By Adadareporters
Heart Disease Prevention and Training Centre, HDPTC, was established at Nsukka, Enugu State, to provide profession services towards prevention and treatment of heart-related ailments for the people of the area and beyond.
Barr Felix Okechukwu Asadu, the director, administration, HDPTC, stated this weekend in the aftermath of the ongoing health outreaches of the centre in collaboration with some NGOs being held at selected communities of Nsukka cultural zone.
He said the centre was founded by a US-based cardiologist, Prof Camellus Okwochi Ezeugwu, after the death of Dr Ejike Asadu, one-time local government chairman of Nsukka LGA. The late Asadu reportedly died of heart-related diseases.
In his words, “The major message here is prevention. This centre has come primarily to ensure that heart-related diseases are prevented in Nsukka senatorial district of Enugu State and beyond. It is sophisticated both in specialists and equipment. In as much as we treat, the philosophy is to prevent these killer diseases as the saying goes that prevention is better than cure.
“The death of Dr Ejike Asadu informed the formation of this centre. Ejike had heart-related ailments. When we got to know about it, it was already too late. The founder was touched, and he decided to establish this centre to avert such painful but preventable death at least in Nsukka zone. Ejike’s death would have been prevented if we had a specialist heart centre in Nsukka. That was how this place was birthed, basically on charity grounds.
“The founder also wants to give back to the society that made him. He is a true son of Nsukka land, and would always want the best for us.”
Meanwhile, the general public have been advised to routinely seek medical advice to avoid health complications as a result of negligence. Dr Kofoworola Olasunbo Oluwaseun stated this during HDPTC’s routine community health outreach held at Nsukka.
Oluwaseun, a general physician, said, “We go to communities, conduct free BP and sugar tests, among other checks. Some people may have what we call ‘angina’ that is caused by ischemia, and tag it poison. No matter how you educate them, they seem to have made up their minds that they have been poisoned by their relatives or friends. Some of them feel they can’t be treated at specialist hospitals, and readily resort to herbalists and spiritual centres.
“We try to demystify their already-formed thoughts about poison. We tell them that their cases are manageable. We may succeed in reorienting some, but some remain adamant, and seek other options. Generally, we check their vital organs. Some have suspected high blood pressure. We do advise them on dietary modification which is a baseline treatment to prevent serious heart conditions like hypertension.
“If this measure is not good enough, we can then switch to care, which is moving away from prevention to care. Some of these diseases are easy to detect when tests are conducted. We call hypertension the silent killer because it does not show symptoms until its later stage. We encourage people to regularly check their BP numbers to avert complications. On our part, we embark on these outreaches to make the public abreast of measures towards healthy living.”
