The Nation Newspaper

Category: Health

Prof Utomi: Prof Ekwueme brings cancer cure hopes (2)

If you derobe human character of all make up, you would discover beneath all intellectual sophistry a human being who is either a giver or a taker. Givers not only joyfully part with their money and property, and give of their being, they share their experiences as well. Takers are selfish, parasitic, unhelpful… and much more.

By stepping on a world stage through Instagram to announce he was prostate cancer challenged, Prof Pat Utomi rekindled interest and conversations on prostate cancer from which many Nigerian men must profit. While Prof Utomi may not have heard of urologist Prof. Kingsley Ekwueme who was reported on this page on August 24, 2023 to be in Nigeria from the United Kingdom with 150-minute surgical cure, their paths may meet. For there are no coincidences. On the other hand, I cannot consider to be a giver Prof. Ekweme’s patient who gave a voice testimonial in the video through which this historic laparascopic keyhole camera surgery became known to some persons. I will come to that later.

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Meanwhile, I will like to acknowledge anothergiver on this subject. He is Mr Kolade Roberts, a retired civil servant in Lagos State. He shared the column with hundreds of his friends. That is giving of what one has received or taken from the richly laden table of the wonderful creation of our God. He shared the column, also, with Professor Kingsley Ekwueme who, meanwhile, had returned to the United Kingdom. Prof Ekwueme was suprised that a small public presentation he came to make in Nigeria had been recognised by a columnist he had never met, and did not know he existed, and blown beyond nationwide proportions to a global audience. Prof Ekwueme told Mr Roberts he was billed to return to Nigeria in September to carry out about 50 surgeries. Some of the patients are coming to Nigeria from abroad.

When I heard that, I was close to tears, because such reports stir my inner feelings. I saw Professor Ekwueme in his own little way kindling our hope of making Nigeria become a haven for medical tourism. We need not always be downcast that our doctors are going abroad. Here is one example that, under the right circumstances, they can become givers to the tax payers whose toil and money gave them their medical wings in Nigeria.

Mr Roberts and Professor Ekwueme are now talking pals. In another conversation, Mr Roberts asked Professor Ekwueme how much his miracle prostate cancer surgery could cost. The professor replied that, in Nigeria, money was not his concern. Were money his concern, he would ask his Nigerian patients to come to his clinic in the U.K. All he desired was to see joy on the faces and in the hearts of his fellow country men. That gave him, joy, and this was why he preferred to be coming to Nigeria to ensure that no Nigerian needlessly died of prostate cancer.

When I heard this, I wondered if there were governors in Nigeria like Lucky Igbinedion, former governor of Edo State. He was governor when Catholic Reverend Father Anslem Adodo was preparing his PAX Herbal Remedies in the open at the Ewu monastery. I was priviledged to witness this during a visit to him at the monastery by members of the National Council of physicians of natural medicine(NCPNM) of which I am a Fellow. Liquid formulations were cooked in the open. From far and wide, sick persons came for these medicines. Father Adodo made them so cheap that he could hardly pay the dues of local persons who sourced these herbs from the wild. Governor Igbinedion heard about this. He was intrigued that the government could not provide primary and secondary health care services in the area father Adodo catered for. So, he gave father Adodo a huge sum of money to build a factory and a laboratory for research and quality control and to employ quality staff. PAX herbal centre herbal products are sold nationwide today. There is even a pax herbal centre natural medicine hospital at the GRA, Ikeja, Lagos. I ask: Are there no governors in Nigeria, including that of the home state of Prof Ekwueme, who can provide facilities to help him care for the growing number of prostate cancer challenged persons in Nigeria, and, in addition, train urologists in this rate art? If there are, and they give of their offices and persons, they would be fufilling a natural law of a healthy balance in taking and giving. Their constituents made them governors, hoping for a better coin in return. If , as Professor Ekwueme says, 1,000 men out of 100,000 men in Lagos are diagnosed with prostate cancer, supporting this venture to save the lives of these men is definitely a good way to give something back to society.

From Professor Ekwueme, I return to his Nigerian patient who spoke in camera in the video presentation of laparoscopic keyhole camera surgery in Nigeria. He would not show his face or give his name or face the cameras to give increase believability in the Nigerian success story Prof Ekweme announced to the world, beginning from Lagos , Nigeria. Every adult male resident of Lagos should be worried about the story Prof. Ekwueme told which this beneficiary of a prostate cancer cure did not support well in my view.The story line is…

1) 1000 in every 100,000 men in Lagos are prostate cancer challenged.

2) Under the old cancer surgery methods, patients may spend weeks convalescing in the hospital . They suffer prostatic nerve damage and may never be able to have an erection afterwards, with unpleasant post-surgical sexual experiences.

3) The historic surgical process takes about two and a half hours.Nerves are spared and the patient may leave the hospital next day and resume his sexual relationships, still a perfect man. Prof Ekwueme’s patient is entitled to his privacy , no doubt. I am only thinking of how many other men he may have been able to spare the horror of old fashioned prostate surgery and of how many lives he may have even helped to save if he was more of a giver.

The patient only said: “I feel very good because I have not seen this type of surgery before. No open surgery, no losing of blood. After surgery, I ate dinner that evening. I am walking around, you can see me walking around. Health care in Nigeria is something I cannot explain. I have money to do it abroad, but I prefer doing it in Nigeria because what am I going there to do? Our people say what is in Sokoto dey for sokoto, but they don’t know. This is the surgery, I have done it. Very successful. Keyhole surgery”.

For persons who do not understand the saying Sokoto (m:m:m) is 960.75 kilometers by road from Lagos. Sokoto(d:d:d) is the native trouser. This means you do not need to travel 960.7 kilometers in search of what is in your trouser pocket in Lagos.

“It is better to give than to receive”, the Christian scriptures teach us. Many people who express this statement or such others like Givers Never Lack may not realise The Law of Giving And Taking, one of the basic laws of nature which governs our world and our lives, constitute the language which the Almighty Creator speaks to us every moment of our existence here on earth and in the here after. I will mention only about five of the effects of The Law of Giving and Taking on our bodies to encourage us to become giving not just takers.

1) We all breathe. No one can inhale but fail to exhale and hope to live. Inhalation of air is taking from the environment while exhalation is giving back to that environment.

2) Who can drink water but fail to perspire or to urinate and hope to be healthy or to live? Even plants transpire, giving off through the leaves water brought to them from the soil by their roots.

3)We eat. Who doesn’t experience constipation when the quantum of expulsions does not match the consumption?

4) Glaucoma patients have more fluid than they should in the back chamber of the eye(s) which is not draining out fast enough from the front chamber. The back up in the back chamber creates pressure on the optic nerve and damages it, a cause of blindness. This is a case of receiving and not giving out. When we receive blessings, we must joyfully become a source of blessings to other persons.

5) The eye is not the only organ which may breach The Law of Giving and Taking. Various organs break this law. Medicine describes the infarction as Venous Congestion. In the circulation of the blood from the heart round the body and back to the heart, a journey which must also obey The Law of Motion and The Law of The Cycle, in which everything in motion ends up where it started off , arteries distribute blood, nutrients and oxygen to the organs while veins bring back to the heart the used blood. Sometimes, it happens that not all the blood an artery brings to an organ is released for a return journey to the heart through the veins. Overtime, unnecessary accumulations exist in defaulting organs. We all know what happens when a drainage flows sluggishly. The dregs in the water soon settle here and there. This, too, occurs in organs which do not release as much blood as they receive in the condition described as venous congestion. This is a possible cause of Uterine Fibroids which may regrow even after surgery if the underlying problem is not resolved. In prostate cancer, too, venous congestion may be at play.

Other Infractions

There may be a thousand and one causes of prostate cancer, in addition to second chakra blockage mentioned in the 24 August 2023 edition. Within the limits of time and space , some other possibilities , but not all , which have been making the rounds in scientific studies, will be mentioned below…

Helpful Remedies

For the prevention, management and possible cures of all conditions, there are several remedies. For example, every chakra has a particular colour vibration in which it vibrates. The second chakra vibrates in yellow colour. Thus, it is often advised that persons who need help for this chakra can wear yellow underbriefs. They may also eat fruits, vegetables and herbs which have yellow signature tunes. Similarly, they may drink water solarised in yellow bottles or in clear bottles wrapped in yellow filter papers and solarised. Solarisation is keeping water as described in the sun from sunrise to sunset. The yellow bottle or yellow paper filter permits extraction into the water of only the yellow ethers of sunlight. These ethers then enrich and awaken its homogenous vibrations in the organ, a development akin to jump-starting an inactive car battery with an active one. These remedies are important because some cancers regrow after successful surgeries, where their root causes are not eliminated

Zinc

Zinc shortfalls in the prostate gland is the problem of many persons. The prostate gland has the largest requirement of zinc for many reasons. Zinc is needed in other parts of the body as well. In the prostate gland, it checks the overstimulation of cells by 5- Alpha Reductase, an enzyme . When there is a zinc shortfall for whatever reason(s) including ejaculation losses which are not replaced, 5 Alpha Reductase may stimulate prostate gland enlargement or cancer.

Venous Congestion

The arteries bring blood to the organs and the veins take used blood back to the heart. Sometimes, veins and capillaries in the prostate gland are blocked, cause inadequate evacuation and congestion. Germs proliferate in congestions. So do toxins, wastes, other free radicals and oxygen deficiency. Such cases may cause reversal of tissue from oxidative (oxygen using) life to the fermentative (non oxygen dependent) life of tumours and cancers. Improved blood circulation and oxygenation through food and ozone injections may help. Congested colon may leak poisons, germs and free radicals into the prostate gland. Sometimes, the gland is invaded by flat worms which the digestive system should have killed. Their survival of the digestive process suggests that a challenged person may have digestive enzymes shortfalls. Supplementation of these in the diet may help. Raw pawpaw leaves provides all these proteolytic enzymes. So do black pawpaw seeds which are said to have anti cancer potentials. When I eat the leaves of pawpaw or these seeds, I smell them in my urine about an hour or two later, they have helped to kill germs not only in the intestine and blood , but in the urinary system and in the prostate gland as well.

