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Recurrent Vaginal Infection and Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (Pid)

The female reproductive system is one of the complex systems in a woman’s body. Though open and prone to infections, proper understanding of the female anatomy is necessary for the prevention of vaginal infection. It’s important to practice steps that protects the body from infections and other related health problems. When vaginal infection keeps coming back even with multiple treatment, it’s termed “recurrent”.  Different complications ranging from pelvic inflammatory disease (pid), ectopic pregnacy, infertility, chronic pelvic pain etc.. has been associated with recurrent vaginal infection.

The female reproductive system is made of two vital organs, the external and internal organs. The external organ comprises of the vulva, which houses the vaginal opening, the clitoris, the hymen etc. unfortunately, a lot of people mistakenly use the term “vagina” to describe all female reproductive organs. The internal organ comprises of the vagina, cervix, uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. Vaginal infection is an infection caused by bacteria, fungi, parasites or viruses growing in and around the vagina or sometimes the vulva. Oftentimes, when one is exposed to this bacteria or viruses and start experiencing symptoms like discharge, itching, or even pains, its expected that proper consultation, diagnosis and treatment is carried out to prevent recurrence. However, the reverse is the case. Individuals who often self medicate or visit quacks or take certain concoctions when exposed to vaginal infection are most likely to come down with another episode of the same bacteria infection.

In the case of PID, with continuous exposure to certain bacteria like C. trachomatis or N. gonorrhoeae, the cervical mucus which acts as a barrier preventing bacteria from entering the uterus and other internal organs can become less effective and this will enable the movement of the bacteria from the vagina or cervix to other vital internal organs like the uterus, ovary, fallopian tubes thereby causing blockage and inflammation. With pid, one may start to experience symptoms like pain in the lower abdomen, pain during sex or unusual vaginal discharge discharge after sex. Also if pid is not properly diagnosed and treated, it can result in other complications like infertililty or ectopic pregnancy.

To reduce your risk of pelvic inflammatory disease:

  • Talk to your health expert about your recurrent vaginal infection for proper treatment and practice steps to avoid recurrence.
  • stay away from sexual activity during the course of treatment.
  • Get tested after treating vaginal infection to ensure no bacteria growth.
  • Practice safe sex. Use condoms every time you have sex, limit your number of partners and ask about a potential partner’s sexual history.
  • Don’t douche. Douching upsets the balance of bacteria in your vagina

Contact your pharmplug pharmacist for more information on your health and wellness. You can order your pharma products on pharmplug.com and if you can’t find the product you seek, contact sales on wa.me/2348148255508.

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THE DANGERS OF GENITAL HERPES INFECTION

Before now, we use to think that HIV/AIDS, is the most dangerous viral infection that can be gotten via unprotected sex. Sorry to disappoint you, HIV is just one of them. There are so many viral infections that could be transmitted via sexual activity and they include: Genital Herpes, Hepatitis, Genital wart or Human papilloma virus. Today, we will be focusing on Gential Herpes infection and the dangers associated with it. Genital Herpes is a viral infection that can be transmitted via sexual activities. Its of two types: the Herpes Simplex Virus type-1 ( HSV-1) and the  Herpes Simplex Virus type -2 (HSV-2). The HSV-1 also known as oral herpes can be asymptomatic but if symptoms occur, it could come in form of blisters in the mouth, lips and even the tongue. When such blisters appear by the side of the mouth or lip, people often think it to be malaria or typhoid related. However,  it is caused by HSV-1. It can be contracted from kissing and oral sex. The Herpes simplex virus 2, can be contracted via unprotected sex. With modern technology, certain preventive measures and antiviral medicines (e.g. acyclovir) has been made available to prevent recurrences if detected on time (i.e. in less than 7 days). If this virus strain is not detected on time, it could get attached to your blood stream or DNA, and this can make treatment more difficult. When one come in contact with HSV-2 , the individual may notice symptoms like white blisters growing around the lip of the vagina ( the vulva) for females and around the shaft of the penis for males. These blisters has the tendency to become so much in appearance between 3-5 days. If such is tackled within this period via the intervention of a medical health expert, the virus won’t be able to get attached to the DNA, thus making it impossible for recurrence. In most cases, we see individuals who try to get rid of the blisters either by self medication (some persons go to abuse ampiclox) or visit a quack for treatment. In such case, the blisters may disappear for a while, but over a period of a month or two, the blisters will still reappear much more than before. If such happens, it can only denote one thing; that the body was not able to fight the virus enough and as such, the virus attached itself to the DNA and this can lead to further recurrence which is dangerous. Also, recurrent Herpes infection can make one prone to other forms of infections including HIV/AIDS. Inorder to prevent this, one has to stay away from unprotected sex, avoid multiple sex partners or even get their partners tested before sex.  Avoid self medication, stay protected! Always consult your health expert whenever you notice any strange occurrence or symptom in your body.

