The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University College Hospital,(UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo has called on the Federal Government to address the nation’s healthcare system, institute universal healthcare policy, and put in measures to control the nation’s population, which is estimated to reach 401 million by 2050.
Otegbayo, a Professor of Medicine, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, said a vigorous pursuit of these measures would reduce liver cancer and other maladies, as well as improve life expectancy.
The professor gave these recommendations while delivering the 548th Inaugural Lecture of the University of Ibadan on behalf of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences.
The inaugural lecture was entitled “The Human Workhorse and Microbial Afflictions: Hepatitis B, Its Fatal Sting and the Tragic Trajectory”.
Otegbayo noted that population explosion was imminent in Nigeria, and “this will overwhelm and overstretch the health care system, thereby worsening the health indices.”
He stated that the managers of the nation’s health care system deserve a certain level of financial and training empowerment to be able to function optimally.
Otegbayo submitted that the liver is the workhorse or powerhouse of the body, because it plays crucial roles in carbohydrate, fat, protein, vitamins, and minerals metabolism, including drug detoxification of ammonia into urea, regulation of blood clotting, immunity, and many others, adding that it is known to perform over 500 functions in the body.
He stated that the liver is the largest solid organ in the body, which receives a huge supply of blood.
‘’Consequent upon this huge flow of blood into the organ, he said that the liver is in constant contact with all the various elements that are transported in the blood which invariably include disease causing organisms and chemical compounds, some of which are injurious to the liver, and thus causing liver diseases’’, he said, adding that diseases of the liver and its components of the biliary system are major causes of morbidity and mortality locally and worldwide.
Otegbayo, therefore, advocated many strategies for the prevention of viral Hepatitis, liver cancer, and strategies to promote liver health.
He called for the designation of regional specialised centres of excellence for infectious and liver diseases and the making of healthcare costs affordable.
The inaugural lecture was graced by the Vice Chancellor of the university, UCH staff, members of the Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN), members of the university/UCH community and other well wishers.
