People frequently remark that ‘what you don’t know will not harm you’. I have often wondered where they got it from . Another common argument is that the Nigerian African is made of so much biological and paranormal stuff that he can withstand adverse and hostile environmental conditions without blinking . Seriously, recent events do not support these posturing because absence of disease does not mean good health says World health organization(WHO) in the 1949 declaration. What it means that you may have cancer of the lungs for years without knowing it, because you may just have dry cough that also comes with common cold.
Young men who smoke are dying young, those who abuse alcohol are either dying from liver disease, or having the quality of their lives reduced by certain types of brain disorders at different levels.
Young men and women taking hard drugs like Cocaine and Heroin, and the less recognized but equally dangerous mixtures of Codeine and Sulphur containing Cough mixtures and adulterated Red wine respectively are sending themselves to neuropsychiatric Hospitals , while many housewives without knowing it are giving husbands hypertension and diabetes mellitus by cooking meals loaded with salt and sugar ,and nagging all the time every where. What is common to all of these is nothing different from lack of awareness about the underlying dangers and the consequent low perception of the associated risks; take for instance a young man that is warned by a non brothel prostitute that she is a fully diagnosed HIV patient who simply replies that HIV is just another fever or take the male patient with chronic Hepatitis B infection, who only has the yellowish green coloration of the eyes and mild localized pain in the upper right abdomen .He has no idea how dangerous his condition is and goes about having chains of concubines and girl friends ,occasionally going to the chemist to buy the very drugs patients with liver disease should NEVER take . What about the sports men and women abusing performance enhancing drugs and older men who take the sum drugs so they can become sexual athletes and end up dying atop commercial sex workers? One could go on and on with many examples where out of ignorance or wrong advice patients have suffered death or outright deterioration in their medical problems . It is not new thinking that in many situations peril attends lack of appropriate knowledge. Ignorance and going to the wrong people is the main reason why many people wait until they develop stroke before they go to the Hospital or see a Medical Doctor to have their blood pressure checked. The same goes for cancer of any where. It used to be said that Cancers and tumors were diseases of Western Societies ;but we are no longer eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Women no longer bother about what husbands eat and where they eat. Convenience well decorated food from fast food joints with the potential for cancers has become the norm . Beyond that ,it is important to realize that certain disease conditions have not been adequately studied, and not much can be said about them ; but it is particularly unwise for any individual who has any medical problem irrespective of his educational background and the nature of the problem to seek information first from people outside the medical profession ,wait for complications to develop , before coming to the right place.
There is always the possibility that a highly educated person will underestimate the severity of a particular medical condition. This more likely to happen when the patient is a Medical Doctor, Pharmacist, Nurse , Physiotherapist or Microbiologist. In most situations Medical Doctors as a result of the depth of knowledge acquired over years of training, tend to fair better on the side of estimating the severity and possible complications of disease conditions. They also adhere to the injunction from the Oath of medical practice to not do any harm(primum non nocere). Medical Doctors seek help from colleagues when they or members of their families fall ill , and only provide intelligent information that will assist the attending Physicians. There is greater wisdom when that is the case than arrogating absolute knowledge of every thing to oneself and paying an irredeemable price .
The current situation in Nigeria is that there is only one Medical Doctor to take care of the Health of 10,000 citizens ;that of course is the nearest estimate. Surveys in this country are seriously hampered by religious and cultural hurdles and so most reports are from extrapolative statistical data. The truth is that the Medical Doctor population ratio is at best at the disadvantage of the poor. Unfortunately, the poor and the rich when it comes to health matters seem to be in the same sea of confusion concerning where to get the appropriate and cost effective treatment. While the poor man lacks the purchasing power, the rich goes for medical tourism and either loses everything while still there or comes back home with a wrong Diagnosis. The only reliable solution to all these is for every family to have a relationship with a Medical Doctor that can be reached at any time . In other oil producing countries where things work and every man does what is expected of him , it is possible for every citizen to have one Doctor to call at any time ,but unless God remakes Nigeria, that is not possible .
A few ancillary explanations and reasons will suffice :
Every disease has symptoms and signs that are unique to it . Symptoms are uncomfortable , disturbing and distressful feelings experienced by a patient on account of a diseases or group of diseases , about which he makes verbal or non verbal complaints . Signs on the other hand are the manifestations of a disease or group of diseases , arranged according to age and sex, which can be observed directly or detectable by special tools . Overlaps occur frequently between symptoms , syndromes(many diseases with different signs and symptoms ,resulting from one cause) , and signs . To the untrained health care provider for an example, biting pain deep in the buttock of a man simply needs a few tablets of Paracetamol or butazolidine to permanently take care of the problem. If the patient has a smoldering peptic ulcer disease that could now burst open ,he is trained to explore.