Steem Cameroon Contest : National or International awareness day Contest (S4-W4) || 07/11 Infant protection day

November 7th of each year has been set aside to celebrate "Infant Protection Day". On this day, we raise awareness on the safety of newborns and the importance of giving them proper care. So in other words, this day is used to talk on the best ways to nurture and safeguard young children at one of their very important, vulnerable and developmental stage. This day is also aimed at providing each child the strong immunity and health that they deserve. By that, the government needs to use this day to take out measures to promote effective healthcare systems.

Source and edited by @graciella

Going back to 1990, almost 5 million infants had to die because of the lack of awareness of infant protection. Due to this, a lot of countries were prompted to take necessary steps for the improvement of child healthcare and intend reduce Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). Europe was actually the first to begin a campaign regarding this and established the now known Infant Protection Day used to raise awareness among people on Child Care Services and also reduce Infant Mortality Rate. Thanks to this, Infant Mortality Rate saw a reduction from a hundred deaths to ten deaths for every 1000 births.

According to Macrotrends, India's infant mortality rate in 2022 is at 27.695 deaths per 1000 births which compared to last year is a 3.74% reduction because the government kept taking important measures to reduce infant mortality rates through proper healthcare systems. As we know, the very first 3months of development of an infant is crucial since that's when their vision, hearing, motor movement etc improve. World Health Organization reports the death of over 2.4 million infants in 2019 within the first month of their life and it's estimated that about 7000 children die daily thus taking child mortality of children from 0-5 to 47%.

So for all those reasons and more, Infant protection day is celebrated every 07th November to sort out ways to give these infants the adequate care needed at this delicate stage. Remember that these infants are the nations future and need all of the care and protection to reach their bright future ahead of them.

SECTION B

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Firstly, world diabetes day is set to be celebrated every November 14 and was first created in 1991 by World Health Organization and International Diabetes Foundation. Diabetes isn't some new disease and is around 1550 BC. in 1922 Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best, found a way to take insulin from animals and did the very first insulin injection. Thought it was a failure at first, they succeeded after few more tries.

Give us your understanding of the disease Diabetes, making sure you talk of the different types.

Diabetes is actually a disease in which pancreas no longer produce any insulin or insufficient insulin(a hormone produced by the pancreas to let glucose from all we eat pass through our blood stream into the cells).

Now when our body can't produce insulin or use it well, that leads to hyperglycemia which is increased glucose levels in the blood. In the long run, the high glucose in our system starts to damage the body and causes failure of different tissues/organs.

There are 3 main types of diabetes which are gestational, type 1 and type 2 with the difference starting far back around 1850.

• Type 1 diabetes occurs more in children and adolescents but can develop at any age. With this, you will need daily insulin injections to maintain blood glucose levels since your body produces none or very little.
  
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• Type 2 diabetes which is about 90% of diabetes cases is more common in adults. Here, the insulin produced by your body isn't made good use of and you just need to live a healthy lifestyle, more physical activity etc. But over time, you may need oral medication and/or insulin to control blood glucose levels.

• Gestational diabetes occurs during pregnancy and can come with complications for mother and child. Though it disappears after pregnancy, those women affected and their children are at higer risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.

Managing blood sugar levels daily basis is not just time-consuming but also very costly so it's prevention gives more reasons to spread awareness plus it's a day to celebrate the birth of the man who assisted in bringing insulin into our modern world as a very effective treatment against diabetes.

Tell us about the symptoms of the disease and the causes.

Some people especially for type 2 diabetes may not see symptoms but for type 1, symptoms are seen more quickly and can be more severe.

• More thirsty than usual.
• Urinating more often.
• Weight loss without even trying.
• Getting tired and weak often.
• Irritability and other mood changes.
• Blurred vision.
• Sores heal more slowly.
• Other infections like gum, vaginal and skin infections.

Aside from the explanation above on what causes diabetes, the very exact cause is unknown. Eventhough type 1 and 2 diabetes may be caused by genetic/environmental factors, it's not clear what exactly those factors could be(maybe wrong food, stress, little sleep etc).

Find out any local remedies for the disease and share them with us.

1. Aloe vera.

2. Half teaspoon ground cinnamon mixed in warm water daily.

3. Soak 2 tablespoons of fenugreek in water, leave overnight and next morning drink on an empty stomach. This helps to bring down glucose levels.
   
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4. Wash and dry mango leaves, grind and consume with water morning/ night. OR boil the leaves, leave to cool over night and drink on an empty stomach in the morning.

5. Add about 50g of moringa leaves to your meal to help reduce blood sugar by approx 21%.

6. Vitamin C and D alone is helpful from sunlight, foods like oranges, cheese etc.

7. WATER...dehydration is common with diabetes because the kidneys try to get rid of the excess glucose through urine and offcourse that needs water. So drink about 2 -3 litres of water daily.

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Cc;
@majeruis
@chant
@wase1234
@chaibetrand
@fongougirese