Hypertension: Consultant Seeks Free Treatment

A medical consultant, Dr Aniekan Imoh, has called on
governments at all levels to consider the provision of free treatment for
hypertension-related cases in public hospitals.

Imoh, who works at the University of Uyo Medical Centre, in
Akwa Ibom, made the call in an interview with our correspondent in Abat, Etim
Ekpo Local Government Area of the state.

He said, “Government cannot handle everything in the
society, but I feel that diseases like hypertension should be treated
free-of-charge as it is becoming rampant in our rural areas.

“About 70 per cent of people above the age of 50 years, as
we have discovered in the consulting rooms, have hypertension and they are
living below average.

“It is expensive to manage the ailment and cases that are
not properly managed easily lead to stroke”.

He stated that most people in the rural areas did not go for
blood pressure checks, adding that “ in majority of them, their blood pressures
are often high, as high as 200/120 and this is not healthy”.

Imoh commended the state Commissioner for Housing and Urban
Renewal, Mr Emmanuel Enoidem, for sponsoring a free medical treatment for
people in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area and described the gesture as
“patriotic and tremendous”.

He disclosed that in the first day of the three-day
Enoidem-sponsored free medical treatment, more than 3,000 persons in the area
were treated.

He challenged all political office holders and
public-spirited individuals in the state to provide such services for the rural
dwellers.

“Hypertension and other killer-diseases are really big
problems and, you know that most of the people in the rural areas do not have
the means to go to the hospitals for checkup and treatment”, he said.