Most health complications that patients often refer to as ‘poison’ are diseases that became chronic due to improper treatment or negligence....CONTINUE READING
Dr Kofoworola Olasunbo Oluwaseun stated this weekend during a routine community health outreach being conducted by Heart Diseases, Prevention and Training Centre, HDPTC, Nsukka in Enugu State. Oluwaseun, a general physician, advised the public to form the habit of seeking the services of medical experts for medical advice and treatment to avoid health complications….
Oluwaseun told our correspondent that, “We go to communities, conduct free BP and sugar checks on the natives. If they have suspicious numbers, we guide them properly. Some people may have what we call ‘angina’ that is caused by ischemia, and tag it poison. No matter how you educate them, they seem to have made up their minds that they have been poisoned by their relatives or friends. Some of them feel they can’t be treated at specialist hospitals, and readily resort to herbalists and spiritual centres.
“We try to demystify their already-formed thoughts about poison. We tell them that their cases are manageable. We may succeed in reorienting some, but some remain adamant, and seek other options. Generally, we check their vital organs. Some have suspected high blood pressure. We do advise them on dietary modification which is a baseline treatment to prevent serious heart conditions like hypertension.
“If this measure is not good enough, we can then switch to care, which is moving away from prevention to care. Some of these diseases are easy to detect when tests are conducted. We call hypertension the silent killer because it does not show symptoms until its later stage. We encourage people to regularly check their BP numbers to avert complications. On our part, we embark on these outreaches to make the public abreast of measures towards healthy living.”
Barr Felix Okechukwu Asadu, the director, administration, HDPTC, said the centre was founded by Prof Camillus Okwochi Ezeugwu, a cardiologist based in the US, after the death of Dr Ejike Asadu, one-time local government chairman of Nsukka LGA, due to heart-related diseases.
In his words, “The major message here is prevention. This centre has come primarily to ensure that heart diseases are prevented in Nsukka senatorial district of Enugu State and indeed the neighbouring states. It is sophisticated both in specialists and equipment. In as much as we treat, the philosophy is to prevent these killer diseases as the saying goes that prevention is better than cure.
“The death of Dr Ejike Asadu informed the formation of this centre. Ejike had heart-related ailments. When we got to know about it, it was already too late. The founder was touched, and he decided to establish this centre to avert such painful but preventable death at least in Nsukka zone. Ejike’s death would have been prevented if we had a specialist heart centre in Nsukka.
“So, the death Dr Ejike Asadu, many other deaths in Nsukka as a result of heart disease-related and also Prof Ezeugwu’s intention to give back to the society that made him what he is today are reasons that attracted the centre to Nsukka….
