By Chioma Umeha
Following the World Heart Day marked recently, Cardiologists have raised
alarm over imminent epidemic of heart failure among Nigerians even as the World
Heart Federation, WHF, called for action to prevent 80 percent of premature
deaths from Cardiovascular Diseases, CVDs annually.
The experts lamented that most of the patient are
artisans, who cannot afford the cost of one admission for heart-related
disorders. Speaking in Lagos, a Consultant Cardiologist, Prof. Anam Mbakwem,
lamented that heart failure patients require between four to five hospital
admissions in a year, with each admission costing about N150,000 ($500).
She said at the Lagos University Teaching
Hospital, LUTH, between 20 to 30 per cent of all admissions at the hospital are
related to heart disease and these patients are in the middle age.
Mbakwem said: “A lot of them are artisans or
junior civil servants. More than two thirds of our patients are depressed. Some
stop taking their drugs and some discharge themselves due to lack of funds to
continue treatments.”
She blamed rising rate of the disease on the
nature of the environment, factors including stress, pollution from smoking
vehicles and generators, salty diets, refined carbohydrates, saturated fats
among others.
Also speaking, a Consultant Cardiologist, Prof.
Jane Ajuluchukwu, who advocated healthy lifestyle, attributed poor diets and
ignorance as factors that are driving the epidemic of heart diseases in
Nigeria. Warning against the intake of herbal products, she said: “It is not
everything that is natural that is healthy. Many bitters and natural herbs contain chemicals that could
weaken the heart muscles.”
