Like I discussed previously, ill health does not have any physical illness like fever, headache and the rest, rather good health is when there is a complete between the way your body feels, the way you react to other people and things around you and the way you are able to carry out your duties as a human being and as part and parcel of the community in which you are.
Healthcare delivery is divided into some sections like prevention, rehabilitation, care/cure and sustenance which comes only when you have to show the sick person tender loving care just in case the person’s end is near.
Prevention is all about making sure that we don’t get to situations that would require healthcare intervention. Like we discussed earlier, the food we eat, our lifestyle, genetics, taking care to note the health facilities around us all play paramount roles when it comes to prevention. For example, if you know that you are in a malaria epidemic area, it is important that you keep your surroundings clean, make sure you do not have any stagnant water, bush, and also ensure that your accommodation is netted.
Also, ensure that your kids are immunized so that they are not susceptible to certain childhood diseases. There are vaccines that we need to take advantage of for our body to have immunity against diseases. There are sicknesses we acquire though the food we eat, these diseases also have vaccines that cure them. The list is inexhaustible, all it requires is for us to know how we can gain immunity. The only way we can know this if we visit any health facility around us. Government-owned facilities owe it as a duty to educate and publicize to the people about the importance of good health.
When someone gets ill despite all effort to avoid it, it is important that such a person is treated person in time. Statistics has it that if someone has a stroke, and he/she is able to get to the hospital within three hours or six hours from the onset of that stroke, everything can be reversed, but most times what we do is delay till it becomes an emergency, we will first assume it is spiritual, then pray and pour anointing oil on the person until it gets worst, that’s when we start bringing the person to the hospital. An example is maybe a pregnant woman being taken to a birth attendant, then the membrane ruptures, and she starts to push, all of a sudden, the hand starts coming out instead of the head, at that time, there is no need for prayers or abracadabra, rather the woman should be sent to the right medical healthcare, to be urgently attended to.
One common thing most Nigerians do is, somebody would come for treatment, the doctor finds out the problem and starts treating him/her, the healthcare personnel gives him/her some medications, the person goes, takes the drugs for one or two days, feels better and then discontinues.
You cannot manage what you do not know, so if you have been told to take your medications, please do so judiciously. After you are done, ensure that you go back to the health care personnel, so that you can be checked to know if you are fully okay or needs some more drugs but do not stop on your own because if you stop on your own, that same problem may become difficult.
Always seek help from the right persons and from the right places. Quackery is not only when somebody that didn’t go to school gives you what he or she doesn’t know about. This is because if for example, a surgeon lives close to you, he/she is not obligated to attend to you when there is a problem unless if there is a terrible emergency but do not do such at home because it is a risk and that on its own is quackery.
Our help-seeking habit must have to change and change for good and we must be consistent when it comes to checking our health. if we are 25 and below, we must go to the clinic at least once a year depending on the health background we come from, but somebody who is older than that might need to go twice or thrice every year. Early dictation is very important.
