{"id":26119,"date":"2020-04-29T14:22:17","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T13:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26119"},"modified":"2020-04-29T14:22:17","modified_gmt":"2020-04-29T13:22:17","slug":"an-online-bible-study-on-keeping-well-in-a-season-of-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=26119","title":{"rendered":"An online bible study on: Keeping Well in a Season of Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Prof. Charles Adisa<\/strong>
\nWe are looking at all round wellness.
\n? Mental wellness
\n? Emotional wellness
\n? Spiritual Wellness
\n? Economic wellness
\n? Physical wellness etc.
\nThe key scripture is 3 John 1:2: Beloved, I pray that you may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.
\nWe trust that the study will answer the following questions among others
\n\u25aa What is a landemic disease?
\nA pandemic is an epidemic occurring on a scale that crosses international boundaries, usually affecting a large number of people. Pandemics can also occur in important agricultural organisms (livestock, crop plants, fish, tree species) or in other organisms.
\nA disease or condition is not a pandemic merely because it is widespread or kills many people; it must also be infectious. For instance, cancer is responsible for many deaths but is not considered a pandemic because the disease is not infectious or contagious.
\n\u25aa WHO changing definition
\nThe World Health Organization (WHO) previously applied a six-stage classification that describes the process by which a novel influenza virus moves from the first few infections in humans through to a pandemic. This starts with the virus mostly infecting animals, with a few cases where animals infect people, then moves through the stage where the virus begins to spread directly between people, and ends with a pandemic when infections from the new virus have spread worldwide.
\nIn February 2020, WHO clarified that, “there is no official category (for a pandemic)… For the sake of clarification, WHO does not use the old system of 6 phases \u2014 that ranged from phase 1 (no reports of animal influenza causing human infections) to phase 6 (a pandemic) \u2014 that some people may be familiar with from H1N1 in 2009.”
\n\u25aa History of pandemics
\nThroughout history, there have been a number of pandemics of diseases such as smallpox and tuberculosis.
\nOne of the most devastating pandemics was the Black Death, which killed an estimated 75\u2013200 million people in the 14th century.
\nThe current pandemics are HIV\/AIDS and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) .
\nOther notable pandemics include the 1918 influenza pandemic (Spanish flu) and the 2009 flu pandemic (H1N1).
\n\u25aa What are the possible health implications of a pandemic?
\nThe most feared are the number of deaths and the number of critically ill people that can overwhelm the national health care resources.
\nIn addition, the loss of frontline workers like medical personnel, also poses serious public health challenge.
\nThe mental and social stress associated with all the bad news and government restrictions also have their toll on the health of the community
\nLockdown prevents access to key health services like Immunization, malaria control, HIV drugs and care of the vulnerable with other diseases .
\nEconomic meltdown during the pandemic also induces poverty, crimes, security challenges and suicides.
\n\u25aa How can we keep well in a pandemic?
\nSpiritually: The just shall live by faith. Trust in the Lord. Confess his words and get closer to him
\nPublic Hygiene like hand washing, quarantine, social distancing, avoiding contact with surfaces that are potentially contaminated.and any other instruction by health authorities
\nAvoid untested drugs and remedies which may cause more harm.
\nConsider it as an opportunity rather than a problem. Use the opportunity to develop yourself and help others. Tasks you have left undone can be completed. New hobbies or research.
\n\u25aa What is immunity?
\nImmunity is the capability of multicellular organisms to resist harmful microorganisms from entering it.
\nImmunity involves both specific and nonspecific components. The nonspecific components act as barriers or eliminators of a wide range of pathogens irrespective of their antigenic make-up. Other components of the immune system adapt themselves to each new disease encountered and can generate pathogen-specific immunity.
\nAn immune system may contain innate and adaptive components. The innate system in mammalians, for example, is composed of primitive bone marrow cells that are programmed to recognise foreign substances and to react. The adaptive system is composed of more advanced lymphatic cells that are programmed to recognise self-substances and not to react. The reaction to foreign substances is etymologically described as inflammation, meaning to set on fire.