Be health smart, always contact your Pharmplug pharmacist for more information on your health and wellness. Order your pharma products on pharmplug.com and if you can’t find the product you seek, contact sales on wa.me/2348148255508.

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CAN URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS DAMAGE YOUR KIDNEYS?

     Helen is a smart, beautiful lady, who recently gained admission into the university. Helen’s joy knew no bound as the day of her school resumption drew close. However, her consistent low back pain as well as the steady rise in her body temperature, which often got worst at night, has pose a major health concern to both Helen and her family. According to Helen, she’s use to fetching water with a bucket on her head, from the ground floor to the last floor of a storey building. And so this got her wondering if that could be the cause of her pains. She was made to run series of tests at the hospital, and was found to have high grade kidney infection.
On proper clerking, it was learnt that a week prior to the week Helen noticed the pain, she has had series of symptoms like urinary frequency, urgency and discharge. She wasn’t so familiar with the symptoms and so she just ignored them. Luckily for her, the symptoms disappeared and she thought her problem has been solved, until she began to feel sharp pain at her lower back the following week and so she decided to consult her health expert. Fortunately for her, she placed on some medications for some days by her health expert and her health restored back normal.                       The kidney is a very delicate and vital organ and it plays a very crucial role in keeping our body healthy. It’s works to remove certain waste like urine from our body. However, this  waste product in form of urine is collected in a place called the kidney pelvis.The waste products are then passed out into the bladder via a tub called the ureter. Since the urinary system houses the kidney, ureter and bladder, bacteria from an infected ureter tube or bladder if not detected and treated on time, can find its way into the kidney pelvis and this can lead to severe kidney infection.
Again, the movement of this bacteria, into the kidney pelvis can also be enhance with sexual activities. This act has the tendency to enhance bacteria movement from one point to another.

Don’t mess around with your health. Always pay attention to the difference signs and symptoms you could be experiencing in your body and never hesitate to consult your health expert.

Don’t forget to stay hydrated, because healthy kidneys are a must for a healthy body.

Be health smart, always contact your Pharmplug pharmacist for more information on your health and wellness. Order your pharma products on pharmplug.com and if you can’t find the product you seek, contact sales on wa.me/2348148255508

Answer The Following Questions And Stand A chance To Win A DATA subscription.

1. What was the cause of Helen’s low back ache?

2. What was the cause of Helen’s frequent Urination?

3. Why was Helen diagnosed of a severe kidney infection?

Send your answers to the comment box below or watsapp line wa.me/2348148255508.

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DRUGS IMPLICATED IN DIFFERENT BIRTH DEFECTS

So today, 3rd March, happens to be world birth defects day. Everyday we come across people with different births defects, have you ever wondered how they feel having to live with such structural or functional abnormalities for the rest of their lives? Overtime, I have come to realize that in addition to every other factors, certain drugs has been implicated in certain birth defects. Also, some drugs ranging from prescribed drugs, non prescribed drugs, herbal drugs, social drugs, illicit drugs, were noted to be taken at sometime during pregnancy to treat different aliment and symptoms.                                                    So today, we will be discussing different birth defects and drugs that can cause them.

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Here are some birth defects and some drugs that can cause them.

➡  Cleft Palate& Cleft lip                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 This can result from the use of corticosteroids and Phenytoin during pregnancy. Here, the baby’s lip has an opening or split in the roof of the mouth. This defect can impair the baby’s speech ability.

➡ Craniofacial Dysmorphisms                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               This defect can affect one’s with intellectual abilities and can lead to abnormal development of the bones of the skull and face.                                                                                                                                                                         It can result with the use drug like Isotretinoin ( VIt A greater than 10,000iu) during pregnancy.

➡Gray babies syndrome, Jaundice, teeth discoloration, neural tube defects & Liver failure can be seen with certain Antibiotics medication like Chloramphenicol, Tetracyclines, Sulfonamide & Flagyl respectively.