Orange peel

The green peel has anti-histamine factors which recommend it for asthma and other respiratory system problems. It is also a blood sugar balancer.Elevated blood sugar feeds cancer growth and fungal growth. By depriving cancer of sugar, its power may be cut. Besides, scientists are studying orange peel for anti cancer activities. Some doctors co authored a book titled: Cancer is a fungus. It shows the relationship between fungal proliferation in an organ and the onset of cancer in it.

Hormones

Sometimes, the male hormone, testosterone, is blamed and doctors remove the testes to stop the testosterone fuel. I have seen several cases in which the cancer bowed before this measure but later aggressively flared .Sometimes, the tissues of many persons are too acidic and all the alkaline minerals may have become exhausted in a fruitless effort to stem this tide. An organ which cannot stand acidosis will cave in, no doubt. In this case, cooked food should be de emphasised. Alkalizing fruits such as Graviola (sour sop), kiwi, pawpaw, avocado pear,beetroot , noni, olives, garden egg should dominate the raw diet. They not only provide the body with potassium , which cancer cannot stand , but are less streanous to digest as well. This frees some energy for immune function.

Anti Micrbials

Just as we humans populate choice places on planet earth, germs of all sorts like to inhabit different parts of our bodies. Nature offers us help against them in several antimicrobial herbs we can eat, one morsel per one raw leaf, with every meal. Besides your meal, have another bowl filled with raw leaves. Masticate them with every morsel until they form a gruel.

Proprietaries

One proprietary formula which may be indirectly useful but scarce in Nigeria is the Canadian made matol. It parades some potassium rich herbs. Let’s remember that Dr Max Gerson used potassium rich juices to cure some cancers. Matol helps to stimulate production of Natural Killers (NK) cells which help to devour cancer cells.There are other formulas such as Amazon prostate support, prostate health, prosta plus, easy flow tea etc. Of course, there is Maria Treben’s swedish bitters formula from a man killed in a horse racing accident at the age of 103. This non alcoholic blend which is free of preservatives can be used in about 42 different ways,many of which synergically improve health by cleaning the system.

Essential Fats

We cannot exhaust nature’s treasure trove. We have not even examined Bill Anderson’s suggestions in his book Cancer Free mentioned in the first part of this series. Oils eases rigidity. When a key does not turn in the lock, or to prevent the Piston and rings in a mechanical engine from wearing or knocking, or when certain parts of the engine of a motor car are getting stiff, we apply the specific oils to ease out the rigidity. A cancerous organ is a rigid organ. Nature provides essential fatty acids in all organs to free them of rigidity. Thus, there is nothing in existence which does not have its own lubricating oil, leaves, the bark of trees, roots, herbs, animals all have their own oils. In humans, we know of omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9, all essential fatty acids. In particular, omega-3 is well known for its anti inflammatory functions. Inflammation is the beginning of many problems in the tissue which may result in a cancer. Thus, it is suggested that, for the prevention, management and cure of prostate cancer, large doses of omega-3 fatty acids be included in the diet.

Givers, takers

Does a relationship exist between an imbalance in giving and taking which predisposes a taker to the onset of diseases such as cancer? From anthropology and sociology, we can distinguish from physical body types a Yoruba man from an Ethiopean man, an Ibo man from a Zairian, a Nigerian/Hausa Fulani man from a Rwandan. Body types may be a character testimonial just as shapes suggest professional acumen, since the human spirit, the ego which some persons call spirit-man, form the human body is housing and tool on earth. So, since the human spirit is the one who TAKES and GIVES, does the nature of the human spirit connote which behaviours his organs will express?

August 31, 2023
A mission to demystify ‘a silent epidemic’ called CVDs
- By Olaitan Ganiu and Tinuola Owolabi
Despite advances recorded in medical science, more and more Nigerians are coming down with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Cardiovascular diseases, now the leading cause of death globally because these affect people of all ages, sexes, and ethnicities, encompass heart and blood vessel disorders such as coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, and rheumatic heart disease, among other conditions. No thanks to poverty, a rising number of people continue to suffer from chronic heart-related diseases, including stroke, hypertension, and heart attacks, with a clustering of factors such as unhealthy diet, tobacco use, alcohol, lack of physical activity, obesity, family history of heart disease, and air pollution fiercely contributing to the crisis.

In 2018, the WHO country profile showed that NCDs accounted for an estimated 29 per cent of all deaths in Nigeria, with cardiovascular diseases as the primary cause of NCD-related death (11%), followed by cancer (4%), chronic respiratory diseases (2%), and diabetes (1%). An estimated 17.9 million people died from CVDs in 2019, representing 32% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, 85% were due to heart attacks and strokes. While over three-quarters of CVD deaths take place in low- and middle-income countries, it was revealed that out of the 17 million premature deaths (under the age of 70) due to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in 2019, 38% were caused by CVDs.

Disturbed by the escalating numbers of this deadly syndrome in the country and determined to make a difference, the Cardio Health, a non-governmental organisation, has launched a campaign to combat the increasing number of heart and blood diseases in the country by providing access to crucial information that people need to navigate around the risk factors. Founded by Adeola Ifeoluwa Oyewole, a medical student at the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos, Cardio Health is a new baby birthed with the primary aim to help Nigerians improve their cardiovascular health through intervention, education, advocacy and medical outreaches.

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“We are committed to bridging the gap between people and their healthier hearts by promoting healthy living and creating awareness, sensitisation, and education about everything relating to the heart. Our vision is to create a world where cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and stroke are no longer leading causes of morbidity and mortality. We envision a future where everyone has access to the best cardiovascular care and resources needed to maintain optimal health by improving lives,” Oyewole said.

Since its official launch three months ago, Cardio Health has started working at a fast pace by implementing a rash of advocacy programmes to demystify the world’s biggest killers through education and awareness creation. The medical NGO, in a hurry to make a difference in changing the narrative about the silent epidemic, embarked on its first awareness event on May 1 in 50 locations nationwide to celebrate International Worker’s Day. The event, with the theme: The Working Heart: Knowing When to Stop, was a huge success having top-notch medical experts enlightening workers on how stress can increase cardiovascular diseases and how to manage their tender hearts.

According to the WHO, working 55 hours per week is associated with an estimated 35 per cent higher risk of a stroke and a 17 per cent higher risk of dying from ischemic heart disease. “Research has proven that one in every 22 workers suffers from a heart attack while at work, while about 72% of corporate employees are prone to heart disease. So, we had our outreach in 50 locations – Lagos, Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Kano, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Jos, and so on – where we were able to enlighten over 600 civil servants and non-servants on the importance of rest and relaxation because we found out that work-related factors, include sitting long hours, stressful work hours, exposure to smoke, and an unhealthy diet during work periods can cause heart diseases. We were able to convince them that only someone who is alive can go to work. If anyone dies, work continues,” she said.

Inspired by the success of its debut campaign, the team leader, currently pursuing studies in medicine and surgery, followed up with a webinar. The webinar featured two experienced medical experts: Dr. Akinsanya Olusegun-Joseph, a Consultant Cardiologist at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, and Prof. Osaretin Ebuehi, Deputy Provost of the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos. During the webinar, they delved into topics such as mitigating the risk of hypertension and the significance of nutrition in its management. “We chose the topic because people who suffer from hypertension also tend to have strokes. Around eight out of 10 individuals with high blood pressure also suffer from a stroke. Hypertension can also lead to kidney disease. This is due to the increase in glomerular filtration rate, as there is an increase in the amount of blood the kidney filters in a day.

“So far, in the last three months and two weeks, we have been able to reach out to about 1,000 people both online and on the field. I know for sure that by the time we clock six months or a year, we will be able to reach out to over 5,000 people because it is a long-term goal,” Oyewole said.

Dedicated to alleviating the impact of cardiovascular disease and preserving lives, she persists in dispensing and sharing wellness tips across social media platforms. She emphasises that adopting lifestyle adjustments can serve as effective prevention and management strategies for certain cardiovascular ailments, despite the potential life-threatening nature of certain conditions. “You don’t expect people to change their habits overnight, which is why we always ensure to share relevant information about heart-related diseases so they can make wise decisions. Reducing salt consumption to less than 5g daily, eating fruits and vegetables, avoiding saturated and trans fats, increasing physical activity daily, and avoiding tobacco and alcohol intake can help prevent this disease. Genetics also plays a role in many heart diseases. Knowing the health status of your family members guides your lifestyle. It is important to know your relative’s heart-health history. Having family members with heart problems raises your own risk, especially when it comes to your parents and siblings; learning about this will help you avoid developing any heart problems. It makes you more conscious of the things you eat, drink, and so on.”

Oyewole also identified poverty as both a primary contributor to and an outcome of the surging prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). She underscores that a significant number of Nigerians are unable to afford nourishing foods and adequate healthcare. “The rate at which things are getting expensive is causing depression, and when you are depressed, it might affect your organs and hearts. The poverty level is going deep due to the removal of the petrol subsidy, which is affecting transportation, food, and drug prices. How would you tell someone who has not eaten to go to the hospital for medical checkups? When medicines and treatment costs are expensive and devastating. The cost of heart surgery is not less than 10–12 million naira.

“So people should prevent heart disease by going for a medical checkup and checking their BP at least once a month. If you pick 20 people who have died, most died of CVDs, followed by cancer. This is the major challenge we faced during our outreach: people won’t give you their attention when you educate them about their health. Many Nigerians want food and money, not someone who tells them about diseases. The first illness is poverty, which we have to cure first before telling people to buy drugs. That is why we decided to support CVD patients financially; we’ve been able to raise money for like three people in the past three months. For people who could not buy drugs, we raised funds for them to see cardiologists. So, at The Cardio Health, we render all-around services, education, intervention, advocacy, and awareness.”

In years to come, she expressed the foundation’s dedication to nurturing a collaborative culture, forging strong partnerships with patients, healthcare providers, and various stakeholders. These efforts aim to strongly contribute towards the aggressive combat against non-communicable diseases (otherwise known as a silent epidemic) in Nigeria.
August 31, 2023
Experts decry high abortion-related deaths, seek more investment in SRH initiatives

Medical experts, scholars, and researchers in the field of public health have expressed deep concern over the alarming rates of death resulting from unsafe abortions in the country. They are urging the government to significantly increase its investment in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH).

