By 2000, I was already getting bored with health reporting. Then, it seemed there was nothing new to report. Every year, and almost on a daily basis, the same statistics were being bandied everywhere about our state of health. Then, Nigeria was ranked among countries with the lowest life expectancy, highest cases of child, maternal mortality and malaria.
Then, at every scientific meeting when a disease condition was being discussed, the normal speakers' introduction was to acknowledge the dearth of statistics and inability to tell the number of Nigerians suffering from the particular disease being discussed. The speaker would quote worldwide, Europe or American figures and then give some conjecture or extrapolations for what could be the Nigerian situation. In some instances, the speaker would rely on the grossly inadequate figures from the ministry of health sometimes obtained through the UN bodies covering health in the country such as WHO, UNFPA, UNDP, UNAIDS and the likes. The truth is nobody had any figure or reliable statistics about any disease condition in this country.
Sadly, about 14 years after, the story has not changed much. The only significant change I can report today is that we no longer talk about guinea worm (dracunculiasis). Thank God, we have a success story and we can no longer quote the figures of 2000 or years before. In fact there's no need to talk of statistics any more as we have joined the list of nations that have successfully eradicated the dreaded crippling worm. I pray we will be singing the same song soon about polio.
Unfortunately, that's not the story we can tell about several other diseases. We just don't know how many of us are suffering from the prevalent diseases in our environment. Ask the Nigerian Hypertension Society, any Nigerian cardiologist or "scientist" about the number of Nigerians suffering from hypertension. What you get will depend on what they think is our current population.
The figure this year has been between 56 and 61.5 million based on WHO's projections of 41% prevalent rate for all African countries. What is more worrisome is the fact that WHO actually arrives at its own statistics based on reports from individual countries usually through the ministry of health or its (WHO) field office. Now, tell me the type of reports that will emanate from Nigeria! Apart from the occasional household surveys, I doubt if we have any verifiable and scientific way of knowing the prevalence and other details of the diseases in our environment.
In the 80s, I was once informed at the Health Ministry's department of statistics that each state of the federation was expected to send reports of notifiable diseases to the Federal level. Even at that time, the reports from some of the states were just simply laughable – and that was for those who cared to file reports. I don't know the current situation but I will be surprised if it's anything different from the situation in the 80s
Any wonder then that our specialists on diabetes tell us there are only about 6.7 million Nigerians living with diabetes today based on IDF's projected comparative prevalence of 4.5% in Africa. Now, consider this: A screening exercise conducted by the Urhobo National Association of North America (UNANA) in December 2004 in Warri and Sapele, Delta State, found out that out of the 487 people screened in Warri and its environs, no fewer than 65% had diabetes. In Sapele, 60% of the 300 people screened had diabetes. These are just two towns in a state. Will you still accept that the number of people with diabetes in this country will be just about six million? I wonder. Why bother about statistics, especially when it is a general malaise in all aspects of our life?
Simple. The chaotic nature of our healthcare delivery system is closely linked with the dearth of statistics on the common ailments plaguing us. How can we ever plan how to effectively tackle any disease condition in a country of over 150 million people when we don't even know the number of people affected by the condition, its pattern and peculiarities in our environment? Do you still wonder that our facilities are forever inadequate and our health workers seriously overburdened?
Truth is, anyone attempting to genuinely address the myriads of problems in our health sector must start from the basics. We need to take the issues of data more seriously and we must plan for individual's health needs based on available statistics. We certainly cannot do much with the dearth of information on virtually every health condition in our country. The Federal Ministry of Health must wake up and devise a way to collect relevant data from all health institutions in the country so we could at least have a semblance of 'National Statistics' on prevalent diseases in our environment.
National Mirror