➡Fetal Warfarin Syndrome:

Can be seen with the use of Warfarin an anticoagulant. This can hinder and stop a baby from growing and also lead to defects in the eye and nose.

➡Multiple birth defects                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   This can result from the use of anti neoplastic or anti cancer drugs. This drug at lower dose causes growth retardation and at higher dose can result in fetal death as well as other fetal malformations.

➡Fetal growth restriction, cardiovascular defects, neurological dysfunction and withdrawal Syndrome can result from the the use of Cigarette which contains Nicotine, Alcohol, and codeine respectively.

➡Spontaneous abortion, low birth weight and still birth may result from the use certain herbs like Green Tea at high dose.

Drug use in Pregnancy requires special consideration as this affects not just the mother but the fetus.
Be health smart, always contact your Pharmplug pharmacist for more information on your health and wellness. Order your pharma products on pharmplug.com and if you can’t find the product you seek, contact sales on wa.me/2348148255508.

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Staphylococcus and Candida Infections that Keep Coming Back

Some patients complain about recurrent STIs or UTIs. A recurrent infection is one that keeps coming back even after treatment. It’s often disheartening to see that the money one spent in buying medications seem a waste when a treated infection comes back, and this has driven people to try different uncertified herbal concoctions (which may damage the kidneys). 

Here are possible reasons why your infection keeps coming back even after multiple treatments. 

Mistreatment: Your infection may not go if not properly diagnosed and treated by a medical expert or if you self medicate. 

Treatment failure: when one uses substandard medications for treatment, the infecting organism may not be totally killed, but may hibernate and show up stronger later. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. 

Poor Hygiene: A woman’s body is very delicate and if we don’t practice good hygiene like hand washing, one may still be exposed to infection even after treatment. This also includes letting a man insert an unwashed finger into the vagina. 

Low Immunity: This can result from multiple antibiotic use, misuse of antibiotics or multiple diseases exposure. Certain treatments for infection can alter the balance of the normal floral which helps you fight infection as such making you prone to more infections. Ask for your immune boosters here https://tinyurl.com/yc75hv2r . 

Public toilets: this one is a no brainer. Women are advised to be careful when they’re using a public toilet especially in places where hygiene is less practiced. 

Further, having unprotected sex while on a treatment course for a particular infection can worsen your condition and can cause reinfection or super-infection. Improper washing of intimate body wears may also result in a reinfection during or after treatment. It’s advisable to use pant liners during treatment. 

Other reasons include: 

* Having multiple sex partners 

* Wiping from back to front after toilet. 

* Not peeing after sex 

* Holding back urine for a long time 

* too much alcohol intake, cigarette/ hemp smoking and poor sleep. This may weaken your immune system. 

When infections keep coming back, and don’t get properly treated, it can result in Infertility or cause damage to one’s reproductive organ.

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Contact your Pharmplug pharmacist for more information on your health and wellness. You can order your pharma products on pharmplug.com and if you can’t find the product you seek, contact sales on wa.me/2348148255508.

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You are what you eat!

Proper nutrition is the foundation of good health.
When you make a conscious effort to eat better, you provide the body the nutrients it needs to carry out necessary functions.
What you eat affects your health as well as your risk for certain diseases and illnesses.

To support health and prevent diseases follow these fundamental philosophies.

Fruits and Vegetables are cornerstone of eating well:

The best way to eat fruits is raw and vegetables raw or steamed. This protects many of the delicate nutrients and natural enzymes that are often damaged with cooking or boiling.

Drink Clean, And Hydrate Often:

If you haven’t been convinced of the importance of sufficient water consumption yet, how about adding anti-aging and weight loss support to water’s benefits? Water is an excellent weight loss tool. If you drink water
approximately half an hour before meals it may provide a feeling of satiety and prevent overeating.
Sufficient quantities of water are essential to avoid unsightly early wrinkling of the skin.

Meat :

Pork and red meat—processed or cured—pose the greatest health risks. If you want to include meat in your diet, choose healthier meat options like fish,seafood, turkey, and chicken. Keep in mind that even these choices can be made unhealthy depending on how they are cooked.

