THE NATION THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 2013
48
NEWS
Hole in the heart girl, gets N1.5m for surgery
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HERE is hope for baby Sumayah Dali, who has a hole in the heart. She has received N1,592,000 from the Monday Ubani Foundation founded by the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja Branch chairman, Mr Monday Ubani, to take care of the underpriviledged and the needy. The amount is part of the N2 million she needs for a corrective surgery at Fortis Hospital, Gurgaun, New Delhi, India. Ubani presented the cheque to her parents at the studio of Star FM at Alausa, Ikeja last Friday. Her father Ismail Dali is a refrigerator repairer and the mother, a sewing mistress. The Ubani Foundation is jointly being administered with the radio station. Ubani said the money was donated by Nigerians who listened to the station’s programme. Ubani, who described the gesture as a yearly event, said the Foundation in conjunction with the radio station donated N1.5 million to the victims of the June 3, 2012 Dana Air crash at Iju Ishaga. He said the Foundation
•Baby Dali By Adebisi Onanuga
also donated cash, goods, materials and drugs to Ikorodu flood victims three years ago. Ubani spoke of his plan to touch more lives next year. He said: “A total sum of N1,922,000:00 was raised, out of which N1,592,000:00 was given to Sumayah while the remaining N350,000.00 was shared among other incapacitated Nigerians, many of whom are blind and some others with sundry health issues. Ismail and Zainab said their travail started last year shortly after the birth of their
daughter. The couple had taken Sumayah, who at birth on July 28, 2012, weighed about 3kg, to the Igbogbo Health Centre, Ikorodu, for inoculation 10 days after her birth. The mother said 41 days after, they went back to the health centre when it was noticed that the girl was not growing, adding that as at today the baby weighs less than 3kg far below what a newly born baby would weigh. She said they were referred to the General Hospital, Ijede and later the Paediatric Centre at Agbala, Sabo Ikorodu where series of medication were administered on the baby without any improvement but rather ,“the weight continue to drop” she added. At the General Hospital, Ikorodu, the doctors conducted series of test, gave her oxygen to breath and finally referred her to Gbagada General Hospital to do “Echocardiogram test” which revealed that the baby has a hole in the heart. She said since then they had been running all over the place looking for assistance to save their baby.
•From left; Deputy Director, Safeguard, Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) Prof Olukayode Taiwo; Environmental and Safety Officer Mrs. Adenike Oginni; Dr Mike Dibor of Hope Worldwide Nigeria and Aderonke Omorhirhi, Social Safeguard Officer, LAMATA, at a seminar on health, safety and environment for workers and artisans.
Experts warn of rising hepatitis cases
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ANY Nigerians are living with liver and heartburn diseases, two major gastrointestinal ailments, an expert, Dr Sylvester Nwokediuko, has said. Nwokediuko, a consultant gastroenterologist, at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO), said: “Two billion people have the disease globally, 350 million of them have chronic infection of Hepatitis; close to 20 million of them have chronic Hepatitis B in Nigeria.” He spoke at the sixth scientific conference and annual general meeting (AGM) of the Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology of Nigeria (SOGHIN). It was organised in partnership with Reckitt Benckiser with the theme The Burden of gastrointestinal and liver diseases in Nigeria. He said: “From this figure we found those who develop liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, which are dangerous diseases that make patients present late.”
By Wale Adepoju
Nwokediuko identified diabetes, abuse of drugs and alcohol as factors that can injure the liver. He said there is vaccine for the prevention of Hepatitis B, which is included in the government’s immunisation prgramme. “But Nigerians cannot readily access this. Parents should make effort to get their child immunised.” he said. He said most people contracted Hepatitis B at a very young age. “This can be from mother to child or among children at home or in school. “The virus is transmitted through blood or blood products, especially when someone receives unscreened blood during transfusion or during surgery. It may also be as a result of contaminated syringe,” Nwokediuko said. He said treating Hepatis B is expensive as it runs for about a year. “And the cost of curing a patient may run into N2 million. He urged the Federal Gov-
ernment to subsidise the cost of treatment so that it can be accessible and affordable to the poor. Professor in Gastroenterology at Ege University School of Medicine, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey, Serhat Bor said one in five people in his community has GERD. He urged the Federal Government, “to train more gastroenterologists to quash the disease, which is responsible for chronic cough and nausea. “I think Nigeria has about 60 gastroenterologists but Turkey with a population of about 76 million has over 1,000 of them. I will recommend that Nigeria have at least 2,000 gastroenterologists.” Bor said there was need for government to also provide more endoscopic centres, diagnostic laboratories and sophisticated equipment to tackle gastrointestinal diseases. He identified obesity and lifestyle such as consumption of alcohol, especially alcoholic drinks, ingestion of analgestics or brittle bone diseases’ (osteoporosis) drugs and smoking as risk factors.
•From left: Chairman, Pfizer Cardiovascular Scientific Advisory Board Prof Oladipo Akinkugbe; guest speaker and Professor of Medicine and Chief of Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University of Tennessee Health Service Centre, Memphis, TN, U.S. Prof. Samuel Dagogo-Jack and Country Manager, Pfizer Nigeria and East Africa, Mr. Carl Engleman, at the sixth edition of the Cardiovascular Summit organised by Pfizer Nigeria and East Africa (NEAR) in Lagos.
Wild polio virus prevalent in Nigeria, say pharmacists
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IGERIA is the biggest exporter of wild oral polio virus in the world, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) Olumide Akintayo has said. Akintayo, spoke with reporters in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, said in other climes 80 per cent of immunisation endeavours were conducted within the confines of community pharmacists. The community pharmacist, he said was the first port of call where people access health care. Akintayo said: “The virus
From left: Trade Marketing Manager, Reckitt Benckiser, Abimbola Olanrewaju, Bor and Nwokediuko at the event.
From Adekunle Jimoh, Ilorin
accounts for 40 per cent of child and maternal mortality in Nigeria and India. Why? Because government is shortchanging pharmacists and other cadres of health care providers who have the expertise that can help reduce the trend.” The PSN president said: “Today, one out of 100 children less than one die. Less than three weeks ago they still identified three new episodes of wild polio virus in Nigeria.” On president Goodluck Jonathan’s war against fake and counterfeit drugs, the pharmacist said: “Nothing has changed. The status quo ante is maintained. Government must work its talk. It is no use setting up regulatory agencies that are not well funded to carry out their mandate. “The problem of drug faking has assumed a large dimension in this land. I have been saying this that there are security dimensions to curbing the menace. “There are less than 4,000 registered pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers including patent medicine drug sellers. But I can confirm that we have over two million different layers who sell drugs.” He attributed the Nigerian sordid health care delivery to the relegation of pharmacists and other health professionals
to the backburner of things. He said: “So what we have at all levels of health planning and designing in this country is that the government reckons with the input of only one profession and the result is what we are all contending with. “We live in a country where the constitution says you shall not legislate against privileges that can be enjoyed by any citizen of Nigeria. What is being done is outright discrimination against privileges meant for the Nigerian citizens. “If President Jonathan wants to begin to solve the problems in health care, the time is now to take stock and find out why did Ali Pate resign? He was frustrated by the bureaucracy of that ministry. Our people will continue to suffer except our government is bold enough to do the right thing. “Pharmacists are not in any form of popularity contest with doctors. I do know that constitutional imperatives are very clear. There are conditions precedent in the 1999 Constitution for you to be a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “It is not my business if anybody appoints a doctor as his minister, all we are saying here is that government needs to be very careful in the way it runs health care endeavours. The health sector is a peculiar one. It is a multi-disciplinary sector. There is an array of various health care providers.”