Nigeria is one of the countries in the world where citizens are burdened with allergic diseases, the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Society (ACIS) has observed.
Chairperson of the society, Dr. Olatunde Odusote, said caring for allergic conditions in Nigeria is very “depressing” even as he warned that Japa people are more susceptible because of sudden change of environment.
He spoke during a briefing on the World Allergy Training School (WATS), a two-day conference holding in Lagos on Thursday and Friday.
Odusote also warned people leaving the country to be wary of allergy, saying they are very susceptible to the conditions.
He was flanked by the President-Elect of American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, Dr. James Tracy who flew into the country for the programme; Dr. Tosin Ammond and Dr. Yemi Osinaike of ACIS.
Odusote stated that apart from access to care that is not available for allergy, there is also absence of medication for people burdened with one allergic condition or the other.
He gave a personal example of a family member battling allergy, saying he was getting medication support from GSK and with the exit of GSK out of Nigeria, many patients are already stranded.
He stated that the conference was targeted at offering basic training to practitioners, healthcare providers, nurses, community health practitioners, among others.
According to him, the disease knows no bounds as people in the rural community are as exposed as those in the urban area while access to care is almost nonexistent.
He added, “What we are doing again is that we are developing a local content curriculum to offer proper care for those suffering from allergy. We are looking at a spectrum of people – the general practitioners, paediatricians, pharmacists, people in internal medicine to be on ground.
“We are going to have lecturers where we talk about the disease process. People think that you have to do a test when you have allergic conditions. First of all you need to listen to the patients,” he said.
He explained that that allergy has peculiarities in different countries and said those leaving Nigeria for greener pastures can be exposed to allergic conditions outside the country.
Dr. Tracy stated that allergy is a global health burden and said the college is committed to work with Nigeria and other African countries to tackle the challenges.
He said the issue of climate change, global warming, pollution, among others are some of the factors, lamenting that food allergy is especially on the increase.
“I am happy to be here to do what I can to help in the cure of allergy,” he said.
Dr. Tosin on her part said allergy as a disease is increasing by the day in terms of volume, lamenting that apart from the statistics from secondary and tertiary healthcare institution, not so much information is coming from the primary health.
She stated that the two-day conference would bring to the fore the basic knowledge and training for the treatment of allergy.
