Recent discoveries in medicine indicate that therapies for deadly sicknesses as against conventional drugs now abound in the country. ELEOJO IDACHABA in this report writes on how what is now commonly known as alternative medicine can check medical tourism .
In recent times, the saying that necessity is the mother of invention appears to be playing out even in the world of medicine.
Available record shows that either due to the biting economic situation by which it becomes difficult to afford certain drugs or the sheer non-availability of some drugs in the country, patients die prematurely. It is a known fact that only a few who can afford the cost of such medications especially abroad make it to those countries. This has given rise to what is now commonly known as medical tourism where so much foreign currency is expended. However, as all these take centre stage in the nation’s health care sector, medical researchers say that apart from the conventional drugs associated with hospitalisation either within or outside the country, what is now known as alternative medicine appears to have come to the rescue.
Instances
In October 2017, a Benin City-based businesswoman, Miss Josephine Iwuoha, was diagnosed of multiple sicknesses ranging from diabetes to enlarged heart and hypertension. These conditions, according to medical experts, are killer diseases. All tests at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital confirmed that her life was in grave danger as a result of which Miss Iwuoha was given three months to live by her doctors at the Faith Mediplex Hospital in Benin City. In a chat with Blueprint Weekend, she said, “I was already at the point of giving up when help came my way through unconventional drugs that gave me relief within a short space of time. A woman whose husband was down with stroke for 14 years, but was miraculously back on his feet traced me to Benin and looked for me until she found me and gave me a product called Double Stem Cell supplement which is an alternative to the conventional medicines I had taken for almost three years without relief. I barely took this administration for less than a month, surprisingly, all the symptoms I had observed in my body for years began to disappear, I was amazed; today, I am completely whole.”
In the same vein, in May 2019, Mr Balogun (not real name), a director with the Directorate of State Services (DSS) in Abuja, was booked for anal surgery at the National Hospital and a post-surgery care at a later date in a German hospital, but Blueprint Weekend gathered that both the surgery and German trip were cancelled on account of the same supplement administered on him.
In a chat with this reporter at his Garki 2 house in Abuja, this former security assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo said, “It is a wonder to me that things are happening very fast. As at last week, I was not able to sit down due to the pains I had in my anus. In less than two weeks now, I can sit down and I can eat pounded yam unlike a month ago. When I went for a checkup last Monday, I was told that the surgery has to be suspended. Although they didn’t know why, but I know.”
Why medical tourism?
Individual motivations for engaging in medical tourism vary widely and may include imperatives such as the avoidance of endless waiting associated with local medics providers in the country, cost reduction, the search for improved quality service, taste and accessible treatments not available or legal in the country, or generally because of restrictions which the individual is not eligible to receive.
It is an important issue both for national health care systems and from a global health perspective. Report indicates that patients all over the world exercise increasing degrees of autonomy over their health care options by obtaining information from sources other than their regular health care providers and, in some cases, pursue health care alternatives outside their domestic medical system. It is a broad and inclusive term that captures a wide range of diverse activities.
According to experts, it is the practice of travelling to another country with the purpose of obtaining health care, elective surgery, dental treatment, reproductive treatment, organ transplantation and medical check-ups. It is generally distinguished from both care sought in unplanned medical emergencies that occur abroad and in some cases from formal bilateral medical trade agreements among countries.
In 2016, for instance, the immediate past minister of state for health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria spends over $1billion annually on medical treatment abroad.
Accompanying health indices show further that Nigerians tops other Africans who daily seek medical care in countries like India, Germany, US, UK, and South Africa with about 42.4 per cent on the average. This shows that 42.4 per cent of 34, 522 Nigerians who visit these countries embark on medical tourism.
Health care systems, according to report, can vary greatly from one country to the other or from one region to region; therefore, what citizens might be looking for when they seek medical treatment abroad is likely to fluctuate based on the nature of health care coverage, financing and regulation they have at home.
The first comprehensive National Health Policy, according to investigation, was propounded in 1988 and a review was later done in 2004. Its objective, according to report, was to bring to fruition an all-encompassing health care system focused on primary health care with readily available resources to protect, restore and rehabilitate all Nigerian citizens, as well as to assure individuals and communities of productive social well-being and good quality of life to achieve health promotion. Its overall policy objective is to strengthen the national health system such that it would be able to provide effective, efficient, quality, accessible and affordable health services capable of improving the health status of Nigerians through the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). However, many years after, attaining global medical standard has remained a nightmare.
