- Say Nigerians die from it more than HIV, tuberculosis combined
As the yuletide approaches, orthopaedic surgeons in Nigeria have called on relevant stakeholders including the Federal Government to unite and fashion out measures to address the rising cases of road accidents on our highways , revealing that road accident is killing more Nigerians than
diseases.
The orthopaedic surgeons, under the umbrella body of Nigerian Orthopaedic Association, made the call during their 41st Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference, with the theme: “Musculoskeletal Problem in Children” held in Lagos recently.
Declaring the conference open, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, who is also a member of the association, described road accident as a silent epidemic.
He said, “Not long ago, I was in a conference in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia chaired by former President Olusegun Obasanjo . The conference was on Coalition on Dialogue in Africa and the theme was on casualties from road accident. For the first time, they were shedding light on what is going-on on our roads. And many of us do not know that we lose more people by road accident than HIV, tuberculosis and malaria combined annually.”
The minister further said, “Many people don’t know that road accident is a silent epidemic. We must begin to focus on these losses. It is time to take a look at what is happening in this area. We need to find solution to the carnage on our roads through accident prevention measures. We need to develop measures to respond to crashes and ambulance emergency
services.”
No fewer than 2,598 Nigerians died in road accidents between October, 2017 and March, 2018, according to the National Bureau of
Statistics.
This makes Nigeria one of the countries with very high road fatalities in the world.
Ehanire revealed that the Federal Government had unveiled plans to establish Emergency and Trauma Care Centres across the nation to cater for casualties from road accident.
He said that there was inadequacy of current emergency and trauma care across the nation, which was largely in the domain of orthopaedic and trauma surgery.
In his remarks, President of the association, Dr Ugochukwu Enweani, called for the creation of interface for effective interaction and collaboration among stakeholders in the health sector to reduce impact from road accidents.
Enweani, who also suggested the establishment of dedicated trauma centres and 24 hours ambulance services to be able to care for victims of road accidents, revealed that the country has a shortage of orthopaedic surgeons while the few available ones were not evenly distributed.
According to him, Nigeria has 432 orthopaedic surgeons with a population of over 180 million people while Egypt also an African nation with less than 100 million population has 4300 orthopaedic surgeons.
He enjoined the government to increase funding for orthopaedic services , train more personnel and make equipment available for the treatment of road accident victims.
He also called for more awareness to address some cultural barriers hindering victims of road accidents from accessing proper treatment and orthopedic care from specialists.
Enweani said that the conference was aimed at bringing to the attention of the government and public agencies on certain issues of public concern relating to orthopedic care in Nigeria.
The World Health Organisation has listed the causes of road accidents to include speeding (4-5 per cent); driving under the influence of alcohol and other psychoactive substances; non-use of motorcycle helmets, seat-belts, and child restraints; distracted driving; unsafe road infrastructure; unsafe vehicles; inadequate post-crash care; and inadequate law enforcement of traffic laws.
