A former President of the Nigerian Association of Nephrologists, Dr Ebun Bamgboye, has urged Nigerians to be cautious of their health, particularly the state of their kidney.
The medical expert urged Nigerians to for regular health checks, noting that early detection of the disease is crucial to saving the life of patients.
Bamigboye stated this in a paper delivered at the third Professor Oladipupo Akinkugbe Distinguished Lecture organised by the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Ondo State.
The lecture was titled, ‘The evolution of kidney transplantation in Nigeria and the legacy of Emeritus Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe.’
According to the nephrologist, most of those who require dialysis in the country do not get it despite how common the condition is.
He said, “Chronic kidney disease is very common in our country. Over 15 per cent of people have chronic kidney disease. That is, for every seven people, one has kidney failure. And it is estimated that over 100 people per million people every year require kidney transplantation.
“Ideally, 22,000 people should be on dialysis, and the total number of people on dialysis is less than 5,000. The 90 per cent of people who require dialysis and don’t get it will be dead within two weeks. So it is not surprising that so many people are dying from kidney failure.
“Kidney failure is an expensive thing to deal with. Even America spends over $40 billion on it. So we have to focus on prevention. We need to detect early and screen our population, like school children, pregnant women, and undergraduates. Let’s detect early.
‘”The average transplant will cost nothing less than N20 million in two years. If 20,000 people develop kidney failure every year and require a transplant, you can multiply 20,000 by N20 million, which will give you the sort of figures we are looking at. You know the country can’t afford that.”
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor of the UNIMED, Prof. Adesegun Fatusi, said, the university, the nation, and the medical world globally found not only a brilliant mind but also a man of “solid character, unassailable integrity, professional diligence, and outstanding performance-a man who truly deserves to be honoured at all times” in Late Emeritus Prof. Akinkugbe.
“I am proud that our university, the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Nigeria’s first specialised university of medical and health sciences, made it a point of duty to initiate this series to honour this medical colossus while he was yet alive and followed through faithfully in annually organising this event despite the demise of Emeritus Prof. Akinkugbe a few months before the first edition of the annual event took place in July 2021,” Fatusi stated
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