‘Babies born with birth defects, unacceptable’• as abnormality ultrasound scan services commences at UCH
Written by Sade Oguntola
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, Professor Temitope Alonge has frown on pregnant women giving birth to abnormal babies despite expertise to detect and treat some of such babies, declaring that it was unacceptable.
Professor Alonge, speaking at the training of health experts on the use of ultrasound machines to detect abnormal babies at the hospital, stated through an anomaly scan with the ultrasound machine, women’s fear of delivering an abnormal baby can be allayed.
At the training, which is the first on foeto-maternal medicines in a government hospital, Professor Alonge stated that anomaly scan in developed countries had become a routine test.
He declared, “UCH deserves such a service and empowering radiologist and gynaecologists to take this training makes me very excited because for a woman to carry a pregnancy for the nine months and afterwards we discover that her baby is abnormal is not acceptable.”
Professor Alonge, reiterating that abnormality scan will be done between 15 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, stated that the complete scan of the unborn baby takes between 45 minutes and one hour.
According to him, “the procedure involves scanning the unborn child from head to toe—skull, brain, spine, fingers and all organs of the body to be sure they are complete.”
The CMD stated that the hospital was following up abnormality ultrasound scan services with the provision of interventional obstetric care.
According to him, “if a defect in the heart is found and it is treatable, we will open the woman up, bring out the baby from the womb and repair the defect. Then the baby is returned back inside the womb and the womb closed up.”
Professor Alonge, while stating that abnormality scan was going to be optional because it was going to be an extra cost, assured that the hospital through health education programmes intended to inform women on the consequences of abnormality in babies.
Dr Dilichukwu Anumba, the trainer and specialist in maternal and foetal medicine, University of Sheffield Teaching Hospital, emphasised that ultrasound scanning in pregnancy was safe and with appropriate training of health experts, babies with problems can be identified and appropriate treatment prescribed to remedy the abnormality in some cases.
Dr Anumba, arguing that Nigeria should establish a foetal maternal services for high risk situations, stated that over 50 different things could account for why babies were born with abnormality.
According to him, “some of these abnormalities are inherited problems, some are accidents of development, some due to drugs that the women take early in pregnancy or X-ray. “
He affirmed that it was usually traumatic when abnormal babies were born, adding that some cases of still birth and miscarriages were due to abnormality in such babies.
Meanwhile Professor Ayo Arowojolu, head of department, Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the hospital has said that between two and three per cent of women give birth to abnormal babies, world over.
Professor Arowojolu added that the chances of a woman giving birth to an abnormal baby increased with problems in pregnancy such as diabetes and irrational use of medicines.
Experts call for adequate monitoring of health researches
Written by Sade Oguntola
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Five years after the Federal Government instituted the National Guidelines of Ethics on Health Research, experts have called for adequate monitoring of all approved health researches to ensure they confirm to laid down procedures.
Dr Atinuke Agunloye, a consultant radiologist and Nigerian co-investigator on Community of Practice in Ecohealth for West and Central Africa, stated that evidence on the field indicated there was dearth of information on the National Code of Health Research Ethics, especially in the community.
Dr Agunloye, who stated that the National Code of Health Research Ethics was a guideline for researchers in the country, said although many researchers are aware of this code, they do not strictly follow this code that should ensure no patient or volunteer in any study is exploited.
The don, stating that patients and volunteers were sometime not told the risks associated with the research, declared that many researches lack monitoring by the organisations that approved such studies.
Although funding of ethics committees and staffing were challenges to monitoring of health researches in the country, she stated that the society could only progress through research and so individuals should not dissuade from participating in research or take all researchers as either bad or exploitative.
Dr Agunloye stated, however, that participants in health researches should know their rights, know that participation in any study should be voluntary and that if they decided not to participate, it should not affect their access to treatment.
Dean Faculty of Public Health, Professor Ademola Ajuwon, emphasising that there are rules, norms, regulations that guide the conduct of research, stated that ethics of research were developed in response to some abuses of research participants or lapses that occurred in the past.
Professor Ajuwon, who cited examples of abuse of research participants to include the Tuskegee Syphilis study in 1930s in the USA, the Pfizer Drug Trials in Kano and others, such as health workers compelling patients to pay for services not directly related to care, said based on lessons learnt from the Pfizer Kano drug trial, researchers could not be trusted with safety of research participants and that no matter how long ago abuse had occurred, its consequences could be serious when it became known.
Professor Ajuwon stated that the code of ethics of health research was to ensure that all researches have social or scientific value, scientific validity, fair selection of research participants, minimise risks and maximise benefits as well as have respect for potential and enrolled participants.
Don stresses on role of health assistants in hospitals
Written by Toyin Akinola
Thursday, 19 July 2012
There is the need to sensitise the public hospital management board and the government on the role of health assistant in the health sector.
Former Head of Nursing Services, Oyo-state and Senior lecturer, Department of Nursing, Ladoke Akintola University of Science and Technology (LAUTECH) Osogbo, Dr Rasheed Akinade Salawu, made the disclosure at the Health week organised by the Health assistant – in – training at the School of hygiene Eleyele, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Dr Salawu stated that health assistant training programme was to produce health assistants that could give quality and productive assistance to other members of health team.. He said that as health care technology was becoming evident in the health sector, so also would the health assistants continue to become useful.
Dr Rasheed Salawu added that the programme, whose expected beneficiaries were semi- illiterates, ward servants, ward maids, card issuers and their likes, was introduced to help give the beneficiaries job satisfaction by giving quality assistance to professionals in the
health sector.
Also speaking at the event, Head of Department, School of Hygiene, Eleyele, Ibadan, Mr Adeniyi Lawal said health assistants are not just there to wash or clean wards or become ward orderlies, but have been trained to give quality assistance to health professionals.
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