These experts are unanimous that the lives of women and girls aged 15 to 49 years, lost daily due to abortion-related causes, hold a value that far surpasses the funding required to establish the necessary facilities and services to ensure their survival. This collective sentiment was articulated during a special session titled: The Public Health Challenges of Unintended Pregnancies and Abortion: Global and National Dimensions. The session was organised by the non-governmental organisation Academy for Health Development (AHEAD) based in Ile-Ife, Osun State, in collaboration with the Guttmacher Institute, headquartered in New York, USA. This event was an integral component of the 5th Scientific Conference of the Society for Public Health Professionals of Nigeria (SPHPN).

According to these experts, Nigeria bears a staggering annual loss of over 67,000 women due to abortion-related complications, with an alarming daily average of at least 20 deaths across the nation. Leading this call was Prof Adesegun Fatusi, a distinguished figure in the realm of Community Medicine and Public Health, who highlighted that Nigeria currently carries the heaviest burden of maternal mortality based on the latest research by the World Health Organisation (WHO). He went on to underscore that, as per the Federal Ministry of Health’s data, approximately 11 per cent of maternal deaths in Nigeria result from abortion. When combining these two statistics, it becomes evident that approximately 20 women tragically lose their lives every day due to abortion-related causes. This reality is both deeply concerning and troubling.

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Fatusi, who also serves as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences in Ondo State and as the foundation Secretary-General of SPHPN, stressed that this dire situation can be reversed if the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of women are adequately met. He advocated for an additional per capita investment of $27.15 to supplement the current $3.11. He explained, “If all the contraceptive, maternal, newborn, and abortion care needs in Nigeria were comprehensively addressed, the following sexual and reproductive health outcomes for women aged 15 to 49 years and their newborns would experience a significant improvement. Unintended pregnancies would decline by 80 per cent; abortion rates would decrease by 80 percent; unsafe abortions would plummet by 80 per cent; maternal deaths would diminish by 61 per cent, and newborn mortality would drop by 76 per cent.”

Fatusi also emphasised that this additional investment would encompass health services, policy and legal frameworks, norms, data, and research. Providing a global perspective on unintended pregnancies and abortions, Dr. Jonathan Bearak, a Senior Research Scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, shared insights from a recent survey indicating a decrease in the rates of unintended pregnancies on average worldwide but increasing in Nigeria. He further noted that abortion rates exhibit wide variations across countries, irrespective of whether abortion is prohibited or not. Other speakers, in their separate remarks, called upon the government and various stakeholders to escalate efforts and take comprehensive actions to safeguard the lives of women.

August 31, 2023
UoN using AI to predict pregnancy risks for women in Africa
- Prof Moses Obimbo Madadi, leading Clinician-Scientist and Associate Professor at the University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Africa has the highest neonatal mortality rate in the world, with 27 deaths per 1,000 live births. However, comprehensive research on the relation between pregnancy loss and reproductive health issues are not as readily available.

What is known is that vaginal infections, including Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), could have serious implications for women’s reproductive health and their pregnancy outcomes. Critical research is needed to better understand the microorganisms present in various vaginal infections, and their role in particular pregnancy outcomes.

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and next-generation sequencing technology, my team of researchers at the University of Nairobi are breaking new ground in understanding how the vaginal microbiome and vaginal infections affect a woman’s reproductive health and pregnancy outcomes. This technology could enable us to identify whether women who deliver at term have a certain microbiome, compared to those experiencing pre-term birth.

This research is not only the first of its kind in Kenya – it is cutting edge research with significant tangible impact in improving pregnancy outcomes for women around the world. It also informs the development of faster and less invasive testing – such as a urine test – at the point of care, and potentially the development of more effective therapeutic treatments. If health workers can diagnose and treat an infection at the point of care, you mitigate risk to mother and baby, and reduce the cost of treatment.

The risks of vaginal infections in pregnancy

Testing for vaginal infections – particularly asymptomatic infections such as bacterial vaginosis – is not routinely carried out in prenatal examinations. Healthcare providers seldom carry out a full screening for both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections. They often do syphilis screening, and screenings in the case of premature rupture of the membranes, but there is no integrated approach for identifying asymptomatic infections.

Some studies indicate around 20% of women attending gynaecology clinics in Kenya have vaginal infections including bacterial vaginosis and parasitic infections, or STIs including syphilis, gonorrhoea, Chlamydia and Trichomonas vaginalis. However, data suggests that as many as 73% of women have asymptomatic vaginal infections. Left untreated, these infections can lead to multiple adverse outcomes for pregnancy and gynaecological health, such as miscarriages, preterm birth, foetal growth restriction, premature rupture of the membranes, stillbirth, and endometriosis or infertility for the mother.

Early identification and treatment of vaginal infections would reduce the scale of adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, even where screening is carried out for vaginal infections, the process does not always have the desired outcomes, as the usual diagnostic method requires a vaginal swab, which can be seen as invasive and requires follow-up visits to receive the results and get treatment.

When patients are asked to return repeatedly, the financial cost and time involved for patients discourages follow-up care, resulting in the loss of precious time for treatment. Though nearly 90 percent of women in rural Kenya seek antenatal care, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), many wait until the second or third trimester, when it is too late for effective treatment.

Improving pregnancy outcomes

Our five-year research project includes screening and monitoring over 1,500 women attending six medical facilities in Kenya over two years. The research follows first, second and third trimester development, with a control group, live births, and women with outcomes of interest such as preterm or stillbirths.

Having acquired advanced tools such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machines to analyse bacteria, and an Illumina MiSeq sequencer for targeted and microbial genome applications, we will use next generation sequencing and AI to analyse microbial communities, and metabolomic profiling to identify predictive and diagnostic signatures of adverse pregnancy outcomes.

In the third year of our research, we will work with computational biology doctoral students to develop an AI model to analyse the data and develop prediction models that could be used to identify at-risk pregnancies for early interventions. Our aim is to show how differences in the composition in the vaginal microbiome impact pregnancy outcomes.

As part of our work, we have established new collaborations with the international Vaginal Microbiome Research Consortium (VMRC), a body which works to improve understanding on the stability of the vaginal microbiota, and risk for disease or adverse gestational outcomes among other functions.

In future, we also plan to drive improved education and awareness of the link between vaginal infections including STIs and pregnancy outcomes. We will sensitise communities and healthcare workers for them to understand that looking out for vaginal infections should be one of the standard pillars of prenatal care.

By working to identify predictive biomarkers for adverse pregnancy outcomes, we may be able to improve reproductive health for women not only in Kenya, but around the world, and support health officials with better intervention strategies to support healthier pregnancy outcomes.

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Moses Madadi Bio

Moses Obimbo Madadi, Clinician-Scientist and Associate Professor at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, will form a coalition of researchers and develop tools to study the vaginal microbiome and metabolites during pregnancy to help identify predictive biomarkers and intervention strategies for improving pregnancy outcomes in Kenya. Africa carries a high burden of severe pregnancy complications such as stillbirths and neonatal deaths. To address this, Dr. Madadi is leveraging his broad experience in clinical, basic, and epidemiological research to establish a unique niche of translational research to support the health of women in Kenya and around the world. He will perform a prospective cohort study at four hospitals in Nairobi by collecting clinical data and vaginal samples from over 1500 pregnant women. He will use next generation sequencing to analyse microbial communities, and metabolomic profiling to identify predictive and diagnostic signatures of adverse pregnancy outcomes. These data will be used to develop artificial intelligence-assisted prediction models that could be used as valuable screening tools to identify at-risk pregnancies for early interventions
August 29, 2023
‘Brain drain solution needs a multifaceted approach’

The Chief Medical Officer (CMD), Alimosho General Hospital, Dr Adedapo Soyinka, says the brain drain needs a multifaceted approach. The specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecology, who graduated from the College of Medicine Idi-Araba, University of Lagos, in 1995, did his postgraduate studies at Obafemi Awolowo University before traveling abroad for further training. He bared his mind on the state of healthcare delivery system in the country, the worsening crisis posed by brain drain and how it can be managed as well as the challenges of managing a public hospital with meagre resources. He spoke with CHINYERE OKOROAFOR.

How to solve brain-drain problems

octors have been talking about the way forward. The solution to the brain drain needs a multifaceted approach because I’m sure you have heard people talk about the pull and push factors. The push factors are the things pushing people away from here. Why? We want a better infrastructure; we want our working environment to be decent and conducive. To retain people, the infrastructural upgrade needs to be optimised. Welfare is another pull factor. Inflation has cut off what anybody is collecting now; salaries need to be increased or doubled to make sense and gladly the government has gone back to the drawing board. If the government does that, maybe more people will be willing to stay. There should be training opportunities for doctors and nurses to make progress in their careers. I went abroad and the practice abroad is that once you are done, you don’t stay stagnated. While you are a medical officer, there are many opportunities for you to go for training. Some people are medical officers for years, some have even done postgraduate exams, they passed and there is no available space. Not all hospitals can train but hospitals like Alimosho should be a training place for even postgraduates, because more people will stay when they have that fulfilment that they are making progress in their career. So that is another aspect to look at.

Other social amenities, which I think government should look into is that before, the practice used to be that when you are qualified as a doctor, you have access to house and car loans and other housing facilities. If we can bring that back, in fact, I see it as a smart way to tie people down, give somebody a building and say pay over the period of 10 years. Here is a car loan, pay over a period of time too, government is your guarantee and a portion will come from your salary. People wouldn’t be in a hurry to leave. The pull factor you may not be able to do much about but the push factor we can do something about what is pushing people away. What is pulling people abroad is stronger than us; so we have to respond by addressing the push factors. There should be accommodation facilities for staff to attract more workers.

Challenges of managing a public hospital and coping strategies

Top of the list of challenges is that there is a very strong wave of staff attrition. Every week, I see resignation letters from nurses who are top on the list and doctors and paramedics staff. The brain drain is affecting the hospital where we have over 30 departments and handle major sub-specialisation in medical practice. For every nurse or doctor that leaves, it is a major depletion in our workforce and that affects the services that we render. If there is anything, I need more; it is more staff right away. When a staff leaves, the implication of that is that we redistribute staff to make sure that the gap is covered and of cause the implication is that there is more pressure on the staff, which affects their quality of service, their attitude to work and the psyche of the personnel.

