Lack of Tests before Treatment Lead to Increase Death Rate- Expert

The number of deaths of patients is on the increase due to lack of diagnosis before treatment.

This was disclosed by the Director of Public Health, Edo State Ministry of Health, Dr. Ojeifo Stephenson during a Seminar organized by the Institute of Child Health, University of Benin Teaching Hospital, UBTH/ University of Benin UNIBEN held in Benin City.

According to him, people are treated without testing and this makes diagnosis impossible.

Dr. Ojeifo who was the Chairman of the Seminar advised patients to always run a test to arrive at a diagnosis to avoid untimely death.

While disclosing that the Edo State government has initiated free Malaria testing across all state hospitals noted that it is impossible to say you have Malaria when you are not diagnosed.

"The Ministry of Health and the state government will continue to partner with the Institute of Child Health which has been consistent in Child Health care."

The lecturer, Dr. Izehiuwa Enato in his lecture titled, "United Against Malaria: The Role of the Community in Combating Antimalarial Resistance," said the church and other religious bodies and organizations should propagate the need for testing before treatment.

While commending the Commissioner for Health for deploying the testing kit across the state, he also advocated that there should be school education to educate students about Malaria 

"Malaria is caused by the bite from the female Anopheles mosquito between 6pm to 6am and can be transmitted from mother to child

He noted that Malaria is characterized by fever, but not every fever is Malaria.

" Nigeria has the highest burden of the disease with 31.9 percent of all deaths and more than 75 percent of this death occurs in children less than five years," he added.

The Director of Public Health further appealed that people should keep their environment clean at all times to avoid the breeding of the mosquitoes parasite, and encourage children to sleep in mosquito nets.