The Chief Medical Director, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Lagos, Prof. Adewale Oke has condemned the ongoing strike by doctors in the public health sector.
Oke in an interview with our correspondent said this was not the appropriate time for public health care professionals to embark on a strike.
According to the LASUTH CMD, the country, which had been experiencing economic problems could not afford such an action from its doctors.
“My opinion is that we are in the transition zone, one government to the other. We have a lot of challenges and that as a Nigerian, I don’t think this is the time to be going on strike because there is a lot of things we need to address which will help us pursue in putting us in a good stead in matching forward. There are a lot challenges in the economy, strikes like this will certainly not do well for our economy,” he said.
On the recent deaths of prominent national sports personalities, the cardiologist stated that this unfortunate development might be due to the fact that coaches engaged in less physical exercises than footballers.
According to Oke, “Blood\ pressure is innate. It is the situation that worsens the blood pressure. The person would have developed it before any uncontrollable situation. If you are hypertensive and financially imbalance, then your blood pressure can go higher. You have to be hypertensive for the situation to make it worse. It is not the situation that makes you hypertensive.”
Speaking further on how individuals can manage their health, the LASUTH CMD stressed that Nigerians must cultivate a healthy lifestyle as residents, adding that residents in the urban areas were always at a higher risk of becoming hypertensive.
Oke said, “The prevalence is a bit high in the country, especially in the urban areas. It is lower in the rural areas than in the urban areas because of the poor lifestyles people in the urban areas engage themselves in. There are basically two types of hypertension: the primary hypertension- the genetic predisposition associated with poor lifestyle, salt intake, cigarette, poor exercise, and cholesterol. The secondary hypertension is as a result of some conditions in the body, like kidney pathology.”