Fats :

Fat obviously plays a very important role within the human body and is necessary in small quantities in one’s diet

The Harmful Substances Lurking In Your Food:

Refined sugar, or sucrose, is devoid of all nutrients and is nothing more than a pleasing sweet taste of empty calories. Aside from the quick burst of energy it
provides, it has only detrimental effects on health. It promotes tooth decay, leaches calcium from the body, destroys the balance between calcium and phosphorus, is addictive, depletes the body of vitamins and minerals, causes mood swings and uncontrollable personality changes, and contributes to degenerative conditions.

So eat right always to ensure good health and graceful aging. A balanced meal is the surest way for good health. The food pyramid below shows the classes of food and how much one should consume of them.

Be health smart, always contact your Pharmplug pharmacist for more information on your health and wellness. Order your pharma products on pharmplug.com and if you can’t find the product you seek, contact sales on wa.me/2348148255508

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Stomach Ulcer

INTRODUCTION

As the country is getting tougher, more people are developing peptic ulcer disease, PUD. Simply put, PUD is a wound inside your oesophagus, stomach or intestinal walls. Naturally, if you had a wound on your skin, air blowing over it will cause it to clot and seal up. This is not so, however, in PUD where the wound is constantly bathed in different fluids including gastric acids, foods and spices, alcohol and carbonated drinks etc. Imagine you pour acidic water or pepper water on that wound on your skin, it would probably get worse right? It’s a no brainer therefore that we must watch what we eat if we have PUD, time we eat, quantity of food we eat etc.

CAUSES

PUD results when our stomach acid eats away at the walls of our gut. This happens under 2 circumstances:

  1. when the bacteria, Helicobacter Pylori, destroys the protective mucous membranes of the stomach walls, or
  2. due to the effect of a class of medications called NSAIDs. Ibuprofen, diclofenac, naproxen and aspirin all belong to this class of drugs. The NSAIDS also destroy the protective walls of the gut.

Some rarer causes include being acutely sick and the immune system becomes so compromised, or having a surgery or prolonged usage of steroids.

WHO IS LIKELY TO GET PUD

The following conditions increase your likelihood of getting PUD:

  1. being elderly
  2. Taking NSAIDs and steroids concomitantly, or prolonged use of NSAIDs alone
  3. Taking alcohol and cigarettes
  4. being a woman
  5. having a family history of PUD
  6. having liver, kidney or other chronic diseases

HOW PUD MAKES YOU FEEL

Stomach ulcers have some classical symptoms. It could give you :

  1. pain in your stomach or your back. This pain may stop briefly when you take an antacid or when you eat. It may be worse at night. Sometimes the pain may bring several levels of discomfort when you lie down, seat or stand. It can get terrible atimes.
  2. heartburn
  3. dark stool
  4. bloating and purging
  5. nausea and vomiting
  6. weight loss

HOW TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE PUD

PUD is easily diagnosed in the laboratory. Your doctor or pharmacist may direct you to run an occult blood test (OBT) which detects blood in your stool, and a H.Pylori test, to check if you have the bacteria. Doctors may also require you to run an endoscopy, x rays or scan to know the location of the ulcers.

TREATMENT

It is untrue that PUD cannot be treated. It is easily treated over several weeks if you can adhere to instructions. A faithful intake of drugs and adherence to the non drug treatment improves the outcomes of treatment.

The drugs used may include

  1. Proton pump inhibitors e.g omeprazole, esomeprazole
  2. H2 receptor antagonists e.g. cimetidine, ranitidine
  3. Gastroprotective agents e.g. sucralfate, antacids
  4. Antibiotics for h.pylori

Non drug instructions includes:

  1. Time of food. An ulcer patient should endeavour to eat very early in the morning. Also, time when you eat: don’t wait till you are hungry before you eat. If you wait till acid comes out (when you are hungry) you may be worsening the wound.
  2. Water is the best antacid. Consume large quantities of it, even in the middle of the night (personal experience).
  3. Avoid or reduce intake of any food that worsens the symptoms you feel. Such food may include: beans, milk, meat, oranges, apple, pineapple, garden egg, peppery and fried foods, any bottled or carbonated drink including soft drinks, malt, alcohol, glucose drinks.
  4. Natural or unsweetened yoghurt is your friend, as is water melon, banana, and cucumber. Pap is also a good food for ulcer patients.
  5. Exercise and eating balanced meals help in most illnesses.

PUD may get completely healed within 2 months of proper adherence to treatment. However, ulcer could reoccur, especially when the H.pylori wasn’t completely eradicated initially or in cases of continued usage of NSAIDs.