The World Health Organisation says that one doctor should attend to 600 patients and you discover that, at times, a doctor sees thousands of patients in this part of the world. Honestly, the doctor and nurse patients’ ratio is quite absurd. For us, we make sure that the work keeps going. We also have the challenge of capital. As you know, being the CMD, I have access to my Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), which is supposed to be used for recurrent costs, power, oxygen, consumables and minor repairs, but we are forced to use some of these limited funds from our IGR to do capital projects because the approvals are not coming in as quick as they ought to be. And you can’t afford to have interruptions in providing services. At times, we have to use our IGR to do a hire purchase because we are yet to get approval to replace a machine that has gone bad or we buy and pay installmentally. It is also from the IGR that we maintain the building where the intern or in-house officers stay. It was built by SGDs. We have a facility manager who takes care of the place. There are also a lot of challenges in trying to keep the hospital stable; most suppliers have increased the prices of all the things used in the hospital but we’ve tried to not increase the tariff. Despite the inflation, we’ve tried to keep the hospital tidy with an increase in a few items.

Having a dumpsite near our hospital is a challenge

Another challenge is also the dump site. It is a major problem that is beyond me; it affects us because it smells and during the rainy season, it’s awful. At times when I’m frustrated, I call the General Manager of Lagos Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and he has been cooperative. He will mobilise and they will put chemicals and turn the dirt over and the smell will only become bearable. The Commissioner of Environment and the Permanent Secretary are aware. Even the governor when he came to commission the Mother and Child Centre, he promised that they were going to look into it. So I’m sure the government is giving it a lot of consideration. If there is anything I would want to change, it would be the dumpsite because during accreditation of the hospital, supervisors also complained about it, which affects our performance. International agencies come to assess the hospital and they always said the dumpsite shouldn’t be close to the hospital. So in terms of the environment, we score zero on accreditation. The waste can also seep into the water of the community.

High medical cases at Alimosho General Hospital

There are so many departments, which are difficult to compare but I can mention some departments and tell you what seems to be the major problem there, for example, the paediatrics department. In this department, there are lots of birth asphyxia (suffering of a child’s brain during childbirth) which is responsible for a lot of deaths that came from referrals who gave birth at home. The babies don’t cry well and some of them need oxygen, an incubator or special care. In medicine, we see a lot of stroke and kidney problems. Hypertension is also on the rise and some of the complications of hypertension are heart failure or cardiovascular accident, which is stroke and renal problems. Another department is Obstetrics and Gynaecologist department where the general problem is malaria, low blood, and high blood pressure in pregnancy.

Why more medical departments were created

It was a necessity because patients that we were often referring to teaching hospitals can now get the treatment they want here at Alimosho. In this hospital, we’ve improved tremendously and I can say this with all boldness. Since assuming office, we have been able to introduce five new speciality departments that were not here before such as the Neurology clinic (specialises in male issues], Orthodontist, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) clinic and that unit is pulling a lot of crowds because, in this axis, no hospital has an ENT surgeon. We didn’t have endocrinologist before, but we were fortunate the Lions Clubs had one for us which is called the Diabetes Centre. We didn’t have a Histopathologist before but now we have and we are planning to do higher things like autopsy in that department because the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) department from the Presidency built a morgue for us, which is awaiting commissioning. We also have Burns and Plastic department.

There is also a partnership that was supposed to have taken off, which is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement with another firm, which is about to start soon. Part of what these are bringing to the table is Molecular Biology and DNA typing and analysis. We also have a Wellness and Diagnostic Centre, a 50-bedded accident and emergency buildings that is awaiting commissioning. What we don’t have in this hospital right now is a brain surgeon but we are working on how to get one and it is not easy because they are not so many and they are at the teaching hospitals. And one of the things we need for a neurosurgeon is an ICU so I have decided by the grace of God before the end of this year we will have a 10-bedded ICU, which is almost 90 per cent ready and there will be oxygen piped there. There are some kinds of cancer that we can manage here as well such as breast lumps but when it comes to administering chemotherapy, some can be done in-house by the speciality in that department. Some we will need a cancer specialist particularly in radiotherapy to kill the cancer cells that we will have to refer.

Addressing patients’ complaints and managing workers’ stress

Occasionally, we take ourselves out. I remember the year, a few months back, I had a day out with the doctors, and we went to the beach. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. We also do monthly sports activities, distribute welfare packages and encourage the best workers of the month, quarter and year – both junior and senior workers. We also sponsor our workers for training so that they can upgrade themselves.

The complaints have reduced now. I remember when I came, it was war. The number one complaint of patients has to do with medical records. The traditional practice is that everybody resumes at 8 am. If you have gone to government hospitals and you have a card, they will just say your appointment is say tomorrow by 8am and imagine the outpatients’ ward where you are going see 300 to 400 patients and all of them come at the same time or 80 per cent of them come at 8am. And then we also have the problem of retrieving folders. People will queue outside the office lamenting why their files can’t be seen.

And to a patient, if you say you can’t find their file, it is a grievous crime. It is like saying to them that they don’t exist in the hospital; so they become annoyed and they begin to complain. So I saw that there was a need to move from manual files to electronic files. We called in an expert in the field who did the costing and we said that we don’t have money, but can pay in instalments. He was able to dance to our tune and he installed the infrastructure and we started with the outpatients and it worked well. So, we extended it to another speciality clinic. Now the whole hospital is on the electronic medical report; so it’s bye-bye to paper files in Alimosho General Hospital.

What we are also trying to do now is to upload the older files into the system and all our records are saved in the cloud. We also have a specialised register where patients can book the time of their appointment. So after that time, we attend to people who have urgent but not emergencies; so the waiting time is reduced and it has started in all our departments. Our ICT department was trained by the consultant who left his staff for a year to teach them how to run it and do the maintenance. In addition to that, I got a machine called the Queue Management System (QMS) that maintains first-come-first-served priority.

We also started what we call staggering appointments. In staggering appointments, we look into how many patients we see in a day. Let’s say a particular clinic sees patients in a day, we agreed that not all of them should come at the same time and keep a long wait. Now, we have a specialised register where we can book you based on the time you want to see the doctor.

August 24, 2023
Prof Utomi: Prof Ekwueme brings cancer cure hopes (1)

Professor Okedinachi Utomi shocked his teeming followers in the academia, politics, business and the social media early this month on his Instagram handle with the revelation that he was prostate cancer challenged. Even in this his other engagement with fate, he would appear yet predestined to be a lucky man. Some years ago, he miraculously survived a road crash. I say he is a lucky man again because, as we his friends were trying to recover from the shock of his prostate cancer revelation, Professor Kingsley Ekweme was in town with what promises to be a magic cure wand. The professor came in from England where he and some Nigerian doctors had just successfully carried out an historic two and a half hours prostate cancer surgery on a Nigerian, using a keyhole camera technology under which the patient suffers no nerve damage, can still have an erection and remain a man from head to toe. I was excited when I watched the video which was sent to me by Mr Oluyemisi John, a former safety manager of Total and member of Kusa green pastures herbs WhatsApp chat group.

According to goggle:

“Professor Kingsley Ekwueme is a consultant urologist with special interest in the minimally invasive surgical treatment of urological cancers using Robotic and Laparoscopic techniques.

Professor Ekwueme is a UK trained surgeon. His surgical training was on the Merseyside training scheme under the tutelage of many eminent surgeons. Professor Ekwueme developed strong research interest early on in his career and holds a doctoral degree awarded by the University of Liverpool. His research interests are wide ranging. His training spans outside of the UK with Robotic fellowship in Paris and key collaborations with experts in France and Germany.

Professor Ekwueme and his team have extensive experience in the field of urology, ensuring that you are well looked after throughout the course of your treatment”

The Video

It is introduced by a woman who says:

“(It is) the triumph of an historic and life saving surgery. Professor Kingsley Ekweme, a former U.K-based Nigerian doctor has returned to the country to share his skill. The prostate is a small walnut size gland that produces the seminal fluid that nourishes sperm. Prostate cancer is three times more common in black populations than white majority ones. Patients in countries in Sub Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are more likely to die than patients in United States,United Kingdom, mainland Europe and Australia. And the statistics are even more eye opening when looking at Lagos”.

Professor Kingsley Ekweme takes over :”The 100,000 population of Lagos , you have over 1000 diagnoses of prostate cancer. To put it in perspective, you compare that with Europe where you have 150 per 100,000. So, that is almost 10 times of prostate cancer in Just Lagos State alone, as many prostate cancer in Lagos than you have in Europe”.

The presenter takes over:

“(This) is why what he has achieved in two and a half hours for the first time by a group of Nigerian doctors at Redington hospital is historic”.

Professor Ekweme takes over:

“What we have got done on Sunday is treat and cure prostate cancer with surgery like it’s never been done before. It is a laparascopic key-hole surgery. The key hole camera magnifies the prostate. We no longer need to go deep down into the pelvis. We can see it all on the camera and you can perform intricate dissections and have been able to save the nerves of this patient…that (if) he has a young wife, he would go home and have an erection. So his cancer will be cured, he would maintain his erection and all its functions…and he would spend one night in hospital compared with open surgery where he would spend weeks”.

Cancer Epidemic

From Dr Ekweme’s figures, Nigeria may be approaching a prostate cancer epidemic. I will not be suprised if it is. In 1988, Seun Ogunseitan, Assistant Science Editor of The Guardian, reported hundred fold heavy metals presence above World Health Organisation (WHO) safety levels in the underground water of Ijesha area of Lagos. Heavy metal toxicity is an underground suspected cause of prostate and other cancers. Metals were leaching into water from refuse dumps and people were drinking and cooking with it from toxic well water. People are still inhaling lead, a heavy metal, from traffic smoke.People are eating vegetable from road side gardens which have been suffused with lead from traffic exhaust which percolate into the soil. Many people are still eating cow skin which is cured in bonfires made of tyres which emit heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, iron and even arsenic. Despite the ban by the government of Lagos State on tyre bonfires to cure cow skin at the Lagos abbatoir, the bonfires are still made, especially at the week-ends when public health officials are not in sight. Interestingly, there is a police station nearby. But the policemen do not appear to recognise that a law is being broken or contravened right under their noses. Resident in the neighbourhoods appear to be ignorant of the dangers in the air they are breathing. The air is thick with the aroma of roasting cow skin and is a carrier for the heavy metals released from the burning tyres.These heavy metals include lead, Mercury cadmium and arsenic which are poisonous to various organs of the body, including the brain.

