Posted on: Tue 23-08-2016

We DEMAND that health care providers need to be advocates

As you may be aware, the health indicators in Nigeria may have improved between 2000 and 2015. This improvement is insignificant as Life expectancy in Nigeria (52.75 years) is one of the lowest in the world. Nigeria ranks 193 of 200 nations ranked by the World Bank in 2015: lower than all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, lower than all low income countries and lower than all lower middle income countries.

Nigeria is a high burden country for many diseases:

·         Nigeria houses the second largest population of people living with HIV and has the largest number of new HIV infection each year

·         Nigeria is making poor progress with prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV. The country the leads the global manufacture of children infected with HIV.

·          TB infection remains a challenging problem and a growing public health hazard in Nigeria and the country is identified as one of the 10 high burden countries in the world.

·         Malaria burden of malaria is still high: More deaths occur in Nigeria from malaria than in any other country; approximately one third of all children who die from malaria are Nigerians.

·         An estimated 19 million Nigerians are currently infected with the Hepatitis B virus in Nigeria.

·          The country leads Africa as per the number of cases of intestinal helminth infections (ascariasis, hookworm, and trichuriasis) and ranks fourth globally behind China, India, and Indonesia.

·         Nigeria also has the greatest number of cases of schistosomiasis worldwide. It also has the greatest number of cases of lymphatic filiariasis and onchocerciasis in Africa, ranking third and first globally respectively

·         Nigeria has an estimated 18 million people at risk for trachoma, with nearly 1.3 million people living with trichiasis, and the third or fourth largest number of new cases of leprosy in Africa (behind Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo)

·         The country has greatest number of cases of yellow fever, rabies, and Buruli ulcer in Africa.

·         As high as 20-25% of Nigerians are hypertensive.

·         Maternal and infant mortality rates continue to be high with Nigeria having one of the worst rates in the world.

·         The incidence of breast cancer in Nigeria is estimated at between 52.0 to 54.6 per 100000

·          The incidence of cervical cancer in Nigeria is estimated at between and 30.3 to 36.0 per 100,000.

Despite this poor health status of Nigeria, only 4.13% of the national budget was allocated to Health – a 3.73 percent decline from the allocation in 2015 and nowhere near the 15% required budgetary allocation for health. The health budget is less than the budget for defense, education, works and interior. The defence but is over 8% of the national budget yet 22,544 lives were lost to violent death in 2015, a decline of 24.45% from 2014. Nothing compared to the 210,000 who died of AIDS in 2015 and 300,000 who dies of malaria in 2015.

The worst story: since Nigeria is now a lower middle income country, donor funds withdrawal starts from 2016 at the rate of 20% per year. By the year 2020, all donor support for health will be withdrawn. The 2016 budget does not reflect any efforts by the Nigerian government to close the gap resulting from donor funds withdrawal. GAVI has withdrawn 20% of its funding support for immunization.

We can no longer stay quiet. We Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria DEMAND that:

·         Doctors be vocal and demand for health prioritization in the Nigeria 2017 budget. NMA, MDCAN, NDA and others need to speak up. You can no longer be silent about the plight of we Nigerians

·         Doctors stand up and be truthful to their Physician Oath. Speak up for those at substantial risk for health crisis like HIV infection in Nigeria

·         Doctors start to become advocates in addition to being clinicians. Enough is enough. We are not going in the direction of the 15% budgetary allocation for health. We are not making progress

·         Doctors at all level of health care get the required skills to provide HIV prevention and treatment service to those who need it. NO MORE DISCRIMINATORY AND STIGMATISING health care services in Nigeria. MDCN should require doctors to take HIV competency management courses as part of their annual update courses,

We DEMAND that doctors speak up and stop being complacent to the realities and deterioration in the health sector. Speak up for we vulnerable Nigerians and stop limiting your demands to improvement in your salaries and welfare. Speak up for we vulnerable Nigerians.

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Shalom

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