BUST THE MYTHS

Contrary to popular folklore:

  1. ulcer is not caused by not eating enough food
  2. milk will not stop ulcer but may actually worsen it. Milk will reduce the pain momentarily, but because it produces gas and also causes more acid to enter the stomach, it will definitely make it worse.
  3. ulcer can be treated. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise
  4. ulcer is not caused by eating too much peppery or spicy foods.

PUD and ARTHRITIS

Patients with arthritis, whether rheumatoid, osteo or gouty, normally have pains that make them take pain medicines frequently. For this class of patients, taking NSAIDs is contraindicated. However, there are NSAIDs that contain another content that tries to protect the stomach walls. For example, the products with the combination of diclofenac/misoprostol or diclofenac/cholestyramine. Misoprostol replaces the prostaglandins that stimulate the production of the protective mucous membranes and reduce the secretion of acids while cholestyramine binds bile acids which is thought to be involved in the formation of ulcers. Neither of these combinations have the magic bullet to really protect ulcer patients and must be consumed with caution and with food.

Arthritis patients could benefit from other pain medications not NSAIDs.

NOTES FROM PHARMPLUG

Our pharmacist is always available to hear you out, advise you on the best course of action and monitor your treatment. Ulcer can be treated if done properly. If you have arthritis and ulcer, we could help you get your drugs at cheaper rates if you pre-order or send us your prescription.

Be health smart: save time, energy and money.

 

 

 

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Using Pharmplug for shopping for Drugs

Purchase, Delivery and Return Policy

To serve you best, please note the following policies:

  • Products purchased from our online platform will get to the owner within 2 hours, inside Enugu town and within 24 hours outside Enugu city but inside Enugu state. For emphasis, Enugu town includes: Asata, Ogui rd, Okpara ave, Newhaven, Independence layout 1, coal camp, New market, GRA, Achara layout, Transekulu and Golf. Orders outside Enugu state will be delivered within 48 hours depending on distance and courier company. 
  • Delivery within Enugu town attracts a N500-700 charge, inside Enugu town only. Purchases above N20,000 will be delivered free of charge
  • Controlled drugs cannot be purchased from the platform without a proper and verified prescription from a doctor
  • We do not accept any cash payment. All payments must be made online or via POS on delivery.
  • Kindly be precise when selecting your products and quantity. In a case of wrong selection after payment, please read the section of our policy on returning products after purchase.
  • Our online consultation is designed to help you discover, understand and treat/manage your health condition. Please feel free to consult the pharmacist or our doctors to get a prescription for some health issues.   
  • Products received and signed off in good condition may not be accepted back for a refund especially if it’s a cold chain drug, it’s destroyed in any way, or is presented beyond 24 hours after purchase. Products purchased, after proper examination and assessment of storage, can be accepted back on compassionate grounds, for example, the death of a patient.
  • Delivery costs are non-refundable. In the event of a refund, the delivery costs will be deducted from the refund value.
  • If you can’t find your desired product on the pharmacy floor, please send the name of the medication to customerservices@pharmplug.com, and we shall source it within 48hours. In the case of refund, if the product can’t be sourced within 48 hours, money will be refunded.    

Steps in the Purchase process

Step 1: log onto the system. Enter our pharmacy floor by opening our website or our Pharmplug mobile app.

Step 2: Fill your Prescription. If you have a prescription or a list of items to purchase, kindly search by category or by typing the name of the product on the search bar. Then, select the product and quantity and add to your shopping cart. Kindly go through the description of your chosen product to be sure it conforms to your needs and that you don’t react to any of it’s ingredients. If you don’t have a prescription, kindly ‘Ask Pharm Josy’ to direct you on what to purchase.

Step 3: Check out and pay. After selecting your chosen products and quantities, kindly check out and proceed to payment. There are various payment plans: you may decide to pay online or pay on delivery via POS. 

Step 4: Receive product from dispatch. Our delivery man will call you on arrival at your location. 

Step 5: Examine products. Prudently examine your products to ensure they meet your specification and are of good packaging and quality. Kindly reject if the product is not what you ordered for or is damaged.

Step 6: Refund or replacement. In the event a product is rejected, your refund or replacement will be processed immediately. You will kindly indicate the reason for any rejection. Money paid will be transferred back to the account number you provide.