It’s World Health Day this Sunday, April 7 and the theme for the year is “my health, my right”. The WHO Council on the Economics of Health for all has concluded that the right to health as a human right is recognised in the constitutions of at least 140 countries. However as we know all too well, not all countries have enforced the laws guaranteeing the rights of their citizens to access health services nor have they provided the funding to accomplish it.
We are living in interesting times, the rising recession, increase in the cost of healthcare and medicines, relocation of medical personnel from the country, the unfriendly and harsh weather and the pressures of everyday living are all telling on our health and the choices available to us.
I have always said that it is a curse to be sick in Nigeria and it hasn’t been any truer than now. Things have fallen to the dogs and there are serious deficiencies everywhere and before you point to the private hospitals please be assured that the private hospitals are not so much different from the public hospitals. The main difference is that there is some semblance of things working and patients do not have to provide the basics they need by themselves.
There is a serious dearth of experienced personnel and in medicine experience is everything! I know for a fact that in some states there are less than five doctors in some specialised fields like rheumatology, immunology and cardiology. In Delta State for example, there is only one rheumatologist in the whole of the state.
As terrible as the public health space is, it’s still the place where one can find the experts one needs though many of them consult privately at the private hospitals.
My first interaction with the public health system was in the early ‘90s when my sister was diagnosed with lupus at the tender age of 14 and I was somewhat nonplussed about the quality of service and it was much much better than what we have today. My second experience was in 2011 when my father was being treated for complications arising from diabetes, which he had managed for over 20 years. I remember vividly the day we took him to the hospital because his consultant, worried about his fluctuating blood pressure, wanted him under close observation. Firstly, the male general ward was full and we had to pay N50,000.00 as deposit for the private ward and spent hours in the car after paying for him to be clerked, then, the several trips from one office to another to buy supplies. Secondly, the nonchalant attitude of the staff who took a look at him and asked why we brought him to the hospital because he looked well and maybe that’s why he wasn’t attended to on time. Anyways long story short, my dad died the next day without being treated at all abandoned until he came to his sense they said, because he raised a ruckus due to his morbid fear of LUTH when they wanted to draw his blood for tests and so they tied him to the four corners of the bed with bandages which he tore off with his hands.
When Mr Aisi took ill, and it was discovered that parts of his spine had collapsed, I immediately knew that medical care in Nigeria wasn’t really an option, so off to Bangalore, India we went and, say what you may about them as a third world nation, but India is far ahead of us in the medical space. The hospital we stayed in was a private one but it had everything we needed in its 12 floors, the doctors were US and Europe trained – his doctors were trained at John Hopkins University and the spine surgery that involved the insertion of 10 titanium rods in Mr Aisi was conducted the second day we got there after the extensive tests that corroborated the findings of our doctors in Nigeria had been carried out. To our surprise, he was discharged the very next day after the surgery which took a total of five hours with a nurse and physiotherapist assigned to us as we left, to oversee his pain medication and physical therapy.
Everyday people are being diagnosed with one illness or the other and there is no doubt in my mind that our environment and the choices we have made are contributory factors to the malaise of ill health. In a country where conventional drugs are so expensive – I know of a cancer drug used to treat brain tumour that was bought and imported into the country for the princely sum of $10,000.00 for a month’s supply, people are turning to traditional medicine and whilst I don’t have any problem with the efficacy of herbs and tinctures (I use them myself) I am a bit wary about the knowledge and experience of the people who dispense them. In a country where there is a competition for the facilities available even when you have the means and where the remaining personnel are stretched thin across a huge population, it will do us good to do all we can not to fall sick.
More than ever, there is the need to be attuned to our body, how it looks, how it functions and what is normal or abnormal for us especially as we age. It’s important to take supplements to enhance our bodies, a very important supplement to take is vitamin D, which is vital for the proper functioning of many bodily functions and which a lot of us are deficient in but think because we live in Africa we have a lot of but the fact is that the melanin in our skin inhibits the absorption of vitamin D.
It is important to be active. The lack of exercise, especially strength training, is detrimental to our bodies as we lose muscle mass as we age and the strength of our muscles and especially our limbs are a good indicator as to the state of our health. Weight carrying, walking, swimming are activities almost any of us can carry out without much stress or expense.
It’s important to pay attention to what we eat, drink and imbibe. Alcohol even in moderation, drugs, over the counter prescription drugs like painkillers and processed foods are inimical to good health and we should make informed decisions about what we put in and on our bodies.
It’s important to be protective of our emotions and mental health as stress is said to be a major and contributory factor for most illnesses. The economy has put us under a lot of pressure as we try to make ends meet. A simple and content lifestyle will help us deal with the economic and social pressures that have come with the recession.
Finally, it is very important that we are our own advocates. I find it very surprising especially with the wealth of information available to us on the internet (although utmost care must be taken to verify the information as charlatans abound) that people don’t know the basics about healthy living or what to do naturally in cases of chronic conditions to alleviate their conditions. I find it amazing that people don’t engage their doctors about the details of their health, research their conditions and take informed decisions about their lives.
It’s 2024 let’s be more proactive about our health and advocate for ourselves. We owe ourselves that much.