Google narrows down their effects on their possible effects on the prostate gland:

“The evaluation of some heavy metals in prostate cancer patients and controls in Enugu, was carried out. Venous blood samples were collected from 72 participants who gave informed consent for this study at Enugu, Nigeria;36 prostate cancer patients and 36 healthy subjects as controls. Blood heavy elements were determined using atomic Absorbtion spectrometer… Data from this study were subjected to statistical analysis… From the result of the study, it seems that heavy metals are raised in prostate cancer patients, and thus may play some role in the pathogenesis of the disease”.

According to several studies, heavy metals cause oxidative stress, DNA damage, upset hormonal balances in men and women, and instigate cell death processes which may lead to onset of any cancer.

About 20 years after Ogunseitan broke the news of multiple levels of heavy metals above world safety levels in underground Lagos water supply, the government of Lagos State confirmed heavy metal toxicity in underground water in some parts of Lagos. Today, a nauseating open refuse dump exists in Ojota, a few meters from dwellings, contrary to about three kilometers suggested by the WHO. It is still not clear if public and private water works in Nigeria have the technology to remove heavy metals and micro plastics from public water supplies. This month, pilgrims to Osun river during Osun Osogbo Festival were advised to not drink or bathe or swim in the river because of heavy loads of heavy metals. Traditionally, pilgrims drank the water and bathed in it, believing doing so would make them fertile, cure their infirmities, psychically protect them against evil and enrich them with favours.

With this kind of scenario, the first step I always advise cancer challenged persons to take is Heavy Metal Detoxification, using Chelated minerals, such as zinc, edta, Chlorella and cilantro, among others. The trouble with us in Nigeria, is that we hardly detoxify. We eat and eat and eat and eat until trouble looms and strikes!

Parables

We live in a world of parables. Our elders encapsulated them for us in wisdom chips. In Yoruba land, we are taught: “Iku ti o n npa ojugba eni owe l’o npa feni’. (The death (or affliction) of your contemporary is speaking to you in a parable). That is to say, you may be next on the queue. Thus, when I encounter such parables, I pull myself by the ear, shut down my space, pull a chair and ask myself some probing questions. I did just that again last week when gate keepers of the traditional media let out the story of Professor Pat Utomi’s prostate gland cancer.

I confess that I was shaken. When one hears of such things from distant human ecosystems, it sometimes makes little or no sense. My maternal grandmother’s breast cancer diagnosis in 1980, barely two years after I returned home from national youth service in Calabar, Cross River State, jolted me from slumber and sent me searching for cancer cures in the Alternative Medicine market, then at its infancy, when all orthodox medicine hospitals I approached said there was no hope. She passed. But that should not discourage a challenged person because, since then, many cases have been documented of persons who defeated cancer. There is a long list of such persons and the natural medicines which helped them In the book Cancer free, One of the books I purchased in 1980 to help my grand mother. It is co authored by Bill Henderson, a medical lay person, and Denzel , M.D. The death of Henderson’s wife spurred him to write the book. He said it was not cancer but chemotherapy which killed her. To prove his point, Henderson gathered information on cancer survivors who avoided chemotherapy and other invasive methods but, neverthe less, survived on natural therapies.Through telephone discussions and videos and more than 165 weekly news letters, Henderson has reportedly helped more than 3,000 of his 4,000 stricken followers to defeat cancer, using natural methods of survivors documented in the book. Denzel Koh, of Australia, who said he cured his daughter of cancer using some of the ideas, described the book as a Bible for challenged persons. There is another book on The Gerson Therapy and several on Dr. Karl Folkers and his experiments with Co enzyme Q10 (CoQ10) and its reduced version, ubiquinol which is more potent. Dr Max Gerson healed several cases of post chemo therapy terminal cancers , using fruit and vegetables juices combined with organic coffee enemas to clean the small intestine and the colon inside out. This coffee is inedible. He presented the cases and his therapeutic methods to a congressional hearing in the United States. Dr Folkers, nicknamed “the father of Co Q 10 research” because of his extensive research on this substance, is credited with an outstanding experiment in which about 30 cases of terminal breast cancers were healed using nutritional food supplements which, according to the team of doctors which worked with Dr Folkers, may have been energised by Co Q 10. All over the earth, there have been similar reports of the conquest of cancer. Yohannah Brandt, for example, wrote The Grape Cure to show how an almost exclusive fast on grape juice saved her cancer -riven stomach. The foregoing is to salute the courage of Professor Utomi. Many persons place their health situations inside the closet. By voicing his, Professor Utomi kindly invited the attention of all men of his age and probably younger to the need to urgently bestir themselves and see their urologists or oncolosts as the case may be.

   When I heard the news, I was shaken. He and I were classmates between 1974 and 1977 at the Department of Mass Communications of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN). He was a lively young man who along with Alozie Ogbugbuaja, that outspoken policeman brought comic relief to the tedium of classroom life. Through them and a young woman named Nana Audu, I learned that Catholic Reverend father’s were human beings. One of the priests was Father Anyaka. He must have been in his forties or fifties. I do not remember the name of the other one. Patooo, as we called Pat Utomi , may have been under 20 like Isa Momoh, one of his closest friends who never had a dull moment in his life. Ogbugbuja complemented them. While Patoo wore skull shoes with heels as long as one foot, Ogbugbuaja wore dreadlocks. He would arrive for lectures, dead serious, after the lecturer had settled in, to welcoming chants of “Prof, …Prof… Prof…until he took his seat. Such were the floods of memories which crossed my mind last week when I heard of Professor Utomi’s condition. Immediately, I sent to him a Gmail and WhatsApp message of hope.

Hope Channels

The channels of hope for all men are legion and are all worth exploring. Some of them are nutrition, nutritional supplements, chakra or energy medicine and the latest surgical procedure which I mentioned earlier. Nowadays, I always like to first put forward Chakra Medicine because it is little known in this corner of our earth but is, nevertheless, probably more potent than any type of intervention. On June23, 2023, this was my leading suggestion during a speech I gave at a meeting in Lekki, Lagos, of upward moving women professionals facilitated by Mrs Sola Sowemimo, a barrister and an organic farmer who is the Chief Executive Officer of Ope Farms. The meeting was all about how pre menopausal women may scale over menopause without being caught in the sometimes stormy or turbulent symptoms of the change of life.

Today, I would also like to suggest that men too pay serious attention to their Second Chakras.

The Chakras

To understand the second chakra, we must understand the Seven Chakras. The chakra is a vortex or source of energy which keeps the human body and its organs alive. To understand what this means, we may like to imagine the refrigerator, air conditioner or the television receiving set. None of these electrical appliances has a life of its own. It has a cable and a plug. When the plug is connected to a socket in the wall or anywhere in which there is electricity, electrical energy flows through into the plug and from there,through the cable, into the appliance which then comes alive and gives us the service for which we purchased it. In other words, the appliance has no life on its own. The human body is like that. It comes alive ,and its organs are in optimal state of health for as long as the body can plug into an animating source of energy,…provided there is energy in the “socket”.

     The foregoing thesis is that we human beings are not our physical bodies. That, in the first place, is why we speak in the possessive sense of “my hand” or “my head”, as we also speak of “my house” or “my car”, all of which are external to our being. We the beings, are spirits, human spirits , each one a bundle of energy in the material spheres for a purpose. That purpose and why and how we acquired our bodies are not the subject of this column. It is important to note though for the purpose of Energy Medicine and its healing potential, that we inhabit our bodies and give them life when they plug into our energy vortexes. When they fail to, for whatever reason(s), the health of their organs may ebb, the organs may become diseased, and the bodies may fall away from us in what we call death, while we, the beings , move on.

   There are seven chakras or points of animating connections between us and our bodies. Each connection is like a “step down transformer”. If the transformer blows, there is a “black out” for the organs it serves. (These connections can be checked (on-line). Of importance to us here is The Second Chakra. It serves the organs of the pelvic region in men and women. (The genitals, uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, prostate gland, kidneys,lower back, lower abdomen) etc… When there is a chakra energy blockage to these organs, they fall ill or become diseased because they have no life of their own. What causes the blockage or outage is emotional disturbance. This chakra is about the uses of Power for the benefit of everyone in one’s ecosystem of human beings or network. Often, the interplays of power relations leads to attempts to subsume or appropriate other persons, especially in sexual relationships. Where this is challenged and prevented and the loss of the intruding authority leads to pathological pain, this may diminish energy outflow from the being and energy blockage of the second chakra. In the book, The Creation of Health, American surgeon Dr Norman Sheally and co-author Carolyn Myss, an intuitive, explain how, without medication but appropriate counselling, many of their patients have been helped to overcome their emotional stresses, free energy chakras and regain their health from even breast cancers. The internet, too, may offer useful suggestions. Men who suffer second chakra emotional disturbances when they are unable to control situations they will like to control and their pains become pathological and may experience prostate gland challenges, hernias, urinary system troubles etc.

To be continued.

August 24, 2023
PECAN sensitizes FCT residents on effective mosquito control

The Pest Control Association of Nigeria (PECAN) has taken its advocacy and sensitization efforts to the residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), informing them about the new ways to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes which causes malaria.

The association, while complaining about the illegal and indiscriminate use of pesticides and related chemicals, called on the federal government to place premium attention on environmental management and pollution in order to control the breeding of mosquitoes.

Speaking during a sensitization road walk in the FCT, the national president of the Pest Control Association of Nigeria (PECAN), Olakunle Williams said, “20th of August of every year is a date set aside to commemorate the World Mosquito Day. Mosquito is probably the most dangerous animal in the world because of the number of people it has killed. We have joined the world today to commemorate the day by sensitizing and informing people about the dangers of allowing mosquitos to fester.

“If there is no mosquito, there will be no malaria. So, we want the people to know that getting rid of mosquitoes is preventive for malaria. We are putting in efforts to join the government from the private sector perspective in prevention.