As a result of this, outbound medical tourism is increasingly becoming a tradition in Nigeria as a result of the moribund state of her health care system coupled with several factors such as poor infrastructural facilities, obsolete medical equipment and technology, brain drain and lack of knowledge of existing specialist hospitals and health centres.
Poor health care responsible – Expert
Responding to this, Dr Ekanem Essiet of Sunlight Hospital in Ilupeju Lagos told Blueprint Weekend that the failure of the nation’s health system is traceable to thriving foreign medical tourism by prominent Nigerians. “This trend is responsible for the massive neglect and restiveness in the sector. A situation where every senior public officer jets out of the country each times such has any medical condition does not augur well for the health care system. It only goes to show that there are no comparative centres in the country to handle such cases. Nigeria is currently rated by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the 187th out of 190 countries in the health index. That is unacceptable,” he said.
Regrettably, he said, “The geometric growth of foreign medical tourism in the country is traceable to poor service delivery, lengthy waiting times and the absence of specialist services, among other flaws. A lot of people are afraid to die unnecessarily because of misdiagnosis which is so prevalent in Nigeria. Nigeria is not just suffering from brain drain; it is also beset by patient drain.”
Alternative medicine to the rescue?
On her part, a dietician with one of the general hospitals in Abuja, who did not want her name in print, told this reporter that people are simply not aware that there are alternatives to medical tourism. According to her, there are diverse ways that alternative medicine has addressed medical tourism. Patients, she said, ought to be properly enlightened on these alternatives. “Nigeria is largely not ripe for alternative medicines unlike Europe and Asian countries otherwise, not every ailment requires surgery. Belief in the administration, self-discipline and adjustment in lifestyle is a natural antidote to certain illnesses. Some sicknesses require a change in lifestyle in the form of meal, exercise and rest. Sometimes, don’t wait until a situation gets out of hand before seeking medical attention,” she said.
According to Eragbe Abdul, promoter of phytosciene technologies in Nigeria which is one of the major alternative medicines, there is no need for medical tourism over any perceived stubborn illnesses like liver failure, diabetes, kidney failure, and blood disorders like sickle cell anemia any longer because of the recent advancement in potent alternative medicines.
He said, “Phytoscience is actually helpful because many of these called terminal diseases are now with cure or at least near cure at low costs.
The products are stem cell technology which is now the future of medicine capable of achieving same results patients are looking for abroad. In addition, they are far safer without any negative side effects. Because of this, there is no need flight tickets abroad or payment of visa fees. As an alternative to medical tourism, phytoscience has no risks of organ theft and no risks of losing one’s money either. In medical tourism, I would say less than 10% of Nigerians can afford the bills abroad but alternatively, there is room for these few privileged individuals and the less privileged to still gain access to world class healing with little fund within.”
According to him, “Phytoscience products cannot obviously handle all medical conditions but it has the capacity to reduce the craze for medical tourism which mostly benefits outsiders and referrers of the patient to outside hospitals.”
In the case of sickle cell anemia, for instance, he said, “Through this technology, the plant stem cells will swap out bone marrow with the genetic mutation that causes it to produce sickle-shaped red blood cells and specifically generate healthy cells to fix other challenges in the body thereby making the patient to live a normal life.
“Plant stem cell therapy for sickle cell disease is a four-month process with remarkable improvements usually achieved even from the first week of use. The products are self-administered sublingually/orally and are 100% organic without any side effect.”
He said over the years, cell regeneration potentials of these products have been combined as a therapy to regenerate body cell, adding that this has produced tremendous clinical success in the treatment of various chronic diseases such as anemia, stroke, cancer, and many other ailments.
“Scientists at Mibelle Biochemistry in Switzerland have developed revolutionary products that contain harvested stem cells from selected plants. This discovery is a noble advancement in the field of stem cell regenerative therapy research that is completely organic, safe, effective, self-administered and surgery free. Luckily, it is now available in the country; therefore, instead of travelling abroad for treatment, patients can now take our plant stem cell for their ailments.”
