COVID19: Nigerians should worry about weak health system -- AMLSN

Reacting to the development yesterday, the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, AMLSN, said Nigerians should not only worry about the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, but also the nation's failed health system.

Speaking through its National Publicity Secretary, Dr Casmir Ifeanyi, the association said the weak health system in the country called for concern, adding that it was impacting on the capacity of the nation to cope with the situation at hand.

"Nigerians do not only need to worry about Coronavirus but should be worried about our failed health system. We should be concerned about the fact that when people go to the hospital from the primary health centres, they have no functional laboratory facilities.

"It is unacceptable that Ogun State did not have capacity to test for Coronavirus; they had to bring patients to Lagos for testing. That shows that we are treating issues of disease outbreak with kid-gloves."

Ifeanyi, who said the 2019 Global Health Security index score clearly showed that Nigeria's health system was comatose, said enough had not been done.

"People ask me: should Nigerians be worried? I say yes. The 2019 Global Health Security Index scored Nigeria 19.9 per cent. If we judge by this rating, it shows that Nigeria's health system is comatose.

"A health system that is rated 19.9 out of 100 cannot say it is ready for the protection of health service delivery to its citizens, let alone an outbreak that is shaking the entire globe to its roots."

According to Ifeanyi, majority of the PHCs do not have full time medical laboratory human resources.

"You go there, they pack drugs and give you with no form of testing and diagnosis. That is the state of our primary healthcare. If you go to state hospitals, the laboratories are in disarray, infrastructure is not provided, human resources are not trained and retrained or recruited in right numbers. These are issues Nigerians should worry about."

On Nigeria's preparedness for COVID-19, he said: "I think they are saying so with expectation that, since it is a global outbreak, there will be resources coming from international and development partners in that regard.

"One may say government has put forward N384 million towards preparation for this Coronavirus infection, but if you convert that amount to dollars, it's about one million dollars."

Meanwhile, as part of efforts to further step up awareness and disseminate information on Coronavirus, COVID-19, among residents, Governor Babjide Sanwo-Olu yesterday met with 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Area, LCDAs, chairmen and various stakeholders in the state on the need to be pro-active on the deadly disease.

Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, who addressed journalists after the meeting at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, said the purpose of the meeting was to disseminate pamphlets to the society to further create awareness on the virus.

He said over a hundred contacts of the index case of the Italian being treated for the virus had been established, adding that they were being monitored in the state's isolation medical facilities or their homes.

According to the commissioner, the state government is intensifying efforts to establish some of the Italian man's contacts, and that two people from Ogun State that were tested on Sunday were negative.

The commissioner stated that the government was being proactive to prevent spread of the virus in the state, adding that up-to-date information could be accessed from his personal social media platforms and the Health Ministry.

Abayomi, therefore, urged residents to desist from spreading fake news on the virus especially on any platform on the social media, advising health workers to be careful when treating patients with symptoms which included diarrhoea, cough, sneezing among others.

Abayomi urged residents to reduce the amount of body contact s and maintain high level of personal hygiene.

https://allafrica.com/stories/202003030189.html

Cc: Lalasticlala

We are not alone

Thank goodness our trust is in God and not the weak healthcare system

ignis:
Thank goodness our trust is in God and not the weak healthcare system

God, God, God, but he gave you a brain with billions of cells to do right and live right but some unicellular organisms still 'think' properly than most human beings in Nigeria.

ignis:
Thank goodness our trust is in God and not the weak healthcare system

Sigh....


Speechless

LabDNA:


God, God, God, but he gave you a brain with billions of cells to do right and live right but some unicellular organisms still 'think' properly than most human beings in Nigeria.

Am telling you.

Even an Amoeba can do better than this.

Ogun state has a president, governor, legislature and LGA Chairmen, they knew about this thing since months ago and they did not do anything?

ignis:
Thank goodness our trust is in God and not the weak healthcare system

So italians do no worship God abi..

Jflex07:
So italians do no worship God abi..

You dey mind them?

LabDNA:


You dey mind them?

LabDNA please I have a question I need help . I know you're a doc nd I've been looking for someone to ask. My babe had a medical abortion with mifepristol and misprostol on the 27th of Feb. (She had her period in the beginning of February) she bled normally. However, blood tests are still showing positive while transvaginal ultrasound shows theres nothing there. Do you please have any idea when her period will return or when we can expect to see negative when she does blood test??
I hope you reply. Thanks

yungEX:



LabDNA please I have a question I need help . I know you're a doc nd I've been looking for someone to ask. My babe had a medical abortion with mifepristol and misprostol on the 27th of Feb. (She had her period in the beginning of February) she bled normally. However, blood tests are still showing positive while transvaginal ultrasound shows theres nothing there. Do you please have any idea when her period will return or when we can expect to see negative when she does blood test??
I hope you reply. Thanks

Sorry for the late response. Was on call duty.

When a lady is pregnant there is a hormone produced during the period of pregnancy, it is called the Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG). That hormone can be detected sensitively in the blood and urine. Infact it is what we test for in the laboratory (qualitatively and quantitatively) during pregnancy test as Medical Scientists in the laboratory.

Now people usually think that once they do an abortion and a scan tells them the pregnancy is no longer viable, the blood test result should become negative immediately. No that's not true.

Even after an abortion, the results of the blood pregnancy test will still remain positive for a good period of time because the HCG pregnancy hormones are still present in the lady's blood plasma and will take some weeks to clear off her blood stream.

LabDNA:



Sorry for the late response. Was on call duty.

When a lady is pregnant there is a hormone produced during the period of pregnancy, it is called the Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (HCG). That hormone can be detected sensitively in the blood and urine. Infact it is what we test for in the laboratory (qualitatively and quantitatively) during pregnancy test as Medical Scientists in the laboratory.

Now people usually think that once they do an abortion and a scan tells them the pregnancy is no longer viable, the blood test result should become negative immediately. No that's not true.

Even after an abortion, the results of the pregnancy test will still remain positive for a good period of time because the HCG pregnancy hormones are still present in the lady's blood plasma and will take some weeks to clear off her blood stream.

Oh . Thanks for this reply. I didn't know this