“You have heard of larva source management, that is, making sure the drainages don’t have any container retaining water that larva could develop. We are here at the IDP camp to also help them to control mosquitoes. We are also here to let them know that there are ways they can prevent the breeding of mosquitoes on their own.

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“We hope that the government will support us because we know the government is looking into going into partnership with the private sector on malaria, and we are putting ourselves forward in helping the government to achieve this goal.”

According to the senior technical assistant to the registrar and director, Dept. of Registration, Ethics and Standards at the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON), Dr Issac Adamu, “Mosquito eradication is the responsibility of the Federal Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry is not resting on its oars. We are ab Agency under the Ministry of Environment and have a special disease vector control program that is working to ensure that mosquitoes, among other parasites, are tamed in order not to make Nigerians unhealthy as a result of their feeding habits and their habitation

“It is very important that when we are fighting malaria in Nigeria, we need to concentrate efforts on the vector. Over the years, we have not been paying attention to the vector by directly interfering with its habitat and way of life. It is essential that we turn attention to the vector which causes not only malaria but other parasitic infections.”

August 21, 2023
Widespread excitement amid high expectations in health sector

Since the announcement of the appointment of Prof Muhammad Ali Pate as the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, local and international stakeholders have expressed excitement and high hopes that the sector is set to receive the much-needed leadership boost to improve the country’s health indices. MOSES EMORINKEN writes about the daunting tasks ahead and what can be done to reshape the health and wellbeing of Nigerians.

Since the appointment of Prof Muhammad Ali Pate as Minister of Health and Social Welfare by President Bola Tinubu, there appears to be a groundswell of excitement and jubilation from every quarter in the health sector. Many have described his appointment as a round peg in a round hole; one of the best things to have happened to Nigeria’s health sector.

However, excitement of this magnitude is a rarity, particularly within the discerning circles of the health sector. A key example of such an occurrence materialised with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) proclamation of Nigeria as a polio-free nation in August 2020. Remarkably, Prof. Pate played a pivotal role in this achievement, notably during his tenure as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) from November 14, 2008 to July 11, 2011.

Pate, a distinguished and internationally recognised Professor of Public Health, exhibited unwavering commitment in response to the wild poliovirus outbreak. He zealously pursued an assertive emergency plan for polio eradication and engaged with traditional leaders, particularly in the Northern region. His efforts were directed at bolstering vaccine uptake and dispelling misinformation surrounding polio vaccines. Hailing from Bauchi State and being the son of a Fulani herdsman, Pate holds the title of Chigarin Misau and was born on September 6, 1968.

At 54 years old, the newly-appointed Minister of Health graduated from Ahmadu Bello University Medical School in Zaria. He initially practiced at the university’s teaching hospital before embarking on a journey to the British Medical Research Council Laboratories in Gambia. Pate holds medical degrees in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, complemented by an MBA from Duke University. His academic pursuits also include studies at University College London and a Master’s in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

Pate assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer of the NPHCDA at the peak of Nigeria’s polio epidemic. Swiftly after his appointment, his strategic collaboration with traditional leaders to advocate for vaccines and primary healthcare services within their jurisdictions laid the groundwork for an assertive emergency response to eradicate polio. This approach was orchestrated through emergency operation centers (EOCs), effectively containing and ultimately eradicating polio transmission across the nation.

As the head of NPHCDA, he introduced the Midwives Service Scheme, which recruited retired midwives to fortify underperforming antenatal clinics. This initiative led to a notable reduction of maternal deaths by 30 to 40 percent at the time. Presently, this effort has been expanded and enhanced with the introduction of the Expanded Midwives Service Scheme (eMSS) aimed at augmenting skilled attendants.

During his tenure as Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health from 2011 to 2013, Pate spearheaded an initiative to rejuvenate routine vaccinations and primary healthcare. He chaired a presidential task force dedicated to polio eradication and introduced novel vaccines to the country. In addition, he launched the “Saving One Million Lives” (SOML) initiative in 2012 to address subpar health outcomes, particularly for mothers and children. The SOML initiative encompassed various goals, from maternal and child health improvements to HIV prevention and child nutrition enhancement.

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He occupied the Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership position at Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Throughout his career, Pate has actively participated on boards and expert committees spanning the public, private, and non-profit sectors. From 2019 to 2022, he served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population at the World Bank and led the Global Financing Facility.

His involvement extended to managing the World Bank’s $18 billion COVID-19 global health response fund and representing the institution on influential boards like Gavi, Global Fund, UNAIDS, and CEPI. Notably, Pate facilitated the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s entry into Nigeria, guiding their direct engagement with State Primary Healthcare Agencies. This impressive trajectory culminated in his appointment as Nigeria’s Health Minister, followed by his subsequent transition to the position of professor at Duke University’s Global Health Institute in the United States. He also taught comparative health systems to postgraduate students at the Duke University Global Health Institute.

In February this year, the Gavi Board sanctioned the appointment of Prof. Pate as the Chief Executive Officer of the Vaccine Alliance, following an extensive selection process. Originally set to commence his role on August this year, Prof. Pate was slated to succeed Dr. Seth Berkley, who had led the Alliance for 12 years. Nonetheless, on June 26, GAVI publicly disclosed Prof. Pate’s decision to decline the CEO position. In a remarkable display of dedication, Prof. Pate chose to forego the opportunity at GAVI – a Global Health Partnership dedicated to ensuring equitable access to vital vaccines for children in the world’s most underprivileged nations – in favour of serving his own country as the Minister of Health.

Undoubtedly, Prof. Pate has undertaken a significant responsibility, considering the discouraging state of Nigeria’s health indicators. Despite certain advancements, Nigeria’s health sector remains entrenched in numerous challenges, including insufficient funding, inadequate utilisation of resources, scarcity of healthcare professionals, brain drain, frequent healthcare worker strikes, shortage of functional primary health care (PHC) centers, limited health insurance coverage for vulnerable populations, medical tourism, malnutrition, elevated child and maternal mortality rates, prevalent malaria cases, exclusion from malaria vaccine trials, escalating non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and more.

Stakeholders set agenda for the new Minister

According to Nigeria’s foremost virologist and Chairman of the Ministerial Expert Advisory Committee on COVID-19, Prof Oyewale Tomori, the new Minister needs to focus on the local production of vaccines, especially vaccines to protect children from dying from the many vaccine-preventable diseases.

Speaking with The Nation, he said, “My only interest now is what we can do to ensure our children are protected from dying of vaccine-preventable diseases, just one issue; that all necessary steps will be taken, and all stakeholders will be on board in a united and coordinated national commitment to start local production of selected human vaccines in Nigeria before the two years in the office of this administration, that is within the next 18 to 24 months.

“In particular, Nigeria and the Federal Government will focus on getting the joint venture company – Bio-Vaccine Nigeria Limited (BVNL) – set up by the Federal Government and May & Baker to start vaccine production locally, while we keep at bay external companies whose interest is not in local vaccine production, but in cornering and flooding the Nigerian vaccine market with imported vaccines.

“This will require that all and each of the stakeholders lift national interest far and above self-interest on the important issue of local vaccine production in Nigeria. Our national health security depends on the government escalating the issue of local vaccine production and supply as a national emergency. It is a shame that any Nigerian child should be dying from diphtheria, utter disgrace, and we should all be ashamed.”

In a chat with The Nation, Dr. Ejike Orji, a Public Health Advocate and the immediate Senior Special Adviser to the FCT Minister on Health and Hospital Management, said, “Prof. Pate is the best thing that could happen to the health sector, if you ask me. This is based on the fact that we have been saying that the only way anybody in health will understand health and know what to do is for that person to have been in the health development arena. Also, the person would have known that most of the indices that we have in Nigeria, that we know the causes, we know that most of them are preventable causes, and you don’t need an outsider to come and advocate to the person on the right things to do; the person is already in that field, and understands it.

“Being a medical doctor is not enough in the present Nigeria; you have to be involved in health development, policy making, and know how to use core indicators to be able to measure whether we are doing well or not. We have a high rate of maternal mortality; know the cause, and the mitigating strategies that can be put in place to stop those deaths. Pate is not a new kid on the block; he was part of the reversal of the high infant and under-five mortality rate based on preventable vaccination stopping diseases. Therefore, he knows what will work and what won’t work in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, it is not enough to be a key technical person; you also have to be a social entrepreneur. That social entrepreneurship is what will help him galvanise support from all sides, and be able to utilise the skills and abilities that are available in the country. A lot of people are frustrated with what is happening in the health sector, and I am one of them. This is the time, I will say, that we have someone we can hold accountable, because he knows what to do, how to do it, and where to get the resources. I am talking with a little bit of excitement.

“The only caveat I would add here is that if he is a social entrepreneur on a scale of one to ten before, if it was six, he needs to up it to nine, because Nigeria is not just about how to do it, but how to galvanise support from different desperate thinking people in the healthcare sector, to make sure that we get to the dream that we desire to be. I pity him; I don’t envy him. To bring Nigeria from the hole that we are in, to where we should be, is going to be an arduous task. But I know that he can do it.

“Nigeria ranks 187 out of 189 countries in terms of healthcare ranking in the world. The only two places we are better than are the Central African Republic and Myanmar. Every other country is better than us in the health hierarchy. He has a big duty in his hands, and I must tell you that the President has made a very good pick. We must, therefore, give him all the support that he requires. I am very ready to rally the civil societies in Nigeria to support him. This means that accountability must also be run by the civil society to make sure that what we agreed that we are going to do, we do it.”

Also, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. Emeka Orji, told The Nation that he does not doubt the abilities of Prof. Pate to deliver as the Minister of Health, owing to his rich national and international experience. He, however, admonished the Minister to prioritise the welfare and working conditions of health workers to reduce the increasing rate of brain drain and medical tourism. He further urged the carry along health unions and associations on policy formulations and Implementation.

“The truth is that history is replete with a lot of people who come with such experience, but if they don’t also condition their minds to the kind of system they are coming to, they may end up not performing to their full capacity. So, we want to encourage him and wish him well. Of course, we want to pray to work with him to see that the health sector is stable and that Nigerians take the benefits of the services that we render to take care of themselves and their loved ones.

