Heart disease: Scientist tasks govts on acquisition of vital radio diagnosis tools
A Medical Imaging Scientist, Dr Livinus Abonyi, has called on government at all levels to acquire two vital radiodiagnosis machines for the evaluation of heart ailments and other diseases in the country.
Abonyi, a Lecturer in the Department of Medical Radiography, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, University of Lagos, College of Medicine, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.
The don said that the call was necessary because diagnosis machines such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Scanner and Computed Tomography Machine (CTM) were not available in most hospitals across the country.
According to him, at least, 64-slice computed tomography machine scanner is needed for testing the heart effectively.
“As at today, we do not have up to 10 of such scanners in functional state across the country, both in private or public health institutions.
“There is need for development of a clear policy and greater Public-Private Partnership (PPP) framework, aimed at ensuring that the machines are made available in all our tertiary health facilities across the country.
“Even at the local and state government levels, budgetary allocations geared toward provision of capital-intensive health diagnostic equipment should be provided.
“This will enable Nigerian radiologists offer radiodiagnosis services that are comparable to such specialised services rendered anywhere in the world,” Abonyi said.
He noted that the major challenge of ill-health management was lack of proper diagnosis.
According to him, if an ailment is properly diagnosed with the appropriate machine; its management and cure will not be far-fetched.
The scientist explained that lack of the required diagnostic equipment in Nigerian hospitals was the reason cancer was seen and regarded as a death sentence in the country.
“Inaccurate diagnosis leads to wrong management of patients, which can lead to grave consequences on the patient.
“That a patient had been coughing for months is not an indication that the patient has tuberculosis but if diagnosed, the X-Ray may reveal that the patient is ‘Asthmatic’ or had other health conditions that trigger the cough,” the don said.
Abonyi said that the availability of adequate diagnostic equipment reduced mother-child mortality because if proper diagnosis and treatment were given to a pregnant woman, no woman would die in the course of delivering a child. (NAN)
