Why the health of Nigerians is worsening

The poor attitude of not paying adequate attention to changes in health has been identified as a major factor responsible for worsening health status among Nigerians.  Pharmacist Emmanuel Agba revealed that people go out every day without being aware of what their health is, like their sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure levels and  body mass among […]

The poor attitude of not paying adequate attention to changes in health has been identified as a major factor responsible for worsening health status among Nigerians.
 Pharmacist Emmanuel Agba revealed that people go out every day without being aware of what their health is, like their sugar, cholesterol, blood pressure levels and  body mass among others.
Agba who is also the Managing Director, Tyonex Nigeria Limited, said the need for people to know their health status informed the organisation’s  decision to introduce its Hypertension Awareness Prevention Programme (HAPPY) as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities at Igando market in Lagos.
“So, we are carrying out this exercise within our community in Igando and we are still going to take the initiative to all other local government areas within Lagos State as well as other parts of the country to ensure that people are carried along and the need for them to know their health status,” he said at the flag off ceremony.
Represented by Tyonex National Sales Manager, Mrs. Maduka Ifeyinwa, he said the aim of the programme is to educate the masses and get them informed about the absolute need for them to regularly check their health status.
Agba disclosed that about 25 local governments within Lagos State and 15 local government areas across the geographical regions will benefit from the initiative within the next three months.
According to him, “We decided to limit the initiative to hypertension alone because we have free drugs to give to the people. We will also extend it to other diseases awareness areas like lipid profile but we don’t want to carry out an exercise on such ailment that we don’t have free drugs to doll out to the patients.”
Meanwhile, Medical Officer, Igando Ikotun Local Government Development Authority (LCDA), Dr. Orebiyi S. Olatunji, said the programme has boosted access to quality health care.
He said  most Nigerians that are 40 years and above, especially women, have poor health attitudes because they don’t see to their health as they are supposed to.
He said: “Under this initiative, we give them free services and ensure that we monitor their blood pressure and conduct random sugar checks for them. We give those with hypertension free drugs while we refer those with diabetes to the general hospital or primary health care centre near them for confirmation before they can begin treatment because it is not a one day thing.”
The medical officer said there is a lot of correlation between diabetes, hypertension and hyper cholesterol anemia. “They work together, hypertension triggers diabetes and diabetes triggers excessive cholesterol in the system and we call them ‘triad’ because most of the people that have hypertension at the end of the day developed diabetes because the amount of blood that goes to the kidney is affected.
This is why it is important for anyone that is 40 years and above to pay more attention to their health by seeing qualified medical personal that will advise them on their health status and what to do,” he said.