“Some years back, the World Health Organisation (WHO) tried to rejig the Hippocratic Oath that we have been taking. If you look at the old one, attention is based squarely on patients. So you ask, how about the doctors. Therefore, the new one we have been using for some years now shows that we are also supposed to take care of our own health and need to be in a good state of mind to render services of the highest standards.

  “We believe that urgent attention needs to be paid to the welfare of, not just of doctors but other healthcare professionals. If you consider the brain drain that we have, the most important cause of it is the inadequate welfare packages. Priority should be set for doctors, nurses and other clinical staff, in order to be able to have the good spirit and enthusiasm to remain in the country to be able to render our services.

    “Personnel is also very important. We have a severe manpower shortage. So, much as we know that we still need massive infrastructural development, if you are doing that and you are not matching it up with the personnel required to man them, it will just be considered an highfalutin project if you build something that cannot be adequately utilize, then it becomes a total waste of resources and space. That is why they need to pay attention to personnel as much as they do to infrastructure, and of course, welfare and incentives. These are the things that will make the health sector work. We hope that these are the areas that the new Minister and his team will pay attention to.

“Also, more importantly, policies that will come out from that Ministry under his watch should have widespread consultation before they bring them out. If you are bringing out policies, and you don’t carry along the people that the policies are meant for or the people that will implement the policies, then the policy will fail before you implement it. So, we want to advise that unions and associations be carried along with the decision-making process that will affect them. It is only when you carry them along and get their buy-ins that they will be able to step it down to their members and convince them of the benefits.

“Also, when you have an association raising an alarm, it is always good to try to nip it in the bud at the initial stage of agitation; try to meet and discuss with them. What usually happens is that when they raise an alarm and they are ignored, the people will believe that the government does not understand what they are saying, and before you know it, there will be industrial disharmony.”

The Executive Secretary of the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), Dr Celestine Okorie, said, “All of us in the health space are indeed very excited that Prof. Pate is the Minister of Health. He is a round peg in a round hole because he understands the health sector landscape, challenges and some of the solutions. He has been in the health sector for quite a while for years now. He was the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and as a Minister of State for Health.

“At the same time, he has a very strong international background in the international health sector; he is very well known and experienced. We are expecting a lot from him in the health sector. I actually think because of his background, he is one of the few doctors who understands population health, which is the community health of Nigeria. He understands what to do. He can attract a lot of foreign partnerships that can help to uplift the Nigerian health system.

“If you look at his background working with the World Bank, GAVI (major player in the immunization space globally). We are excited that he turned down the GAVI opportunity to serve Nigeria; it is quite a sacrifice. So, we are expecting a lot from him, and I have no doubt that he is going to perform. The biggest challenge we have with the Nigerian population is what we call poor access to healthcare services for a huge percentage of the population. There is so much poverty in the land, as over 130 million Nigerians are poor. Poverty limits access to quality healthcare, and also fuels ignorance and literacy level. This eventually leads to a high mortality rate. They cannot afford to pay for basic healthcare needs. This is particular for the vulnerable population which includes: women and children under the age of five, people with disabilities or mentally challenged, and the elderly. They can afford access to health services.

“Another challenge is the availability of good quality healthcare services, particularly for those in the rural areas. About 70 per cent live in the rural areas. In those places, you find poor people with poor hygiene, inadequate infrastructure like roads, lack of security, and poor access to health care. We are talking about Universal Health Coverage (UHC) where people can access good healthcare services without paying from their pockets. We are also talking about financial risk protection because when people are sick, they can afford to go to the hospital to get the care they need.

“Prof Pate understands what to do, that is, providing basic healthcare insurance; what we call health insurance coverage. Right now, I think we are covering 5 million people, mostly civil servants. Meanwhile one of the policy objectives of this government is to cover 50 million Nigerians in the next two to three years in health insurance. Prof. Pate would expand the coverage. Medical tourism is causing Nigeria about $1 billion. But I believe the reality is double that amount; this is capital flight. It is the foreign exchange that we would have used to keep our economy strong. We have the doctors and experts here. We expect Prof. Pate to tackle this issue.

“Many healthcare workers in Nigeria are leaving the country because of the poor conducive environment to practice the profession. The compensation for health workers is very poor. There is also no equipment to practice, and they are overworked. With a little adjustment here and there, we can remain our doctors. I am sure if we can address these, most of our doctors will be happy to come back.”

The Registrar and Secretary-General of the West African Postgraduate College of Medical Laboratory Science, Dr Godswill Okara, added, “Prof. Pate is a refined gentleman. He is very vastly exposed and experienced, and I believe he will do a good job. My interaction with him when he was Minister of State for Health revealed that much. He is a level-headed and focused professional, and I have no doubt in my mind that he will perform excellently. For too long, our health sector has not received the type of boost that will sustain the confidence of people. Also, the craze for seeking foreign medical attention. I believe that having been out there for so long, he knows what it takes to turn around the public health sector by way of investing in state-of-the-art equipment.

“In terms of personnel, professionals who are skilled in the health sector discipline, we have them. What we need is the provision of the enabling environment and appropriate facilities, and what people are going out there to look for will be delivered here. We are seeing this in the private sector. Many of our private facilities can hold their own, but how many people can afford the private facilities. Therefore, the need for the government to inject funds into the public health sector can never be overemphasised.

“Often, it is not usually about the lack of funds, but proper utilisation of the little that we have. If we select a few centres and focus on those centres. For selected services, we can refer people to them. I hope the government gives Prof. Pate the free hand and allows him to appropriately apply the budgeted funds and resources. It is not rocket science, and I believe that he will be able to do it.”

   Dr. Gafar Alawode, the Country Director of Palladium, “What I can say in terms of response to the appointment of Prof. Pate is that, of course, personally, I’m excited and I believe many stakeholders are excited for a number of reasons. In terms of the type of person that we need, I believe he fits the description in terms of understanding the health system landscape. He has the experience in managing several health institutions before like the NPHCDA; he was the Minister of State for Health, and others. So, he knows how the system works.

“He understands policy issues, and has emerged at the very high level and has been the Director of Health Population and Nutrition at the World Bank. So, he knows how to manage the donor community. He is very passionate and creative about health, and has bold ideas. That is the kind of person that we need now. According to the WHO, around 40 per cent of health resources are wasted, stemming from health system design, health commodities, Human Resources for Health (HRH), and other sources. This highlights the importance of ensuring the efficient utilization of healthcare resources which includes an increased absorptive capacity of the health sector and the ability to obtain optimal outputs from the existing level of investment.

“There is also a need to optimise both government and donor financing for health and ensure aid effectiveness in Nigeria. Sub-optimal implementation of health policies, strategies, and legal frameworks is also one of the major obstacles that hinder progress in the health sector. Resource optimization could be achieved by moving from inefficient input-based financing to strategic purchasing, revival of the Medium-Term Strategy (MTSS), and other policy thrusts. Other areas of strategic shifts also contribute to this.

“Nigeria’s health financing landscape is characterised by sub-optimal government investment, low coverage of financial protection mechanisms, high out-of-pocket expenditure, and heavy reliance on development assistance for health, especially public health interventions. Existing policy interventions to address this include the State Social Health Insurance Scheme and the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. The recently introduced sugar taxes, the potential removal of petroleum subsidy, and the potential introduction of communication taxes also present significant opportunities for mobilizing additional financing for health in Nigeria.

“To achieve the desired results above, there is a need to institute policies that will mobilise additional pooled resources for health and prioritise strategic areas of investment such as health insurance subsidisation, family planning, priority disease program (HIV, TB, and Malaria), health security and immunization.”

August 21, 2023
Cheaper ways to cope with high cost of sanitary pads

Sanitary materials are a major necessity for every woman but in recent years, buying sanitary pads, tampons and other sanitary materials for menstruation has become increasingly expensive due to the increase in the cost of the components used to make them.

In 2020, the Federal Government announced the exemption of sanitary pads from value-added tax to reduce the financial burden this natural process/occurrence has on women which seemed to look like a good step in the right direction at the time. Three years down the line, the prices of these products have continued to rise, leaving some people to wonder if the initial step has been enforced.

One of the main reasons why menstruation has become really expensive is due to inflation. Many experts and stakeholders believe sanitary pads should be subsidised.

The average menstrual cycle lasts for 28 days. However, a menstrual cycle that lasts as little as 21 days and as long as 35 days is still considered normal and some women who have heavy flow use a minimum of 4-5 sanitary pads per day for more than 5/7 days – which is the period of their flow.

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With all of these in check, it is only fair to think of healthy ways to reduce the cost of purchasing sanitary materials which will in turn help women reduce the cost of a monthly natural occurrence that they can’t avoid.

Here are some tips/strategies on how to cope with the rising cost of sanitary materials and how to make sure that your menstrual needs are met and make your menstruation less expensive.

– Budgeting

Learn to budget your sanitary pad into your monthly expenses with other toiletries.

– Buy in bulk

When purchasing your sanitary materials especially pads, buy in bulk. For example, buy twin packs, packs with more than 30pcs – they may cost more at the first instance, but they will serve you longer.

– Use other forms of sanitary materials

Instead of using only sanitary pads, you can decide to use other forms of sanitary materials e.g. menstrual cups, tampons, etc. Menstrual cups for example are reusable.

– Change the brand you are currently using to cut cost

If you are currently using a sanitary material that is costing you a lot, you can change it to a lesser one in terms of cost and the brand. It is advisable to make sure that while changing, be sure to maintain quality.

August 18, 2023
Taming the twin evils of drug hawking, unhygienic ripening of fruits

Fruits play a vital role in enhancing immunity and safeguarding against diseases by supplying essential micronutrients. Nonetheless, a cautionary note comes from experts who highlight the potential health risks associated with consuming fruits that have been artificially ripened using calcium carbide. This perilous practice has been linked to severe health complications, including but not limited to cancer, heart failure, kidney failure, and liver malfunction. YINKA ADENIRAN delves into the alarming concerns surrounding the dual menace of drug hawking and the hazardous practice of carbide-induced fruit ripening, shedding light on their potential threats to public health

For about three weeks, Boladale Arogundade was not himself. As a mason, he knew the intensity of his regular work to make ends meet. He also had faith in his method of self-medication. Using a combination of medicines from his trusted “pharmacist-cum-doctor,” he usually regained his vitality upon taking the prescribed drug combinations. However, this routine failed him in the past two weeks. This wasn’t the first time he faced such a situation. He recalled encountering a similar problem a few months back, which led him to seek treatment from a different provider who offered medical advice alongside selling medications.

