Cultural practices spread hepatitis – Medic

Kapoor who spoke with our reporter in Abuja shortly after opening a new department in the Primus Super Specialty Hospital, Abuja, said, “a lot of people put marks on their faces—that is if you are using the same stick for different people then you can be carrying those viruses to people. “If you are putting […]

Kapoor who spoke with our reporter in Abuja shortly after opening a new department in the Primus Super Specialty Hospital, Abuja, said, “a lot of people put marks on their faces—that is if you are using the same stick for different people then you can be carrying those viruses to people.

“If you are putting on tattoos and using the same needles—vaccination should be done with disposable needles.”

The new department he opened is called Gastroenterology and Hepatology. These deal with stomach, intestines, pancreas, gall bladder and liver diseases.

Kapoor who concluded the setting up of the department last week, told our reporter that the procedures to be involved include: endoscopy (looks into the stomach), colonoscopy (looks into the large intestine), ERCP (removes stones), liver biopsy entroscopy (looks into the small intestine), pill endoscopy (a patient swallows a pill and the whole intestine can be seen). All this means patients will receive internal treatment without external incisions.

According to him, by next year, a liver transplant unit will be set up in the hospital.

Kapoor who was in Abuja for two weeks, said he examined about 30 to 40 patients everyday adding that 64 procedures had been done.

He said he found problems like ulcers in the stomach, gastritis and other bacterial infections of the stomach as well as liver problems including chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C and liver cancer.

Kapoor identified causes of all this: “People take excess aspirin. For people with bad liver, other than chronic hepatitis B which is common and rampant in Nigeria, hepatitis C…alcohol problem.

“People who have cancers they are genetically predisposed. People who have chronic hepatitis B are at risk of having cancer of the liver.”

He gave precautions against hepatitis. “Having this is not the problem so they [sufferers] are not excluded from the family. The precaution they should take is to keep their brushes separate. If they have any cut on the body, they should immediately cover it with bandage. They should keep their shaving kits separate.

“We recommend that spouses who are negative be immunised. Until immunisation is done, they should be using condoms. Children born in the family should be checked, if negative should be immunised. If they become chronically infected, they need treatment.”

Kapoor who is happy that language is not a barrier during his first medical mission in Nigeria, however lamented the administrative encumbrances associated with importing medicaments into Nigeria.

He suggested, “If government can help us, smoothen the process, lower the import levies, then we can bring in more technology and develop faster. Because as you know, everything costs money. Bringing these instruments and sending them back for service—if we at every time pay customs, it becomes difficult.”