\nThe non-reaction to self-substances is described as immunity, meaning to exempt or as immunotolerance. These two components of the immune system create a dynamic biological environment where “health” can be seen as a physical state where the self is immunologically spared, and what is foreign is inflammatorily and immunologically eliminated.
\n“Disease” can arise when what is foreign cannot be eliminated or what is self is not spared.
\nInnate immunity, also called native immunity, exists by virtue of an organism\u2019s constitution, that is its genetic make-up, without an external stimulation or a previous infection. It is divided into two types:
\n(a) Non-Specific innate immunity, a degree of resistance to all infections in general.
\n(b) Specific innate immunity, a resistance to a particular kind of microorganism only. As a result, some races, particular individuals or breeds in agriculture do not suffer from certain infectious diseases.
\nAdaptive immunity can be sub-divided depending on how the immunity was introduced in ‘naturally acquired’ through chance contact with a disease-causing agent; whereas ‘artificially acquired immunity’ develops through deliberate actions such as vaccination.
\nBoth naturally and artificially acquired immunity can be further subdivided depending on whether the host built up immunity itself by antigen as ‘active immunity’ and lasts long-term, sometimes lifelong. ‘Passive immunity’ is acquired through transfer (injection or infusion) of antibodies or activated T-cells from an immune host; it is short lived\u2014usually lasting only a few months.
\n\u25aa How can we build our immunity to survive a pandemic?
\n– Good nutrition
\n– Regular Exercise
\n– Multivitamin supplements
\n– Avoidance of stress and exposure to infections and disease
\n– Prophylaxis
\n– Immunization with vaccines
\n\u25aa What are the risk factors in a pandemic?
\n– Exposure to the contagion
\n– Failure to observe hygienic culture
\n– Belief in myths and misinformation
\n– Undue fear that brings stress and errors
\n\u25aa What is herd immunity?
\nHerd immunity happens when so many people in a community become immune to an infectious disease that it stops the disease from spreading.
\nThis can happen in two ways:
\na. Many people contract the disease and in time build up an immune response to it (natural immunity).
\nb. Many people are vaccinated against the disease to achieve immunity.
\nHerd immunity can work against the spread of some diseases.
\n\u25aa How can it arrest a pandemic?
\nAs people develop immunity, they become resistant to the infection and even if they are carriers and transmit it to others, it doesn’t affect them either as they have become resistant to the disease.
\nIt however depends on how long the immunity lasts as a second wave of the disease may be devastating.
\n\u25aa How does infodemic affect our mental health in a pandemic?
\nInfodemic or misinformation creates fear and distrust in science, technology and other means of ameliorating the disease
\nIt makes people suspicious and resistant to taking the necessary precautions and steps needed to control the disease such as vaccines, social distancing etc
\n\u25aa When will this pandemic likely end from medical point of view.
\nWe can’t precisely say, but there are various algorithms and modeling based on the available data. Most of them point to 97 percent control in May\/June and complete control before the end of the year.. Remember these are projections with varying degrees of accuracy. We hope we can avoid a second wave of the disease.
\n\u25aaHow do we prepare for a successful post-pandemic life?
\n– First and foremost, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean on him for wisdom and direction
\n– Make the best use of the opportunities
\n– Monitor key investment opportunities and prayerfully cast your net
\n– Avoid toxic financial transactions that may land you in debts
\n– Do regular in door exercises to keep fit
\n– Work on projects and ideas you have abandoned for lack of time
\n– Be prepared for the challenges ahead like loss of jobs, owed salaries etc.
\n\u25aa Adisa conducted this Bible Study online on Monday, April 28, 2020, with He’s alive Chapel, Port Harcourt headed by Pastor John Nwachukwu.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Prof. Charles Adisa We are looking at all round wellness. ? Mental wellness ? Emotional wellness ? Spiritual Wellness ? Economic wellness ? Physical wellness etc. The key scripture is 3 John 1:2: Beloved, I pray that you may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers. We trust that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772,5777],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}