LAGOS – A public health consultant, Dr Reward Nsirim, on Thursday urged medical professionals and people to adopt interventions in the health sector that could help enhance life expectancy in Nigeria.
Nsirim told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that there was need to focus on preventive measures that would benefit the populace.
“We have quite a high burden of infectious diseases; we have a rising burden of non- communicable diseases.
“There are interventions that are set up by healthier nations that make less people sick.
“So, it is these public health interventions that people like us in public health are advocating for not just government, but people to adopt so that in the long run, we have fewer sick people.”
Nsirim said that the medical personnel like doctors and nurses should be well trained and motivated with adequate infrastructure.
The consultant said that Nigerians should invest more in things that would keep the citizens healthy instead of leaving things to chance.
“Let’s take the issue of green spaces, for instance. Most of the countries whose life expectancies are longer than ours are countries where parks and gardens and woodlands are available virtually in every neighborhood.
“Tonnes of research across Europe and North America that have shown that when people move from areas without green spaces to areas where they have access to parks, their sense of wellbeing and health simply improves.
“There have been some scientific bodies in the UK who estimated that if the whole of England utilised the parks and green spaces available, they would save the healthcare system about 2.1 billion pounds per annum, that is huge.
“We are talking about close to N6 billion that Britain can save, how much more Nigeria?”
According to him, government can drastically improve health of citizens by moving people from the slums to decent living environment.
He said that better living conditions would reduce exposure to both communicable diseases and none communicable diseases, which in turn could reduce the amount of money, spent on treatment.
Nsirim said that reducing the number of cars on the road would also reduce air and noise pollution as well as the diseases they cause.
He said that stress, anxiety and depression caused by traffic contributed to physical illness.
According to Nsirim, Nigerian populace is too big, but most Nigerians refuse to consider the health benefits of consolidating the number of citizens through family planning.
“A family that keeps having children without experiencing a similar increase in income will eventually experience the collapse of their socioeconomic structure.
“A child is branded a witch because after being born, that family experiences bad health, which in reality is due to stress and lack of good food for everyone.
“Nigerians need to realise that it is not just hospitals and drugs that can solve the nation’s health problems and invest in alternatives.” (NAN)