Experts seek training, equipment to tackle cardiovascular diseases

Several studies have shown that cardiovascular diseases are the most important cause of disease and mortality worldwide and more importantly in developing countries like Nigeria. In Nigeria, the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) primarily comes from cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes mellitus, cancers, sickle cell disease among others.
Cardiovascular diseases according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), are the number one cause of death globally as more people die annually from these diseases than from any other cause.
An estimated 17.5 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2012, representing 31% of all global deaths. Of these deaths, an estimated 7.4 million were due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million were due to stroke, says WHO.
Worried by the development, foreign and local healthcare professionals are calling on the federal government to urgently address the challenge by giving priority to the training and retraining of experts in the field of cardiology and by also making a world class equipment available for the treatment and management of these debilitating diseases.
The experts who made the call during the commissioning of The Grays Cardiology Centre by Reddington Healthcare Group in Lagos recently, said this was imperative in order to halt the alarming but avoidable number of deaths arising from these diseases.
Researchers say most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by addressing behavioural risk factors such as tobacco use, unhealthy diet and obesity, physical inactivity and harmful use of alcohol.
People with cardiovascular disease or who are at high cardiovascular risk (due to the presence of one or more risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia or already established disease) are advised to go for early detection and management using counselling and medicines, as appropriate.
One of the experts, a Consultant Cardiologist who is based in the USA, Dr. Ademola Abiose, said the effective way government could tackle the burden of cardiovascular diseases in Nigeria, was for it to invest in its experts through training in super specialty care and by ensuring that the needed environment and equipment were in place which is the practice in the developed countries.
According to Abiose who is an Associate Professor and Guest Speaker at the occasion, Nigeria lacks the state-of-the-art- facility and equipment to tackle these diseases, hence, preventing Nigerian medical experts abroad from coming home to practice.
Revealing that 80% of cardiovascular deaths occur in low income countries like Nigeria, Abiose pointed out that time has come for the country to look inward and also act fast, by addressing all identified gaps militating against efforts aimed at reducing the scourge especially now that foreign aids are dwindling.
Charting the way forward, he explained : “ There are two ways to tackle this problem in Nigeria. First, government should make cardiac centre a priority by investing in cardiovascular care. We cannot continue to rely on missions to help with cardiovascular care. We have a handful of qualified Nigerian experts abroad that are committed to giving back to the country. All they are asking for is the right facility and equipment to work with.”
The second, he said, was for the government to invest in local training and prevention, stressing that the government can achieve this by allowing its institutions partner with the private hospitals in this area because some of the private hospitals in Nigeria have more sophisticated equipment than government owned hospitals.
“In abroad, people don’t die from cardiovascular diseases as we have it in Nigeria and other developing countries because experts, facilities and equipment are available for both treatment and management”, he added.
Revealing that Nigeria could save over $1billion annually from medical tourism, Abiose urged Nigerians to go for regular health screening and also invest in telemedicine for early detection of these diseases .
Corroborating the views of Abiose , Chief Executive Officer of Reddington Hospital, Dr. Adeyemi Onabowale, said the availability of technology and medical expertise in cardiac care will save lives.
Lamenting the dearth of cardiologists in Nigeria, Onabowale said The Grays Cardiology Centre would be used in the teaching and practicing of cardiovascular medicine apart from offering treatment to patients in need of cardiac care.
According to him, the centre would enable more Nigerians with cardiovascular cases have access to quality care and treatment without travelling abroad.
Also, a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist and Medical Director, The Grays Cardiology Centre, Dr. Soe Moe Aung, said with deep understanding of cardiovascular diseases and its associated mortality and morbidity, there is need to create a centre of excellence that will cut across multidisciplinary services, which has now gave birth to The Grays Cardiology Centre.
He noted that The Grays Cardiology Centre was launched in collaboration with a team of indigenous cardiology experts, Professors of cardiology, and a USA-based cardiology group to reach out to more patients with cardiovascular cases.
Earlier, the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, said the Federal Ministry of Health, through the department of public-private partnership (PPP) and Diaspora, is keen to collaborate and partner with private health care providers and Nigerian health care experts in the Diaspora in what President Muhammadu Buhari calls “knowledge and skills repatriation.”
Expressing delight over the establishment of the Centre, Ehanire said: “ The Grays Cardiology Centre in fact sets the bar higher, in that it goes beyond the routine, to bring state of the art diagnostic and intervention capacity to Nigeria. We are proud that services that would have been found only in the top hospitals of technologically advanced countries, can be rendered right here, in the country, without need for passport, visa, airfare or other hurdles and expenses.”
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