Re: Severe fever ravages Kano again!

Really, the present medical experts, researchers and the pharmacists have reached a stage where malaria fever has threatened them for inadequate drugs for malaria treatment. Malaria, yellow or typhoid fever has been with us for the last decades. When we were in primary schools in the 1960s, it was the chloroquine drug being administered as […]

Really, the present medical experts, researchers and the pharmacists have reached a stage where malaria fever has threatened them for inadequate drugs for malaria treatment.

Malaria, yellow or typhoid fever has been with us for the last decades. When we were in primary schools in the 1960s, it was the chloroquine drug being administered as final treatment. I believe, still is the uniform and acceptable treatment to the malaria fever, except some patients will spend 2 – 3 days scratching their bodies indicating some reactions to the drug.

New malaria treatment has now found its way into the markets, thus, neglecting and stopping the administration of chloroquine drugs. The use of ‘artmeter, ‘artesunate’ or e’mal’ as widely accepted by medical practitioners did not go well with the public.

For example, in my family, there are some who would fall sick on malaria fever and would take the above treatment with little recovery. The fever will come and go for several days. At last, we had to go for the chloroquine tablets and injections that proved excellent for the cure of the sickness.

Despite the cost involved to secure those modern drugs, the tendency to get what you want for the patient to recover would not be there.

There was a day I contacted 2 – 3 medical doctors on the issue of abandoning, neglecting or stopping use of the chloroquine drugs. They confidently responded in telling me that the drugs have been outdated and that there was need to replace the drugs with more acceptable standard drugs designed to attack the malaria parasites once and for all.

But, has the aim being achieved? There is still room for improvement in the sense that if you bought the same drugs and administered same without cure for the sickness, they would tell you it was not the ‘original’ drugs you bought. If the drug was purchased within the Hospital to drive away the issue of fakeness of the drug and did not work well, they will tell you to conduct another test! What on earth are we doing on the lives and health care of our people?

I think it is time; we stop playing to the gallery and approach the malaria sickness with all the seriousness it deserves.

Malaria fever can kill instantly without notice! The earlier the medical team for the profession, wake up, the better for the country! Or, will Doctors’ general strike save the situation or engulf it?

Abbati D. Gumel, Kano.