A health initiative organisation, Hacey in collaboration with Access Corporation, on Wednesday, tasked medical practitioners with proper diagnosis and treatment of asthma in Nigerian communities.
They gave the charge during a training workshop organised for health workers in Ibadan South East Local Government Area of Oyo State, as part of the efforts to checkmate the prevalence of asthma in both urban and rural areas.
One of the resource persons for the training, Dr Adetunji Ademola, said that asthma can be properly managed if one understands the symptoms that come with it, saying this is predicated on proper diagnosis and effective treatment of the ailment.
He said: “If you find someone that is unconscious and can’t breathe very well, I think the next thing the person should do is to go to the hospital where appropriate care which includes giving some drugs and inhaler and other things can be administered on the patient.”
“There are some efforts that have been made to effectively provide adequate care for asthmatic patients. There are drugs that asthmatic patients will need that are available, even in Primary Healthcare Centres, PHCs.”
“PHCs have drugs asthmatic patients can use. It is important that asthmatic patients take their reliever which is an inhaler with them at all times, because who knows when the next attack is going to happen and it might be life-threatening.”
“Asthmatic patients should be persons that are very vigilant about their health; also care about staying away from allergies that could precipitate the attack. And it’s important asthmatic patients see their doctors regularly to ensure that they are properly managed. Symptoms of asthmatic attack do not come up frequently.”
“Also health care practitioners, need to be very vigilant because some ailments look like asthma and they are not asthma. So, when we see things that look like asthma, we give prompt treatment to reverse the possibility of life-threatening cases or death.”
Also speaking, the representative of Hacey, Tomilola Akinpelu, said the training was organised for health workers on asthma care, asthma relief, and education projects to reduce the prevalence of asthma in communities.
She said the training was conducted in three states, Oyo, Lagos, Ebonyi and Federal Capital Territory, FCT, stressing that “we have noticed so many people have asthma and they do not even know; and we have lost so many lives to asthma.
“And then, we know that health workers are the first people asthmatic patients run to, this is why we organised the training so that once a patient with asthma comes to them, they will know how to treat them, how to take care of them, how to manage such cases.”
“We just need to keep bringing up programmes like this to educate more people and I know that with the help of the government, we will achieve more.”
In her remark, the Officer in charge of Oranyan Primary Healthcare, Adebumi Aremu, commended Hacey and said the training which was educative would be impactful on their practices.
“Its an educative training and it will have good impacts on our practices in the PHCs, especially. I love it and I want more of it,” she stated.
. TheWitness
