cisplatin improved overall survival in patients with untreated metastatic or unresectable biliary tract cancer, according to results from the phase III KEYNOTE-966 clinical trial, which were presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2023, held April 14–19. The research is also published in The Lancet.

The number of diagnosed cases of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have increased significantly among adults in the United States within the past decade, which could be due to many factors, including overdiagnosis. A recent JAMA study found that diagnoses of ADHD in adults are growing four times faster than in children.

 A MALAWIAN woman’s attempt to ditch her Zambian husband for a Congolese boyfriend has been foiled by the Lusaka City Council (LCC) which refused to grant her a marriage certificate. In a love triangle involving three nationalities, the unnamed woman made an application to be legally married to her Congolese lover but has hit a […]

Findings from a scientific online poster presented during the 2023 ARRS Annual Meeting, held April 16–20 at the Hawaiian Convention Center, suggest that correctly occluded left atrial appendages (LAAs) could present maximal reduction in left atrial (LA) flow stasis and thrombogenicity, offering a clinical goal for the procedure in patients with atrial fibrillation.