By Chioma Umeha
With over seven million
people estimated to die suddenly annually, representing 40 per cent of the
yearly deaths worldwide, the menace has been described by researchers as a
leading global health problem in the country.
Statistics from the
recent research findings released from by the Non Communicable Diseases (NCD)
Research Group of Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) said that trend
in developing countries, including Nigeria remains on the rise.
At a symposium on “Sudden
Death in Nigeria: Public Dissemination of National Survey Findings,” which the
researchers organised, they further described the development as an alarming
health challenge requiring urgent interventions.
According to them, the
rate of people who die of sudden death would be 83 per cent by 2020 in
developing countries, without appropriate interventions.
While making her
presentation, Dr. Nkiruka Odunukwe, Head, NCD research group, NIMR, stressed;
“Without appropriate interventions, this rate is expected to double by 2020
with 83 per cent of sudden death cases occurring in developing countries.
“The declining incidence
of sudden death in developed countries has been attributed to availability of
detailed research data for adequate intervention programmes,” Odunukwe said.
She identified the risk
factors of sudden death to include cardiovascular, respiratory and central
nervous system disorders as the commonest causes.
However, Odunukwe decried
the dearth of autopsy result in the country, especially in the North where
their research has shown that there are huge number of sudden deaths.
Odunukwe added the recent
study by her group showed that the only 11 per cent do autopsy in the North.
“The geographical
imbalance between the South and North has revealed that there is need for a
nationally adopted survey especially in the North,” she added.
The study was aimed
at generating data on occurrence, causes and risk factors of sudden death as
well as determine the levels of knowledge, perception, and practice of health
workers on sudden death in selected teaching hospitals across the nation.
It revealed that the
South West accounts for 70.9 per cent with the most affected age group between
41 and 50, the Head, NCD research group said.
The study showed
that the commonest cause of death was cardiovascular cases with 41.4 per cent,
followed by Cerebrovascular accident with 19.5 per cent and respiratory causes
with 14 per cent.
It is also revealed that
working class people are mostly affected with 76.5 per cent and only 5.8 per
cent has received training on sudden death.
Odunukwe said other
reasons why many hospitals in the North have low account of autopsy includes
insufficient pathologist, myths, cultural and religious belief.
On the solution the
challenge, she advised that the coroner law be enacted in all the state and it
should be supported financially by the government to encourage people to do
autopsy.
She said: “Government
should enact, implement and support the coroner law as done in 2007 by Lagos
state, so that we can find out particularly the cause of people’s death. The
enacted law in Lagos state is one of the reasons there is a high number of autopsy
result in the state.”
Odunukwe added that
technical report of the research would be submitted to the Ministry of Health
so as to guide policy makers on intervention solutions.
“NIMR have started
collaborations with teaching hospitals and other research institutes to carry
out further survey in order to validate our findings,” she added.
On his part, Dr. Bamidele
Salako, Director General of NIMR, said that the findings of the research would
prompt the importance of public health approach to find solution to
hypertension and re-count the need for a competent approach to preventing it.
“Previously, there was no
national figure as to the cause of sudden death in Nigeria. Many people have to
bury their dead within 24 hours, but we there is a change now due to the
research.
“The research findings as
shown today have reaffirmed that hypertension is the number one enemy. We
should not rely on western data to formulate policies, so NIMR in collaboration
with research bodies did a study to engage educate and empower the young ones
on the research findings,” Salako added.
Salako corroborated
earlier views and said that heart disease, heart failure, heart attack are
underlying factors of high blood pressure(HBP) which result to sudden death.
He advised that more
attention should be paid to prevention by those who don’t have HBP, treatment
by those who have HBP and proper management by those who have developed
complications.
“More precautions must be
taken to reduce the number of sudden deaths,” he added.
Prof. Andre Kengne,
Director, Non-communicable Diseases Research Unit, South African Medical
Research, stressed that industrialisation and adoption of the Western lifestyle
without taking the necessary modifications are some of the reason why
hypertension is prevalent in Nigeria.
He added that
hypertension is a silent killer that goes undetected till the person dies.
“We can still globalise,
but we must create an enabling society. Proactive actions are to be taken to
reduce drastically the number of people with sudden death. This includes
creating an enabling environment to cater for the growing population.
“Promote healthy eating
and take exercise serious. Regular health check would help in early detection
and proper treatment to prevent death,” he stated.
On the challenges of
autopsy in Nigeria, Dr. Sunday Shoyemi, Pathologist Lecturer of the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), has said that lack of facilities in
hospitals was a major challenge.
According to him, autopsy
is post mortem examination to determine cause of death and to determine change
of event on cause of death.
“Lack of x-ray and DNA
facilities, proper registration system, and insufficient consultant toxilogical
facilities are some of the factors hindering autopsy,” he added.
He further advocated that
people do regular blood pressure check to ascertain their health status.
Dr. Bamidele Iwalokun,
Chief Research Fellow and Head of Department, Molecular Biology &
Biotechnology Division, Immunology & Vaccinology Research Group,
advocated more pathologist to be enrolled and trainings to be carried out on
based on the findings that 47.5 per cent have knowledge on autopsy.
He recommended that
surveillance guideline be developed for sudden death and improve healthcare
training through programme integration and increase algorithm on other parts.
Iwalokun urged the three
tiers of governments to establish sudden death registry secondary to autopsy
registry in the country.
