We say in Africa what you don’t know would not harm you. Pal, need I tell you that this generation has defied many of these traditional sayings of the ‘elders’. What you don’t know can actually harm you really big. Is that not why it is called the information age? When knowledge can be gotten at the blink of the eye. Google and other search engines have really made knowledge in almost any sphere so handy that we have become intellectually bloated. So who can lay claim to ignorance as an excuse?

Talking about ignorance, do you know that what you don’t know about your health could be your greatest undoing? We often like to feel like supermen, submerged in work with little consideration to our health. You hear people boasting that they haven’t been to the hospital in ten years. Others would say they don’t take drugs when ill, claiming a cup of milk mixed with malt and vegetable extract is the one time cure to any kind of illness they feel.

Their hypothesis is not for me to argue but I remain resolute on my stance. Medical surveillance is the best approach to life in this generation.

Enter Late Steven Keshi. An iconographic Nigerian with many medals as a player and a coach on the field of football. He died of a cause which can be prevented under the right circumstances (high blood pressure). Wale Akinsanya former chairman of Oyo state referee society also died recently after a FIFA cooper test. The special attention on Nigerians as references is to drive home the point. This isn’t an abstract phenomenon, but something that affects us as Nigerians. Triggers for these deaths would have been identified and preventive action taken had medical surveillance been carried out.

Medical surveillance as defined by the US department of health and human services is the systematic assessment of employees exposed or potentially exposed to occupational hazards. The assessment monitors individuals for adverse health effects and determines the benefits of exposure prevention strategies. The purpose of medical surveillance is for the early identification of conditions that could pose a risk.

I was having a conversation with a friend recently and was surprised a cup of ice cream was declined. Who declines a cup of ice cream I asked myself. Upon probing, my attention was brought to the cholesterol content of the ice cream. Now it wowed me that a Nigerian cared about such. Lean-looking fellow, but the cholesterol level was way high. A potential death had just been averted.

So next time you see a fellow boasting of never visiting the hospital, do well to educate that person on the benefits of medical surveillance. Also you can walk into any ISO certified Laboratory nationwide for laboratory investigations that help identify triggers early.

Thanks

E.X
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