A similar scenario unfolded for Kafayat Arinola, a small-scale trader. When the medications she relied on for treating her recurring malaria episodes lost their effectiveness, she quickly concluded that the malaria parasites had developed resistance to the drugs. Yet, upon visiting a nearby pharmacy, she noticed a significant improvement in her health, even though the cost of the prescribed drugs was slightly higher.

A common thread in both cases was their reliance on itinerant vendors, colloquially known as “death merchants,” who roamed various locations selling medications. For Arogundade, the convenience of having medications delivered directly to his worksite by these vendors was appealing. This not only saved him time and effort but also provided the advantage of receiving personalised recommendations based on his physical exertion to ensure he was fit for the next day’s labour. Arinola, the petty trader, was drawn to the affordability and ease with which the drug hawkers operated. They often offered credit for purchasing medications. However, it was only after both Arogundade and Arinola faced health setbacks and had to spend more on treatments that they realised the potential risks. Arogundade was astonished when he learned that many of the drugs he had been using had lost their potency. The doctor attending to him suspected that excessive exposure to sunlight might have contributed to this decline. Discovering that numerous individuals had lost their lives due to consuming substandard drugs from such vendors left him on the verge of tears.

In both cases, the allure of convenience, affordability, and accessibility initially overshadowed the potential dangers of relying on unregulated drug vendors. These personal experiences underscored the significance of seeking medical advice from certified professionals and reliable sources, not only to safeguard individual health but also to prevent tragic outcomes resulting from subpar medications. Fully aware of the situation, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has escalated its campaign against the engagement with drug hawkers, characterising many of them as “knowing or unknowing merchants of death.” Despite these efforts, the rate and persistence of hawkers’ patronage remains a cause for concern within the agency. Consequently, NAFDAC recently took a step further to amplify its message by organising a comprehensive training workshop for journalists hailing from the six Southwest states of Nigeria – Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, and Lagos. The workshop, conducted at the House of Chiefs within the Oyo State Government Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, was a collaborative initiative with the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists. The workshop’s theme centered on two critical issues: “Dangers of Drug Hawking” and “Ripening of Fruits with Carbide.”

During the workshop, NAFDAC emphasised that drug hawkers, through their trade, expose essential and life-saving medicines to adverse weather conditions, leading to the degradation of active ingredients and the transformation of these medicines into harmful substances. This poses a significant threat to human life. The agency also highlighted the health risks associated with the use of calcium carbide for fruit ripening, urging farmers and traders to prioritise safety over profit. Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General of NAFDAC, stressed that the primary goal of the programme was to send a message to Nigerians about the urgent necessity for stringent regulatory measures to curtail the perilous practices of drug hawking and hazardous fruit ripening. Represented at the event by Dr. Patrick Omokpariola, NAFDAC Director of Chemical Evaluation and Research, Adeyeye emphasised that the rampant trade of drug hawking poses a grave challenge to Nigeria’s healthcare system. NAFDAC said it remains resolute in its determination to eradicate this illicit trade completely, and it is actively working on arresting and prosecuting these hawkers due to the substantial health risks they pose to the public.

Adeyeye underscored that, to effectively combat the menace of drug hawking, it is imperative to disrupt the chain of demand. By discouraging buyers from engaging with drug hawkers, the chain of buying and selling will naturally collapse. This necessitates heightened public awareness and education efforts, particularly among less-educated individuals. In conclusion, NAFDAC’s proactive efforts, as exemplified by the workshop and advocacy, underscore the critical importance of addressing the dangers posed by drug hawkers and unsafe practices in Nigeria. Through increased awareness, regulation, and collaboration with the media and the public, the agency seeks to safeguard citizens’ health and well-being from the risks associated with substandard medications and harmful agricultural practices.

According to agency, the menace of drug hawking poses serious challenge to healthcare delivery system in the country and which underscored NAFDAC’s resolute determination to totally eradicate the illicit trade. Prof Adeyeye said “Many drug hawkers are knowingly or unknowingly merchants of death who expose essential and life-saving medicines to the vagaries of inclement weather, which degrade the active ingredients of the medicine and turn them to poisons, thus endangering human lives. Most of the drugs sold by the illiterate and semi-literate drug hawkers are counterfeit, substandard or expired, and therefore do not meet the quality, safety and efficacy requirement of regulated medicines. Prescription drugs are also sold by the itinerant drug hawkers who also hold consultation, recommend and prescribe medicines to their gullible ‘patients.’

“Drug hawkers are also the major distributors and suppliers of narcotic medicines to criminal networks such as armed bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and armed robbers. Drug hawkers constitute serious threat to our national security. Drugs are sensitive life-saving commodities which should not be sold on the streets/motor parks or open markets just like any other article of trade. I wish to warn that any drug hawker arrested by NAFDAC will be prosecuted, will face a jail term, and our enforcement officers are currently carrying out synchronised nation-wide operation.

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“No offender will be spared from facing the full wrath of the law. In this regard, we solicit the co-operation and support of all other law enforcement agencies, Nigerian journalists and well-meaning Nigerians in riding the country of this harmful and shameful practice.”

Conversely, within the realm of its responsibilities, NAFDAC acknowledged the alarming practice of selling and consumption of fruits that are artificially ripened using calcium carbide. Additionally, Prof Adeyeye underscored the illegal trade of drugs in open markets, stressing that the artificial ripening of fruits with calcium carbide constitutes another pressing public challenge confronting the nation. To address this issue comprehensively, the agency said it has adopted a multifaceted strategy to confront this menace head-on.

“Fruits provide the body with micronutrients that improve immunity and prevent diseases among other benefits. Fruit ripening is a unique aspect of plant development, which makes the fruit edible, softer, sweeter, more palatable, nutritious, and attractive. However, the consumption of fruits such as mango, banana, plantain, guava, orange, grape, etc. or any other fruits ripened with calcium carbide is dangerous to health. Fruits artificially ripened with calcium carbide may be ripe on the skin, the inside remain unripe.

“You can identify such artificially ripened fruits if you notice that the fruits are all yellow whereas the stem is dark, this is true especially with banana and plantain. In addition, naturally ripened fruits usually have brown or black spots, while those artificially ripened have traces of powdery substances and peel off quickly,” she explained.

During the workshop, while enlightening the attendees, the NAFDAC boss highlighted several hazards linked to the artificial ripening of fruits. These hazards encompass substantial loss of attributes such as colour, taste, and texture. Furthermore, this practice fails to impart the natural aroma and flavour expected in fruits. As a result, artificially ripened fruits lack uniform colour, exhibit reduced juiciness compared to their naturally ripened counterparts, and tend to have a notably shorter shelf life.

“Calcium carbide when sprayed with water reacts chemically to produce acetylene, which acts like ethylene and ripens fruits by a similar process. Calcium carbide generally contains impurities such as arsenic, lead particles, phosphorus, etc., that pose several very serious health hazards. Consumption of fruits containing these impurities may cause cancer, heart, kidney and liver failure. They may also cause frequent thirst, irritation in mouth and nose, weakness, permanent skin damage, difficulty in swallowing, vomiting, skin ulcer and so forth.

“Higher exposure may cause undesired fluid build-up in lungs (pulmonary oedema). Acetylene produced by Calcium carbide affects the neurological system and reduces oxygen supply to the brain and further induces prolonged hypoxia. The impurities are hazardous to pregnant women and children and may lead to headache, dizziness, mood disturbances, mental confusion, memory loss, cerebral oedema (swelling in the brain caused by excessive fluids), sleepiness, seizure, etc.

“Calcium carbide is alkaline in nature and erodes the mucosal tissue in the abdominal region and disrupts intestinal functions. Consuming such artificially ripened fruits could result in sleeping disorders, mouth ulcers, skin rashes, kidney problems and possibly even cancer. Other symptoms of poisoning include diarrhoea (with or without blood), burning or tingling sensation in abdomen and chest difficulty in swallowing, irritation in eyes/skin, sore throat, cough, shortness in breathing, numbness, etc.”

In its endeavour to halt this perilous trend, the agency emphasised that it has been far from idle. Rather, it is intensifying its initiatives to counteract and curtail this practice. “It is gratifying to announce that apart from sensitisation campaigns and enforcement activities, NAFDAC has commissioned a scientific study on the best approach towards mitigating the health hazards posed by ripening of fruits with carbides.

“I have mandated some of my directors and support staff to take these campaigns to the nooks and crannies of this country. We are confident of winning the war against these two hydra-headed public health menaces. I urge you to assist NAFDAC in publicising and disseminating knowledge acquired to the general public. Thank you for your collaboration and support for NAFDAC to rid the country of the menace of substandard and falsified medicines, unwholesome foods, corrosive cosmetics, and other substandard regulated products.”

In response to the public’s plea for action against issues of drug hawking and the use of calcium carbide for fruit ripening, the agency has taken the initiative to collaborate with the media. This strategic partnership is focused on raising awareness and efficiently mitigating the prevalence of these harmful practices. “There have been clarion calls by well-meaning Nigerians on the need to take stringent regulatory actions to stem the dangerous tide of drug hawking and ripening of fruits with calcium carbide. In addition, several national dailies and non-governmental organisations have raised concerns on the looming danger and health implication of these two nefarious activities by certain unpatriotic and unscrupulous citizens in our country.

“Since 2019, we immediately took some decisive steps such as sensitisation of the public through different media outlets, enforcement through intelligence and raids in fruit markets that have resulted in seizures and destruction of violative products. This sensitisation workshop is again a fulfillment of my promise to sustain and strengthen NAFDAC’s existing collaboration with Association of Health Journalists in Nigeria towards mobilising, educating, sensitising, and conscientising Nigerian journalists to play frontline role in our concerted efforts to eradicate the menace of drug hawking and ripening of fruits with calcium carbide in Nigeria,” the NAFDAC DG explained.

August 17, 2023